A Lawless Street

• Also known as The Marshal of Medicine Bend in the US
• Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
• December 15, 1955
• Based on the 1953 novel The Marshal of Medicine Bend by Brad Ward

A marshal faces unpleasant facts about his past when he is trying to run a group of criminals out of his town.

I like me an old-fashioned Western and Randolph Scott was one of the bigger stars of the genre. Not on the level of John Wayne but he certainly made enough of his bread and butter from them that it earned the man a mention in Blazing Saddles.

In A Lawless Street, Scott plays Marshal Calem Ware of the lawless and dusty town of Medicine Bend who because he is so good has earned himself a target from every outlaw in the area. While trying to stay alive long enough to bring law and order to the area he finds himself reunited with old flame Tally Dickenson (Angela Lansbury) as she has booked a gig at a local saloon.

That is not the only soapy thing going on in town. The young Cora Dean (Jean Parker), wife of older wealthy rancher Asaph Dean (James Bell), is having a rather open affair with the not young Hamer Thorne (Warner Anderson). Everybody in town-and I mean EVERYBODY-but her husband knows. With the staid reputation of the ‘50s it makes that a bit edgy.

Ware is the righteous and almost fatherly protector of the small town. Scott is good in his moments of toughness and badassery. His easy smile, screen charisma, and charm help to sell this man’s man character. Ware’s playful teasing of his landlady Molly (Ruth Donnelly) feels genuine as does his pain over a lost love, but Scott lacks enough chemistry with Lansbury for me to completely believe their scenes. Perhaps that can be attributed in part to the need of the character to be a bit of a fatherly savior to the town over a man regretting the choices he made after seeing his true love again.

Lansbury gives a fantastic performance in this compared to her romantic counterpart. You feel Tally’s conflict and pull of loving Ware but not being able to be there be a part of his life while he’s in law enforcement. Strangely once he’s out is when she’s firmly committed to him, so I’m not sure if there’s a message in that. Maybe she has a thing for willingly unemployed men.

Thorne and business partner Cody Clark (John Emery) want to take Medicine Bend over for the purposes of creating abject hedonism ‘50s style. Think something less jarring than what Biff did with Hill Valley in Back to the Future Part II. That is accomplished with hired gun Harley Baskam (Michael Pate).

I have trouble buying with how much ease the villains were tricked that Ware was dead. His head got grazed with a bullet which is the movie sketchy cousin of the arm getting grazed. Considering one of them was an experienced killer you would think at least he would understand that Ware wasn’t dead when he didn’t see brain splattered everywhere or blood pooling. Not that you need to see it. Just needed him to react a little bit.

If there is an actual message to be found in any of this, it’s people just need to be willing to stand up to prevent lawlessness. Things only permanently turn around (or are implied to have) when the locals completely take ownership of their safety rather than expecting Ware to do it for them. Ware though never chastises them for their apathy for some reason.

This is a film with likable characters and dastardly villains. What’s especially helpful is that Baskam is everything Ware is not. Baskam has no moral code and no sense of justice. Ware lives for justice and is so tuned to the welfare of Medicine Bend that he can hear the conflict of the city. Once the two are together in the story it becomes closer to ultimate good versus ultimate evil.

This has perhaps one of the easiest tracking of time elements I’ve ever seen in film. Each new day some character (usually Ware) tears a page off of a calendar. It creates an obvious countdown visual but does nothing to add to any tension.

You know very easily where characters stand. There is no subtext to what is said or done. They try to be the average scared or apathetic citizen that does not quite get they are the key. Even Cora despite being an adulteress is not all bad with her final turn putting the baddies firmly on the outs. This is comfort food with a moral lesson that satisfies a need to see good win out.

A Lawless Street is not a classic, but it is good. It’s action oriented and character driven and ultimately hopeful. As a producer Scott gave himself very good vehicle.