Marshall Dan Mitchell, who is the law in Abilene, has the job of keeping peace between two groups. For a long time, the town had been divided, with the cattlemen and cowboys having one end of town to themselves, while townspeople occupied the other end. Mitchell liked it this way, it made things easier for him, and kept problems from arising between the two factions. However…
This has all the ingredients of a sure-fire western adventure. Set in the latter part of the 19th century, Randolph Scott is ("Dan Mitchell") the marshall in Abilene who alongside his cohort Edgar Buchanan ("Sheriff Trimble") is trying to contain the restless farmers (led by Lloyd Bridges) and cattle drivers who are constantly at each other's throats whilst the encroaching railroad makes it's presence felt too. It's got loads of gunfights to keep it moving and even the romance (with the delightful Ann Dvorak and Rhonda Fleming) is not too interfering to the pacy, action-driven plot. As ever, for me anyway, the singing just gets on the nerves - though the twee lyrics that rhyme in the cheesiest of fashions always come in useful for a toilet break, or to boil the kettle - but I see little else of value in these instrumental breaks that frequently suck the momentum from the story. There was always something just a little too clean cut about Randolph Scott (a bit like Alan Ladd) for these kinds of parts, but here he is actually quite decent as he does his job and fends off the two women simultaneously, but the acting plaudits go to Buchanan who does most pf the heavy lifting. It's not great, this - but I like the genre, and found it quite watchable for 90 minutes.
