A Lawless Street (1955)

Director:

Joseph H. Lewis

Writers:

Kenneth Gamet (screenplay)
Brad Ward (story)

Release Date:

15 December 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

A Marshal must face unpleasant facts about his past when he attempts to run a criminal gang out of town.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Adultery | Gunfighter | Lawman | Sheriff

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Marshal Calem Ware
Angela Lansbury	...	Tally Dickenson
Warner Anderson	...	Hamer Thorne
Jean Parker	...	Cora Dean
Wallace Ford	...	Dr. Amos Wynn
John Emery	...	Cody Clark
James Bell	...	Asaph Dean
Ruth Donnelly	...	Molly Higgins
Michael Pate	...	Harley Baskam
Don Megowan	...	Dooley Brion
Jeanette Nolan	...	Mrs. Dingo Brion

Also Known As:

Marshal of Medicine Bend (USA)

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Spain:T | UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #17621) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:12 (nf)

Filming Locations:

French Ranch - Hidden Valley Road, Thousand Oaks, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Goofs:

Continuity: About 18 minutes into film, Dingo's widow and Dooley are in front of marshal's office and Marshal Ware hands Dooley Dingo's gun and personal effects. Dooley throws gun and belt onto ground and later he throws the five Double Eagles on the ground at same spot. After they leave, Marshal Ware picks up the five coins, but gun and belt are not on the ground and were never picked up.

Quotes:

Marshal Calem Ware: Men, Cody Clark is buying drinks. He won all bets.
Cody Clark: That's right. Drinks are on the house...and everybody is welcomed!
Marshal Calem Ware: You can also take up a collection for burying Dingo. Add this
[money]
Marshal Calem Ware: to it.
Cody Clark: That's right nice of you Calem. Funny how a man softens to another when once he's killed him.
Marshal Calem Ware: I don't know about that. I'd do as much if it were your funeral.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in In Darkest Hollywood: Cinema and Apartheid (1993)

A LAWLESS STREET (Joseph H. Lewis, 1955) ***

This is really no lesser an achievement than the renowned Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher Westerns; then again, director Lewis was no slouch (for he made his fair share of minor classics)!

Scott's role is typical – a legendary marshal involved in a HIGH NOON (1952)-type situation, where he's practically left alone to clean up a town riddled with corruption and violence – but the underrated actor invests it with warmth, humor, tenacity and a quiet dignity. The star, then, is supported by a most excellent cast: Angela Lansbury (a fine actress but a rather unlikely chanteuse), James Bell (a usurped town leader), Jean Parker (an ageing belle and the latter's wife), Wallace Ford (predictably in the role of the reliable town doctor), Ruth Donnelly (as Scott's gracious elderly housekeeper), Jeanette Nolan (as the wife of a revenge-seeking ex-con whom Scott has killed in self-defense), and an interesting trio of villains – powerful boss Warner Anderson (who also fancies himself a ladies' man and, in fact, strikes up relationships with both Parker and Lansbury throughout), shifty but nervous gambler John Emery and smooth gunslinger Michael Pate (making for a worthy opponent to Scott).

The above-average script by Kenneth Gamet (an in-joke shows the calendar in the hero's room as being sponsored by Gamet's Vegetable Compound!) gives characterization reasonable depth: Scott and Lansbury are married but she had left him because of his dangerous job (a situation which she has to live through again now); Scott tells Donnelly that he hears The Beast (which symbolizes the scourge of the town) every morning until it's replaced by church-bells at the end of the picture. The highlights – most of the action seems to take place in and around one particular saloon, though in a montage we're shown that Anderson's 'protection' extends to many others in town – include an energetic and brutal fistfight between the hero and a dim-witted giant (who subsequently joins forces with him), an astonishing shoot-out two-thirds of the way involving Scott and Pate which ends with the former left for dead, and the splendid extended climax. On top of it all is the pleasing cinematography by an expert in color lensing, Ray Rennahan.