THE TIN STAR

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This 1957 Western has a great pedigree: Anthony Mann directed it, Dudley Nichols wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay, Elmer Bernstein wrote the score, and Henry Fonda stars.  Intriguingly Anthony Perkins co-stars, in one of his earliest roles.

As with 'High Noon' the sheriff here (Ben, played by Perkins) can't rely on his local townspeople in a crisis.  Unlike Gary Cooper, Ben is new to the job and young and inexperienced, and the crisis takes some time arriving. 

The film starts with a bounty hunter, Morgan (Fonda) coming into town to claim his reward, having killed a wanted man.  Everyone is a bit snooty about it, they wanted the bad guy brought in alive so that they could try him - which is ironic given where the film ends.

Anyway Morgan has to hang around to collect his reward, and finds lodging with a local widow who is a bit of an outcast owing to her husband being an Indian, and her having a mixed race son, Kip.  Racism is an undercurrent throughout, which makes this Western somewhat ahead of its time.

Morgan reluctantly feels obliged to give Ben some tips on how to be a sheriff.  It turns out that Morgan was himself a sheriff, before he was badly let down by his townspeople.

In the second half of the film things really hot up, culminating in a mob of the townsfolk wanting to lynch a couple of mixed race inmates of Ben's jailhouse.  Needless to say, when push comes to shove the local elders are not prepared to support Ben.

The mob is led by a guy called Bogardus who reminded me of Biff in 'Back To The Future' - he too is a blowhard and a bully.  It's a very satisfying end to the film when Ben is able to finally stand up to him and come up on top.

Highly recommended.

RATING: ✓✓ Good Times

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