Man in the Shadow (1957)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

MAN IN THE SHADOW – 1957This Universal Studio's production is sort of a western updated to 1957. We have Orson Welles as the big land owner, Colleen Miller as his daughter and Jeff Chandler as the local Sheriff. The film is set in the American Southwest.The film starts on Welles' Golden Empire Ranch. A young Mexican farm hand, Joe Schneider, is dragged out of one of the ranch bunkhouses by two men, John Larch and Leo Gordon. They take Schneider to a nearby shed where they start to work the lad over. It seems that the young man has been over friendly with ranch owner Welles' daughter, Miller. Welles sent the two men to teach him a lesson. Schneider however is a stronger go than Gordon and Larch expected. A handy pick axe handle soon ends the fight by splitting the lad's skull open. Watching this whole thing from the shed window is, Martin Garralaga. Garralaga is another one of the many Mexican farmhands employed by Welles' ranch. He fades back into the dark and returns to the bunkhouse.The next morning, Garralaga decides to pay a visit to the law in the local town of Spurline. Spurline is a small one horse town with just a Sheriff, Jeff Chandler and one deputy, Ben Alexander. The town survives on the business it gets from Welles "bigger than some countries" Golden Empire Ranch.Garralaga tells his story to Chandler and Alexander. Alexander does not believe the "wetback" and urges Chandler to do the same. No point in rocking the boat with Welles without any proof. Chandler, newly elected, tells Alexander the law applies to everyone. He will go out and at least see if the young man is still there.Welles, who takes security serious, has armed men at the entrance to his property. After Welles has his men let Chandler in, Chandler politely asks about a possible "disturbance" on the ranch the night before involving a Mexican farmhand. "I have hundreds of wetbacks working here. You think I keep track of them all?' "Probably a couple of them got drunk and got in a fight." Welles also broadly hints that if Chandler wishes to keep his job, he best drop the matter. Chandler knows he'll need to dig up more evidence before pushing the matter. Back to town he goes to have a further talk the witness. Welles had only ordered his thugs to rough up Schneider. But since it ended up in murder, he is as guilty as Larch and Gordon. He calls the two into his office where they come up with a way to end the matter. Gordon takes the body of the slain young man down to an isolated spot on the highway. He dumps the body and then drives over it several times. He then contacts the Sheriff's office. He claims that the lad must have been drunk and wandered out into traffic. Deputy Alexander has no problem taking this story as gospel. When Welles' daughter, Miller, hears about Schneider's death, she contacts Chandler. Schneider and Miller had become friendly. Miller figures it most likely upset her father. Chandler adds this to the growing list of evidence. He decides to take precautions with his witness, and hides Garralaga at the farm of Royal Dano. Welles continues to stir the pot as he contacts the town managers, Paul Fix and William Schallert, and threatens to take his ranch business elsewhere. The less than subtle hint, "Get rid of Chandler or else". Welles' men also sabotage Chandler's Police car. Chandler is lucky to escape the wreck with only a few bumps and bruises. Besides the pressure from the town council to lay off the investigation, Chandler's wife, Barbara Lawrence is getting threatening phone calls. Add to all this is that the witness to the murder, Garralaga is himself murdered. This of course just makes the Sheriff all the more determined to solve the case.Welles now pulls out all the stops and has two of his men, Leo Gordon and Charles Horvath, jump Chandler. They lay a solid beating on the man and then drag him through the town streets from a rope tied to the back of a pickup. The message, Welles is really the man in charge. Chandler, who has been patched up by the local doc, Harry Harvey, has had more than enough. He arms himself with a shotgun and roars off to confront Welles at his ranch. The townsfolk, shamed by letting Welles walk all over them, arm up and likewise set off for the ranch. Needless to say there is a showdown at the ranch with several of Welles henchmen eating far too much lead than is good for them. Welles is slapped in cuffs and loaded up for a trip to jail. This one comes off as an upper level b-film, not great, but quite watchable. Welles is good as the old style land baron type. Chandler, is Chandler, he does nothing different here than we've seen in a dozen other films. Colleen Miller is more or less simply eye candy.The director, Jack Arnold, is best known for a series of great sci-fi films he made in the 1950's. These include, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, TARANTULA and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. He touched on noir with, THE TATTERED DRESS and OUTSIDE THE LAW. He would end his career helming episodes of THE LOVE BOAT. Some nice black and white work is supplied by Oscar winning (The Yearling) cinematographer, Arthur E Arling. Arling also received an Oscar nomination for his work on, I'LL CRY TOMORROW. The following year, Welles would make, TOUCH OF EVIL.

No question this isn't a great film, but I have to say it had me hooked from the outset. I haven't seen Jeff Chandler in much before, but I got into his earnest portrayal of a small town sheriff out to do the right thing, even if it meant bucking up against the local town boss and riling the citizens of Spurline. This had the feel of 'Dragnet' crossing paths with 'Wanted:Dead or Alive', and having Orson Welles on hand was just a bit of icing on the cake.One thing for sure, this picture is a treasure trove of character actors that will have you grasping for names because you've seen them so many times before (at least for old timers like me who grew up on TV fare of the Fifties and Sixties). In no particular order, you've got Paul Fix, John Larch, Leo Gordon, Mort Mills, William Schallert and Royal Dano. Rocco looked familiar too though I couldn't readily place him. TV Westerns of the era would pop one of these guys into a story one at a time, but having them all together in one place is a neat trip down memory lane.No sense in beating a dead horse regarding the story as other reviewers have done so nicely. The payoff here is having the local town folk arrive at the final showdown just in the nick of time since no way it was going to be a fair fight. In that respect, the picture does a one eighty against one of my all time favorites, "High Noon". The look on Orson Welles' face when he realizes the jig is up is just priceless, especially since daughter Skippy (Colleen Miller) earlier vowed she would see him pay for his ruthlessness. Wait a minute - Skippy? Who came up with that one? Interesting side note - who would ever have guessed back in 1957 that a half century later, you could reverse the Royal Dano character's name and come up with an American Idol superstar. There's a trivia question you could have some fun with.

Not a bad B Western set in the modern little town of Spur Branch (or whatever it is). Jeff Chandler is the sheriff but the town is ruled by Mister Big -- Orson Welles, growing ever bigger -- from his ranch, The Golden Empire. Welles has a few hundred braceros working for him. He himself is surrounded by goons of varying degrees of terpitude. There is no question of who makes the rules in Larkspur. It isn't Chandler, sitting with his feet on his desk.Welles has a comely daughter, Colleen Miller. She doesn't have much of a part to play in the movie, except that she sets the plot in motion by dating one of the Mexican laborers and infuriating her father, who has the young man beaten to death. The director, Jack Arnold, who made some fine science fiction movies, is gracious enough at least to give us a glimpse of Colleen Miller in her lingerie. She looks better than a giant tarantula although her acting is at about the same level.Anyway, an old Mexican shuffles into Sheriff Chandler's office with a tale of having seen Miller's boyfriend get his skull split by an axe handle (in a particularly vivid piece of writing). Chandler treats him as a nuisance. There may be something to the story but why stir things up? With the exception of Mount Spur's Italian barber, Santoro, the rest of the town concurs. These Beaners can never be trusted.But when the old man who reported the incident ALSO turns up dead, Chandler becomes a bit more animated. What in the world is going on in Spurmont? Some shenanigans out at the ranch? Chandler is visited by the town leaders who urge him to ignore the whole mess. If he alienates The Golden Empire, Welles will just take his business elsewhere and Spurville will suffer a decline in economic advantages.Faced with insults from Welles, threats from his henchmen, the disapprobation of the public, and slavering growls from an unfriendly German shepherd, does Chandler relent? Are you kidding? This kind of movie can end in only one of two ways: the sheriff takes on the fight alone and wins ("High Noon") or he's rendered helpless by the miscreants and the town finally finds its spiritus and bands together to rescue him. One of these solutions applies here.It's not badly done. By that, I mean that it deals with racism, of course, but it doesn't hit us over the head with it. There is only one preachy speech by Chandler and it's mercifully brief. But the movie has its weaknesses too. The general level of the performances is poor. The townsmen have little motive for their determined change of heart at the end. Welles loves his daughter but, that aside, the evil guys are pure evil, as in a child's cartoon.I believe the plot itself is recycled. Maybe it's been recycled several times before. Mister Big on his ranch on the outskirts of Spur Valley calling the shots until one of the citizens gets all noble. The racial overtones aren't all that common, although if anyone wants to see a better-done example, he might check out "Bad Day at Black Rock."

Often mistaken as a Western, this little ranch-set, (then) modern-day murder tale has ambitious themes, but fails to resolve itself with much of an impact. Orson Welles was seen to possibly his best effect onscreen in 1958 with his masterpiece Touch of Evil and his great, scenery chewing Southern patriarch in The Long, Hot Summer. Here he's barely given anything to work with, and Jeff Chandler's solid work doesn't produce a memorable character. Good atmosphere, interesting potential, but a disappointment.