Watch Abilene Town For Free

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

An unpretentious but,in fact,epic rendition of the classic conflict between open range cattlemen and wire-fencing homesteaders, between rowdiness and vice and the enforced rudiments of civilized town life. Iron-jawed no nonsense Randolph Scott, as town marshal Dan Mitchell, has the dangerous job of trying to keep the peace between 3 factions: the cattlemen and entertainment side of Abilene's main street, the merchants and bankers on the other side of the street and the rather newly arrived homesteaders in the surrounding region. Naturally, the cattlemen resent the intrusion of the homesteaders onto formerly open range. When gentle persuasion fails, the cattlemen try to burn out the sod busters in a scene reminiscent of the previous classic "The Westerner". When this fails to drive them out, they stampede their cattle through the homesteader's territory. Scott must serve as the main gun and mouth defending the interests of the merchants and homesteaders against the gun-totting lawless cattlemen.Edgar Buchanan's unbelievably cowardly and incompetent character as county sheriff is my main disappointment in this film. Ironically named Bravo, presumably, he is supposed to add some humor to Scott's stone-faced demeanor. But, he comes across as mostly pathetic rather than humorous. Let sleeping dogs lie and run from barking dogs is his ethos. I don't understand why perfectionist Scott puts up with him as his main ally(but sometimes antagonist) in carrying out his duties as town marshal. Scott even gives him bogus credit in a capture, so he won't lose his job!In the romance department, Scott has a bit of a thing going on with flamboyant dance hall queen Anne Dvorak, representing the wild west side of town, as well as with straight-laced Rhonda Fleming, representing the merchant's side of town. About half way through the film, we think we know which one will ultimately win Scott's heart, but we may get surprised. Most of the limited humor in the film relates to the obvious love-hate relationship between Scott and Anne. Rhonda appears to be a brunette in this B&W film, but in "Alias, Jesse James" for example, we see her famous flaming red hair.Anne gets to sing 3 songs: the enthusiastic opener on stage: "I Love it Out Here in the West", then "All You Got to do", and finally "Every Time I Give My Heart". The focus is often a bit fuzzy on my DVD copy. There are several newer DVD releases which may have used better copies? Try to get one of several double feature DVD releases. Mine also contains "Santa Fe Trail".

The film is set in 1870 , post civil war , in Abilene ( a biblical name meaning city of the plains ), the pattern of the other celebrated cow towns of the Old west . Randolph Scott is the brave sheriff of Abilene along with Edgar Buchanan , they are fighting to stifle the conflicts between homesteaders ( led by a young Lloyd Bridges ) and cattlemen who hire gunfighters ( Jack Lambert ) . Meanwhile he develops a loving triangle between a Saloon girl ( Ann Dvorak ) and a good girl ( Rhonda Fleming ). The picture gets action Western , shootouts , a love story , musical numbers ( in charge of a gorgeous Anne Dvorak ) and is quite entertaining . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians, production values and pleasing results . The film is totally set in Abilene ( Kansas )which was the first of the major railhead cattle towns . From 1867 to 1872 it was a booming depot , shipping some one million Texas Longhorns by railroad to Kansas City and Chicago and meat markets in the East . The place was selected as a terminus for Texas cattle drives in 1867 . Then the long drives began from Texas over the Chisholm trail . At trail's end in Abilene the rowdy,free-spending cowboys attracted saloon keepers, gamblers , brothels and all types of frontier riff-raff , the town became notorious for its lawlessness . Gunmen were hired for a time to keep the peace in Abilene ( in the film the peacemaker results to be Randolph Scott and actually Wild Bill Hickok ) . With the numerous presence of homesteaders the town prospered , stabilized and grew , its lawabiding citizens decided to discourage the troublesome cattle trade with his transient cowboys and early requested the Texas cattlemen to drive their herds elsewhere , which they soon did and Abilene's role as a wild cow town came to an abrupt ending. The motion picture is directed in sure visual eye by Edwin L. Marin . He realized a variety films of all kind of genres , though especially Western , the best are starred by Scott , all well screen-written ( as Abilene , Canadian Pacific , Cariboo trail , Fighting man of the plains ). In fact his last films were Westerns until his early death at 52 .

In the expansive history of film Westerns, the theme of cattle men against homesteaders has been done countless times, and "Abilene Town" turns out to be one of the better explorations of that subject. Interestingly, it also throws in a third element, that of the general merchandise shop keeper who stands to benefit from making the right choice between the two. Straddling atop that shaky fence is town marshal Dan Mitchell (Randolph Scott), who has the vision to understand that what happens in Abilene, Kansas will have an impact across all the western territories sooner or later. The story takes place in 1870, and most of the action occurs along Texas Street, where the best bar in town is called 'The Best Bar in Town', right alongside 'Joe's Texas Bar" and the simply named 'Saloon'. A trail hand wonders what kind of town Abilene is with no bars on the other side of the street. When homesteaders begin to make their presence in town felt, Mitchell must perform a delicate balancing act between the opposing forces, and between two lovely young women. Ann Dvorak is saloon singer Rita, who literally keeps Mitchell hopping with precision kicks in the shin. Sherry Balder (Rhonda Fleming) is the daughter of the main shop keeper in town, who pines for Mitchell, until homesteader Henry Dreiser (Lloyd Bridges) wins her over with an appeal to her sense of family values and homesteader principles of working hard and building a life. Rounding out the main cast is Edgar Buchanan, a perennial favorite as County Marshal Bravo Trimble. Bravo has a unique nose for danger, and a compass that always points him in the opposite direction. He also has a penchant for a card game called 'fantan' which he would rather play than do anything else, and Big Annie (Helen Boyce) is always willing to oblige.The film has it's fair share of saloon fights and gun play, though it gets a little disjointed during the cattle stampede that Cap Ryker's (Dick Curtis) men initiate to take down the barb wire barrier put up on the range land. Banding together, the homesteaders find the resolve they need to stand up to the raucous cattle drovers. In an ironic twist, Sheriff Mitchell allows the carousing bad boys to tear the saloons apart. His 'way a rough street dies' speech near the end of the story is a fitting capstone to a turn of events that heralds the advance of civilization to a wild frontier. While in the background, shop keeper Balder does the math.With Randolph Scott in the starring role, I should have thought to count the number of outfit changes he'll go through before he tames Abilene. It's a signature mark of his Western films, and he doesn't disappoint here, though for my money, I prefer him in all black. With the town cleaned up and ready to move forward, the men and ladies pair off neatly, Mitchell and saloon girl Rita, Dreiser with Sherry Balder, and would be mayor Bravo with Big Annie. Somehow I got the feeling that they all had a different definition of 'fantan' on their minds.

Excellent, under-appreciated movie, which I suspect fell into public domain because only cheap copies from original prints seem to be available. Randolph Scott is rock solid in the unassuming characterization of a modest but moral man acting as a moderating influence between three distinct groups, the cattlemen, the homesteaders and the tradesmen in a frontier town. Each have their own agendas, and the most alluring enticement for Scott on the bad side of town is the brassy but captivating dance hall singer, Ann Dvorak, in one of the best performances of her career, who is so fresh and sexy in her several numbers that I can well believe a whole roomful of cowboys would just sit there, stone silent with their mouths open, staring at her as she dances and flirts through her songs. I don't know if her voice was her own or dubbed, but she could sure deliver those lyrics! There's not a dull or extraneous scene in the movie, with many well cast characters, fistfights, gunfights, a cattle stampede, romance, comedy and first-rate film noir lighting and dialogue for those who care. And besides all that, I didn't notice until about the third time I'd watched it, Scott's horse follows him around when he's on foot like a pet dog. Very subtle, never made a focus of attention by the director, one of the old-timers who had the sense to let audiences find their own points of interest. I think it's a classic.