Law and Order (1953)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Best movie ever!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

I like Ronnie Reagan, but this is not one of his better films. Dorothy Malone is a lightweight actress, but I don't think any female lead would have made much difference to the outcome. Preston Foster is the only authentic A actor in the film, although I did enjoy seeing the professor from Gilligan's Island as the judge.The plot is mundane and full of cliches, but the actors try to do the best with the hands they are dealt. The fascination of watching an American president acting in a film is always an extra added attraction. The end result is an amazingly average Western; watchable, but not notable. The doctor in the town is Holliday; sound familiar? Spare us.

Future U.S. President Ronald Reagan plays a no-nonsense, tough-as-leather peace officer in former art director Nathan Juran's third film as a director, "Law and Order," based on "High Sierra" writer W.R. Burnett's novel "Saint Johnson." "Interlude" scribe Inez Cocke adapted Burnett's novel and John and Gwen Bagni along with D.D. Beauchamp fashioned the formula screenplay that espouses status quo 'law and order' values. In other words, "Law and Order" is a good Republican western. Comparisons between Reagan's protagonist, Frame Johnson, and the legendary Wyatt Earp are inevitable. Like Wyatt Earp, Frame Johnson has acquired a reputation as a fearless, invincible lawman. Just as inevitably, the time comes for the dedicated lawman to shed the badge and settle down. Foolishly, Frame struggles to do that very thing because he has grown tired of being a "hired killer" with a badge. Nevertheless, trouble always seems to reach out and ruin him. Dorothy Malone is cast as his pretty leading lady and she knows how to wear lipstick. Interestingly enough, she owns a saloon bar and deals cards. At one point, a prospective buyer observes that running a saloon is not job for a woman. Back in 1953 as well as the time period of this western, which is set in 1882, this opinion wouldn't seem out of place. Today, it brims with sexism. Nevertheless, the Malone character informs the buyer that her father left her the saloon. After all, she observes, she can neither teach nor sew, so what option was left to her? Sharp-shooting Sheriff Frame Johnson (Ronald Reagan of "Desperate Journey") pursues the Durango Kid (Wally Cassell of "Salute to the Marines") on horseback across a broiling desert as this durable, 80-minute, full frame, Technicolor oater opens. Frame catches up with the Kid when the outlaw has his hands off his six-gun and wrapped around his canteen. Frame blasts the canteen out of Durango's hands and two struggle in a brief fistfight before Frame claps on the handcuffs. Back in Tombstone, Frame thwarts the locals from lynching Durango. Things look rather tough for Frame because his youngest brother, Jimmy Johnson (Russell Johnson of TV's "Gilligan's Island"), is among them. Frame wounds one man to discourage the lynch mob and orders Jimmy inside. Frame informs his other brother, Luther 'Lute' Johnson (Alex Nicol of "The Red Ball Express"), that they are leaving town. Afterward, he tells his girlfriend, Jeanie (Oscar winner Dorothy Malone of "Written on the Wind"), that he has turned in his marshal's badge and is heading for Cottonwood to settle on a ranch. She wants to join him, but Frame suggests that she stick around Tombstone until he has the ranch fixed up.No sooner than Frame, Lute, Jimmy, and their undertaker pal, Denver Cahoon (Chubby Johnson of "Sam Whiskey") have arrived in Cottonwood than they encounter trouble in the person of town boss, Kurt Durling (Preston Foster of "Kansas City Confidential"), who remembers Frame with considerable animosity from Abilene. Frame shot Durling in the hand and the wound turned Durling's right hand into useless flesh. Durling and his clan were cattle rustlers. Since Abilene, Durling and his two sons, Frank (Dennis Weaver of TV's "Gunsmoke") and Bart (Don Gordon of "Bullitt"), have moved to Cottonwood where he runs the town with the help of a no-account sheriff, Fin Elder (Barry Kelly of "Buchanan Rides Alone"), and his word is law. Burt opposes Frame briefly at the saloon/hotel when he tries to kill Johnny Benton (Don Garner of "FBI Girl") and Frame prevents him. Later, Bart dies after Johnny kills him. Frame protects Johnny from Frank and his gun hands. Judge Williams represents the town fathers and he implores Frame to pin on the badge. Frame refuses to serve as their sheriff, and his opinion doesn't change when his brothers and he discover the hanged body of Johnny Benton on the trail. Although Frame doesn't accept the offer as sheriff, Lute steps forward to take on those duties.The devious Durlings make sure that Lute is out on wild goose chases while they conduct business as usual. Meaning, the Durlings are rustling cattle in one spot while Lute investigates something else. Eventually, one of the town fathers, Dixon (Thomas Browne Henry of "Hoodlum Empire") observes, "While you're chasing rainbows, they're rustling cattle." Judge Williams (Richard Garrick of "Riding Shotgun") defends Lute. He points out that the Durlings try "to confuse you, run you ragged and send off in every direction." Lute seeks Frame's help, but Frame turns him down. Frame and Denver are trying to finish the repairs on the ranch before Jeanie shows up. One evening, Lute restrains a drunken cowboy, Jed (Jack Kelly of TV's "Maverick"), from blasting the lights out of a chandelier. Lute disarms Jed, but Frank prods him into a duel. Just as Lute lets Frank draw, Kurt knocks over a chair at his table. The falling chair distracts Lute and Frank nails him in the stomach. Lute doesn't die before Frame rides into town. "I'm sorry, Frame," Lute mutters before he dies, "I guess I just wasn't as good as you." Later, Jimmy gets plastered in the bar and sets out to kill Frank. Denver smashes a whiskey bottle over Jimmy's head and Frame locks him up to cool off. Meantime, Frame appropriates the badge and dictates his terms of employment. Primarily, he demands a ban on firearms in Cottonwood! The only weakness of "Law and Order" is the Preston Foster villain. Indeed, he is slimy and unsympathetic, but he never actually kills anybody in cold blood. He leaves the killings to his two lame-brained, hot-tempered brothers who he constantly berates for not using their heads. The knock-down drag-out fistfight between Durling and Frame on Cottonwood's main street ranks as a pretty vigorous affair. At least twice the chief villain tries to kill Frame with a pitchfork and an axe. In both cases, the implements that Foster wields actually do stick into or chop the wood.

Hey, wasn't that a great way to open the film - Ronald Reagan rides into view wearing that tin star, championing law and order and democracy. One of history's great ironic tributes to life imitating art.Ultimately though, the film is largely a run of the mill Western, a notch above the 'B' programmers churned out incessantly from the 1940's and '50's. This one was done in color, so it gets some points for that, and it was admirable to see that the nominal comic relief character (Chubby Johnson as Denver) had guts enough to stand with Frame Johnson (Reagan) and his brothers when things got rough. By the time Jimmy (Russell Johnson) duped Denver to open the cell door, it seemed almost out of character for him to get taken like that.You know, I got curious watching Reagan get on and off his horse. Twice when he dismounted, he did it by swinging his right leg over the saddle and sliding to the ground. The only time he mounted was from a raised deck where he was relatively level with the saddle. I'm wondering if Reagan might have been physically impaired during filming to allow for more mobility.The other point has to do with brother Jimmy. Right after Lute (Alex Nicol) dies, it only takes about a minute for Jimmy to get staggering drunk at the bar downstairs. However when he's on the run from Cottonwood after being sprung from jail, he manages to down a whole bottle of tequila with no ill effects!Some time during the '50's, and maybe earlier, it seemed to become the custom to show the best assets of a film's leading lady in profile. This is done extensively here with Dorothy Malone as Reagan's romantic interest, and to a lesser extent with Ruth Hampton's character. Somehow I don't think the ladies of the 1880's really looked like that, but who knows. At the same time though, Jeannie (Malone) had one of the picture's most memorable lines describing her man - "You're big and you're ugly and you're stupid, and I happen to be in love with you".

'Law and Order' is hardly a rich strike, and might be considered as a solid, conventional Western of 'retired gunfighter' breed...Frame Johnson (Reagan) is a respected lawman who has cleaned up the wicked ways of Tombstone, Arizona, and wants to retire to the life of a rancher... This pleases his fiancée, Jeannie (Dorothy Malone), who runs the saloon left to her by her father... She, too, is eager to leave the rough community and be her beau's wife: 'You're big and you're ugly and you're stupid, and I happen to be in love with you.'With his brothers, Lute (Alex Nicol) and Jimmy (Russell Johnson), and their undertaker friend, Denver (Chubby Johnson), Frame proceeds to the town of Cottonwood... Unfortunately, Cottonwood is under the domination of Kurt Durning (Preston Foster), who hates Frame because he crippled him in a previous encounter...The citizens of Cottonwood appeal to the famous marshal to take up the badge of law and order once again, and rid them of Durning... Frame declines, but Lute accepts, which soon costs him his life when he tries to apprehend one of Durning's sons... Frame takes the job as marshal and brings the Durning empire to an end...