Director Gerd Oswalt's modest but compelling oater "The Brass Legend" qualifies as a vastly underrated and overlooked western that probably didn't create much of a sensation when United Artists released it in 1956. Some fifty odd years later, however, this lean, mean B-movie with sharp black and white photography and memorable dialogue not only looks splendid but it also is genuinely entertaining because it contains realistic characters that you care about. This law & order frontier saga pits square-jawed good guy hero Hugh O'Brienwho must have done this movie while on hiatus from his TV show "The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp"--against evil-as-they-come villain Raymond Burr before he achieved fame on TV as "Perry Mason." Although this is clearly a formula-driven western, Oswald treats the script written by Jess Arnold of "The Eagle and the Hawk," Don Martin of "Arrow in the Dust," and Don Zuckerman of "Ride Clear of Diablo" with respect. Basically, nothing in "The Brass Legend" comes off either looking or sounding cheap, campy, or tawdry. Several things stick out about this sagebrusher. First, Oswald stages a terrific shoot-out in a saloon about three-fourths of the way into the action. What distinguishes this gunfight is that we see both the lawman and the bad guys in the same image when the shooting erupts. Clint Eastwood has often said that most Hollywood westerns tend to cut from shots of the man doing the shooting to shots of the man getting shot. In other words, you don't see both combatants in the same shot. Consequently, "The Brass Legend" differs from most oaters where the combatants are separated on-screen during the gunplay. Second, "The Brass Legend" violates another of those unwritten rules when it shows a youngster getting blown off his horse by a bushwhacker. Children under age sixteen are typically not the victims of on-screen violence, but you get to see the youngster here knocked off his horse by a rifleman who deliberately wanted the youth killed. Like most westerns of the 1950s, adult males serve as role models for juveniles. In "Shane," for example, the hero teaches a little boy how to draw and shoot a pistol. Most of these westerns preach against life by the gun. In "The Brass Legend," adults teach juveniles how to shoot and advocate that they carry firearms and that they are proficient in their usage. Essentially, no adults in this movie admonish the juvenile about toting firearms or using them. At one point, the hero warns the youth that he must know how to shoot correctly or he could be killed in a gunfight.
"The Brass Legend" opens with Sheriff Wade Adams (Hugh O'Brien) watching young Clay Gipson (Donald MacDonald of "Two Guns and a Badge") practicing his fast draw. Clay's target is a wanted poster of notorious outlaw Tris Hatten (Raymond Burr) who has a $5-thousand dollar reward on his head. Later, Clay's father, widower Tom Gipson (Robert Burton of "The Slime People"), rides back to the Gipson ranch where Wade is supervising Clay's target practice with a white horse that he bought from a Yaqui horse trader. Clay names the horse after its trader Sinoye and saddles him up to ride. Needless to say, Clay is very proud of his horse and spends a lot of time exercising his new Cayuse. While Clay is off riding, Wade and Clay's father clash on his future. It seems that Wade and Tom's grown-up daughter Linda (Nancy Gates of "Magnificent Roughnecks") plan to get married. Tom wants Wade to turn in his badge and become a partner in his ranch. Linda also wants her future husband to quit being a lawman. Temporarily, Wade and Tom are at loggerheads over this issue because Wade has no intention of giving up his job.
Meanwhile, everybody mistakenly believes that Tris Hatten is long gone and dead until he turns up unexpectedly in the Mexican part of town and sends Sanchez (Vincent Padula of "The Three Outlaws") out to contact saloon hostess Millie Street (TV actress Reba Tassell) about seeing him. The sight of Hatten alarms Sanchez because he had heard that Hatten was dead. Millie hires a horse and buggy and rides out to meet Hatten. At the same time that Millie is driving off to rendezvous with Hatten, Clay spots her and hides. Afterward, he follows to Sanchez's place and spots Hatten. Clay hightails it back to the ranch. On the way home, he crosses trails with Wade. Wade finds it difficult to believe that Tris Hatten is not only alive but also in the town of Apache Bend. Back at Sanchez's place, Hatten sheds his gun and shell belt and makes out with Millie on the bed. Wade storms in with his gun drawn and takes Hatten prisoner. When Hatten in handcuffs tries to resist Wade, our hero slugs him over the head and deposits his unconscious bulk in Millie's rental wagon and orders her to drive him into town. News spreads like wildfire about Hatten's capture. Initially, the villain thought that Millie turned him in but he knows better later on after he thinks about it. When the editor of the local newspaperThe Bladegets the story from Wade, Wade refuses to name his informant. When Tom pries the truth out of Claywho promised Wade that he wouldn't say a thingTom goes to the newspaper editor and they publish all the facts. A gunman ambushes Clay and the boy manages to pull through despite a severe wound. Hatten's former associates try to kill Wade in a saloon shooting. Wade jails the man who shot Clay, but this fellow smuggles in a derringer and Hatten escapes. Wade and Hatten shoot it out on horseback and Hatten dies grateful that he won't swing from the gallows.
Oswald does an outstanding job with this black and white western. The performances, especially Raymond Burr as the villain, are uniformly excellent. The following year Oswald helmed another Spartan western entitled "Fury at Showdown."
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