by Francis Friel

Synopsis:

A town marshal, on his last day on the job before his wedding, has to face down a gang he put in jail years earlier. The rest of the town (including his own deputies) are a bunch of fucking chumps and refuse to help him. He has to go it alone. CAN HE DO IT??

Review:

Best script of the 50s? Is there even a lot of competition? (I know, SUNSET BOULEVARD, 400 BLOWS, PATHS OF GLORY, but still.) This movie gets in, does what it came to do, and gets the hell out of its own way. A lot less action than I was expecting but the payoff is worth it. 

Grace Kelly's in this and kinda has not a whole lot to do until the last two minutes of the movie, but she's still great.

One of the bad guys looks so much like Casey Affleck it was almost distracting, like CA had somehow gotten access to that time machine along with the lady on the cell phone in that Chaplin joint. And Katy Jurado looks like she could be Elvis's other twin.

Gary Cooper is boring as all hell but I guess that was kinda the point? He does a good job, though, as someone who could easily get the help he needs from certain scumbags but won't sink to their level in order to get it. Not bad, Coop.

Weird movie, but great. And excellent theme song. This movie has a THEME SONG!

Overall Score: !!!!!