A LAWLESS STREET (USA, 1955) ***
Distributor: Columbia Pictures Corporation; Production Company: Columbia Pictures Corporation; Release Date: 15 December 1955 (USA), 5 February 1956 (UK); Filming Dates: 5 May 1955 – 25 May 1955; Running Time: 78m; Colour: Technicolor; Sound Mix: Mono (Western Electric Recording); Film Format: 35mm; Film Process: Spherical; Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1; BBFC Cert: U.
Director: Joseph H. Lewis; Writer: Kenneth Gamet (based on the novel “The Marshal of Medicine Bend” by Brad Ward); Executive Producer: ; Producer: Harry Joe Brown; Associate Producer: Randolph Scott; Director of Photography: Ray Rennahan; Music Composer: Paul Sawtell; Film Editor: Gene Havlick; Art Director: George Brooks; Set Decorator: Frank Tuttle; Sound: Frank Goodwin.
Cast: Randolph Scott (Marshal Calem Ware), Angela Lansbury (Tally Dickenson), Warner Anderson (Hamer Thorne), Jean Parker (Cora Dean), Wallace Ford (Dr. Amos Wynn), John Emery (Cody Clark), James Bell (Asaph Dean), Ruth Donnelly (Molly Higgins), Michael Pate (Harley Baskam), Don Megowan (Dooley Brion), Jeanette Nolan (Mrs. Dingo Brion).
Synopsis: A Marshal must face unpleasant facts about his past when he attempts to run a criminal gang out of town.
Comment: Well-mounted Western with strong production values sees Scott as a marshal keeping the peace in a once tough mining town. Scrupulous businessmen want to ride the town of Scott and recapture the old days in order to line their pockets. Into the mix comes saloon singer Lansbury as Scott’s long-absent wife. Pate is the hired gunman who comes to challenge Scott. Hefty morality tale is well-acted and directed with bursts of action interspersed between the key ingredients of the morality tale. The message is a little heavily delivered, but this is ultimately a solid Western drama with Scott as imposing as ever.