The Tin Star (1957)

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Excellent adaptation.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

When the experienced bounty-hunter and former sheriff Morg Hickman (Henry Fonda) arrives in a town to claim his bounty for killing a wanted outlaw, he meets the rookie temporary sheriff Ben Owens (Anthony Perkins). Hickman befriends the boy Kip (Michel Ray) and is lodged by his widow mother Nona Mayfield (Betsy Palmer) at home. Meanwhile Ben asks Hickman to teach him to be a sheriff since he wants to be assigned by the residents to the position. Ben faces problem with the scum troublemaker Bart Bogardus (Neville Brand) and when a prominent dweller is murdered by two criminals, Bogardus organizes a posse to hunt them down. But Ben has decided to capture the killers alive and give a fair trial to them. "The Tin Star" is a great western directed by Antony Mann, with the 52 year-old Henry Fonda in excellent shape and Anthony Perkins in one of his first features. The bitter Hickman has a sad past that has certainly affected his behavior and Anthony Perkins is perfect in the role of the insecure Ben Owens. The happy end is a counterpoint to "Shane" that has similar situation of a stranger involved with a boy and a widow. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "O Homem dos Olhos Frios" ("The Man of the Cold Eyes")

Westerns of the 50's are the best and to be missed if not for the fact we can see them again via rentals, DVD's and TCM entertainment. They had the quality movie stars, great plot points, good subject matter, were educational and tugged at all our emotions. Throw in horses, good and bad guys, love interest, dust, posse's and some shootings and we are off! Fonda comes through as a veteran of the time who survived using his abilities, guts, savvy and experience but gets dealt a life blow which he doesn't recover from until this movie. Its a believable story and will pull you in. Then there is the new sheriff who wants to do good and right but doesn't know what that is. That be Perkins. Put him together with Fonda and the story takes hold. The Wild West was unexplored times and territories and there are no end to the stories that came out of it. This be one of them. Good solid entertainment from start to finish with one of the best endings around. Feel good is so thick you can cut it with a knife. That's good directing. Enjoy a nice meal while watching along with a tasty drink too. Saddle up

Once a respected sheriff, a cynical bounty hunter takes to mentoring the nervous, inexperienced young sheriff of a sleepy town in this western drama starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins (in the time before he became typecast in psychopath/horror roles). A common criticism of the film seems to be the casting of a timid Perkins as a sheriff, but his uneasiness in the role is very much deliberate and the chemistry between Fonda and Perkins works every step of the way. What does not quite work so well is a subplot with Fonda finding a surrogate son in a local boy of mixed ethnic descent. While a stranger to the town, Fonda is incredulously invited by the boy's single mother to stay at their house, and sleep in his bedroom (!), and when the boy later goes missing, Fonda's search for him is too obviously metaphorical to click (it is revealed that he lost his own son years ago). The entire second half of the film - not just the search for the boy - is weaker than the first half though with more action than acute dialogue exchanges between Fonda and Perkins. The second half does, however, feature a memorable final scene for John McIntire, who is great throughout playing a character one and a half times his actual age. The final showdown is not half bad either. The juice of the film though comes from the first half with the bond between Fonda and Perkins in the spotlight. Fonda almost seems to see a little of himself in Perkins at times, and he curiously seems to admire how genuine Perkins is about a job that he long ago dismissed as not worth the trouble or shiny, bright tin star.

Unlike the Stewart/Mann Westerns, this one doesn't seem to have much of a critical fan base. I can understand why, although it's not bad at all.Here's what I liked:Henry Fonda makes a super cowboy. A shame he didn't make more Westerns. A juicy part here as a retired, all-knowing "super-sheriff" who has turned bitter bounty hunter after losing a wife and child in the line of duty. (Randolph Scott played a very similar character in Budd Boetticher's "Ride Lonesome" a couple of years later. Lee Van Cleef also played the heavy in that film).Excellent acting by the always reliable John McEntire, once again exhibiting his remarkable range by playing a man 25 years older than himself - and nailing it.Nice job by Neville Brand as an Indian hating heavy. Interesting that I had just watched Brand play an Indian character in a comic relief buddy role with John Wayne in "Cahill, U.S. Marshall".Morg's romantic interest isn't gratuitous. Women and son are key to the theme of Morg's redemption from "dead only" bounty hunter/loner to family man, with a real job and responsibility. Very effective scene where the dead body of Doc McCord is carried into the middle of his 75th birthday celebration by his buggy. This is Anthony Mann at his macabre best.Here's what kept the movie from being better:The plot dragged. I got bored watching this. Dual climaxes of shootout with McGaffeys and confrontation with Bogardus was awkward.Parts of the plot seemed blatantly derivative from a couple of very successful movies released a few years before this i.e. Morg's relationship with the little boy ("Shane") and the sheriff being left to fend for himself by the town elders ("High Noon").Theme of virtues of "dead or alive" law enforcement didn't interest me and didn't seem relevant to anything.Yet another uncomfortable age issue in romantic subplot. Fonda's over 20 years older than his female costar and looks every year of it.As usual in Mann's movies, minimal comic relief.Black and white "town" Western, mostly filmed in the Burbank back lot with occasional field trips to San Fernando valley. At least everybody got to sleep in their own bed every night.Anthony Perkins seems miscast and looks very out of place in the Old West. His character was annoying and implausibly naive.Lee Van Cleef underused again. Thank you for coming along, Sergio Leone!Civil rights racism theme seems tacked on.A myriad of typical Anthony Mann plot holes, including:How does a single mom invite a complete stranger into her house to share a bedroom with her young son? She knows nothing about Morg when he rides up, except that he's followed her son home. Is she comforted later when she finds out he's considered a vicious bounty hunter? I know she's an outcast in the town too, but she seems a very normal protective mother. Why do the McGaffey brothers abandon their ranch and hide in the canyon? They couldn't have known Doc's journal would incriminate them, or they would have destroyed it. Without the journal there is no reason anyone would suspect them of killing him.Assuming that for some unexplained reason they found out the posse was coming for them, what are they accomplishing hiding up in a cave anyway? How long can they last up there? Maybe they have food, but what about water? One brother was just seriously wounded.Morg has been a smart guy from the beginning, always playing the odds right. Yet he decides to go up against two guys with rifles who have the high ground and know he's coming.The fact that he vanquishes the dug in McGaffeys with ease - even takes them alive - is almost as implausible as when James Stewart takes out Robert Ryan in the climax of "The Naked Spur". How could Anthony Perkins be so stupid to think the McCaffeys won't shoot him if he tries to walk up and arrest them. They're guilty! They're going to hang! Why possible motive could they have to turn themselves in?I could go on, but watching this guy's movies exhausts me.