A Lawless Street (1955)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

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:

Sheriff | Lawman | Gunfighter | Adultery | Murder

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)

Worthwhile Western

Sort of an early "Unforgiven" in some ways. Also similar to director Lewis' "Terror in a Texas Town" though thankfully not as goofy or campy. You get a real sense of the wild west slowly being tamed, of it making the uneasy transition from a violent, lawless land to a reasonably civilized place where law and order stand a chance. I liked Randolph Scott's metaphor for the town, that it's like a wild animal that keeps getting kicked, and sooner or later it's going to do more than just snarl and growl miserably; it's going to bite back.

Scott makes a good, twinkle-eyed loner hero and Angela Lansbury is quite attractive as his leggy showgirl love interest, (though she would begin playing mothers of grown children just a few years later) but their romance is rather obligatory and uninspired. Both the villains are effective, Warner Anderson as the unscrupulous (what else?)womanizing businessman and Michael Pate as the sinister gloved gunman (Lewis seems to have a thing about gunman wearing gloves). Anderson's line deliveries are extremely flat and matter of fact, which just makes him that much more detestable somehow. He's like a greed machine, no heart, no emotion whatsoever.

At first glance this may seem like no more than just another passable western, but it's got some meat on its bones. And Lewis really shines when it comes to building the suspense leading up to the inevitable bar room showdown between the bad guy and the good.