A Lawless Street (1955)

Good movie but grossly overrated

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Yes, I know my rating for this is a tad high, but I just love both Randolph's work in general and Angela Lansbury at this really sexy juncture of her career. They have a really good chemistry together, even though the age difference is a shade on the 'Love in the Afternoon' or 'Lolita' side and can be a bit unnerving. Though I've enjoyed other Joseph H. Lewis films, such as 'Invisible Ghost' and 'Gun Crazy', he still doesn't have the touch for Western material that Scott would later enjoy in his collaborations with Budd Boetticher. It's not as dramatic a difference as comparing apples and oranges, but it is noticeable. At least when it comes to Westerns (I haven't seen other types of films by Boetticher), the guy's definitely an auteur, on the level of, say, an Anthony Mann, Howard Hawks or even John Ford.Very enjoyable, and a work of distinguished quality, definitely worth owning and re-watching.

This is the title of the German version translated into English. That is the way in the sixties German audience could have been attracted to a western movie. This is for me in some respects an outstanding western. I would like to explain why. American western movies are often not very realistic . I give you some examples: 1. heroic main characters are often good looking, handsome (which is not really what disturbs me) and know how to use a gun or knife 2. the characters are mostly simple, straight-forward, there is the good and there is the evil 3. the movies make us believe that the wild west bustled with a few reasonable and righteous people and astonishingly out of 200 adult inhabitants of a town, 190 are cowards or villains or lynchers and of course miserable people or everything altogether which one could find in the gutter of humankind (outside town the rate is a little more favourable)- something I cannot believe,because I do not want to believe, that we Europeans only sent the sludge of our civilization over the ocean. 4.as for shooting! Shootings in American western movies! A world in itself. I wonder whether writers, directors are aware that this is always the most unrealistic part in their films. In every western movie you see somebody shooting with an old muzzle loader 5 miles and kick the rider from the horse; in every movie you see cowboys shooting from the hip, without aiming on a silver dollar thrown into the air, you guess, they hit, not to speak that villains do not get their opponents although they fire from close distance, let us say 20 centimeters, hundreds of broadsides, while the sheriff is shooting back with one single shot between the eyes of the five bandits. This reminds me to war films, where the American guys are outnumbered by their enemies who have a tremendous arsenal of weapons which turn out to be completely useless whereas the American guy swiftly (and heroically) kills with his Colt a whole batallion. What is this nonsense for? Life is not like High Noon. But sometimes it is good to believe it, right? I stop the list here to come to the "man like a devil". What an incredible scene! The sheriff has a shootout with the villain and what happens? I could hardly believe my eyes. The sheriff is felled - although not deadly. The gangster prevails! When it comes to the second shooting the sheriff is clever enough not to risk a fair duel.Right so! That is something I can take. Can You remember the scene where Rob Roy desperately holds the sabre of the opponent who is going to kill him in the next moment with his bare hand?! The big man has no chance in the fair fight against the small but capable adversary, but he has a helping idea. That is how you have to go against the rat pack of this world, which is often more powerful, more skilled. This western movie has some astonishing aspects and therefore I honour him with 8 asterics. By the way Randolph Scott is in his western movies always already a senior. It is the same in true life. Do not expect too much from the youngsters,usually they wet their trousers in difficult situations!

A town is at the crossroads between law and order and its commercial interests, saloon owner Cody Clarke (John Emery) and mayor Hamer Thorne (Warner Anderson) choose the latter in order to maintain the surging saloon business. In order to achieve their goal they have to get rid of the competent marshal played by Randolph Scott, and hire a gunman (Michael Pate) to take care of him. Scott is wounded and widely believed to have been killed, but comes back to settle scores, while his ex-wife (Angela Lansbury) who is now a singer and dancer in a burlesque company comes into town and does a quite revealing song and dance number. Directed by B film genius Joseph H. Lewis, the film has originality, style, and quite an interesting premise, though the opportunities slip by.

Randolph Scott is the town marshal like Gary Cooper in High Noon. Only instead of four guys coming to town to kill the marshal because of an old grudge, here we have a trio of villains, Warner Anderson, John Emery, and Michael Pate. The first two have been hiring folks to do in Scott because they want a wide open and lawless town for the saloon business. They've finally settled on Pate who does beat Scott to the draw and folks think he's been killed. Warner Anderson is a particularly smarmy villain. He's got designs on Angela Lansbury who's a touring musical performer in town for a few performances. He's also been romancing the wife of the biggest rancher in the area played by Jean Parker and he says openly that it was only for his own amusement. That remark costs him dear in the movie later on.Scott has a particularly brutal fight scene with Don Megowan who's the brother of a man Scott kills in the first 15 minutes of the film. Ranks up there with his classic brawls with John Wayne in The Spoilers and Pittsburgh. I remember a Gunsmoke episode years ago where this particular plot line was used. Someone beats Matt Dillon to the draw and Doc Adams pretends he's dead and in the meantime works furiously to save his life. Here that role is taken by town doctor Wallace Ford. Both Randolph Scott and James Arness live to best the villain, but the story is how in both cases and I won't say more.A good cast of veteran Hollywood performers makes A Lawless Street a pleasure to watch. And Angela Lansbury has a musical number. What's better than that?