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Simply A Masterpiece

Perfect cast and a good story

i must have seen a different film!!

Excellent but underrated film

Associate producer: Randolph Scott. Producer: Harry Joe Brown. A Scott-Brown Production. Copyright 1955 by Producers-Actors Corporation. Released through Columbia Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 15 December 1955. U.K. release: 13 February 1956. Australian release: 27 July 1956. Sydney opening at the Victory. 78 minutes.COMMENT: After a slow start, the plot settles down okay, working in sufficient action for the fans. The dialogue on the other hand remains stubbornly clichéd and pretentious, as well as more than a little verbose. Director Joseph H. Lewis does what he can with it, filming in long takes to get it over with as fast as possible, and even having the actors often turn their backs on it literally to the camera. Typically, Lewis stages the action spots most vigorously, though a stand-in is obviously doing duty for Randy in his big saloon brawl with Megowan (who slugs it out most effectively without benefit of any cover). Scott is believable, as usual, and receives pleasant to middling support. Pate makes a charmingly chilling villain, whilst Miss Lansbury, who is inclined to ham it up a trifle (well, she is playing an actress after all), at least has a song, which turns out to be one of the film's highlights. Superbly staged, choreographed and directed with the camera starting in on the tacky orchestra and then tracking back slowly through the whole auditorium, this visual delight is an excellent recreation in music and sound.

Marshal Randolph Scott is the only thing standing between the town of Medicine Bend and lawlessness. Corrupt businessmen in town hire gunmen to get Scott out of the way. Meanwhile, Scott's estranged wife Angela Lansbury shows up, having left him years before due to his violent lifestyle.Scott and Lansbury are fine. Solid support from Wallace Ford, Jeanette Nolan, and Michael Pate. One of Jean Parker's last movies. She's reduced to a minor part as a married woman having an affair with one of the villains. Predictable western. A couple of nice action scenes. Nothing special but a decent time-passer. Ending is pretty flat.

Marshal Calem Ware (Randolph Scott) is tired of Medicine Bend, tired of killing and tired of reprobates trying to kill him. He's also haunted by pain in his past. So when the past resurfaces and yet another scum-bag turns up to put out his light, Calem faces what he hopes will be the final day of reckoning.Brought to us by the Scott/Brown production company, A Lawless Street is directed by Joseph H. Lewis, adapted from a Brad Ward story (Marshal of Medicine Bend) by Kenneth Gamet and features cinematography from Ray Rennahan at French Ranch - Hidden Valley Road, Thousand Oaks in California. Joining Scott in the cast are Angela Lansbury, Warner Anderson, Jean Parker & Wallace Ford.This film came a year before Scott would do Seven Men From Now with Budd Boetticher, the start of which was a run of "adult" Westerns that showcased the best of both Scott and the Western of the 50s. So it's not unsurprising to find that "A Lawless Street" is some way short of the quality of the Boetticher/Scott movies. In fact, Scott may not just be in character for the film, he looks genuinely tired, which is in keeping with the very tired feel of it all.It has proved to be a pretty divisive film amongst Western purists, the routine story not helped by the fact it has been done to perfection before in other, more notable genre pieces. While the script also lacks vim and vigour and Scott is surrounded by very average actors. The ending fizzles out after the promise of so much more, and in fact it's ponderously drawn out. Yet the first half of the film saves it from being a stinker, Lewis' camera-work is fluid and fist fight fans are served up a treat. And we even get Lansbury flexing her tonsils for a delightful little ditty.So it's very much a film of two differing halves, one that sadly doesn't make for a satisfying whole. Much like Switzerland, I'm staying neutral with it, a 5/10 rating is given on proviso that it's noted that where Scott and Lewis are concerned, I'm unashamedly biased.

This western has a good story and many excellent action scenes. There is quite a fistfight between the Marshal (Scott) and Dooley Brion (Don Megowan), a very strong guy. The gun duels are unusual and well staged. Marshal Calem Ware is a man who lives not knowing if he will survive that day, because of gunfighters that keep showing up to kill him. There are two women of strong character in the film: Tally (Angela Lansbury)who used to be the Marshal's wife but left him because she could not stand the constant fear and Cora who is the wife of Asaph Dean, and the mistress of Hamer Thorne. Thorne wants to take Asaph's place as the most important man in town. I enjoyed every minute of this film which was probably influenced by "High Noon" and must have influenced "The Fastest Gun Alive".