The Tin Star (1957)

Directed by Anthony Mann. Starring Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer, Neville Brand, John McIntire, Michel Ray, Mary Webster, Lee Van Cleef, Peter Baldwin, Howard Petrie, Richard Shannon.

Gun-shy tenderfoot sheriff Perkins turns to hardened bounty hunter Fonda for help in becoming a more stouthearted lawman that can stand against outlaws like Van Cleef and Indian-killers like Brand. Above-average oater bogs down with the flimsy romance involving homesteader Palmer, a father-son bond between Fonda and her son Ray, and a few preachy moments, but provides solid entertainment otherwise, incorporating the requisite dust and gun smoke, tense encounters, and satisfying final showdown. Perkins lays on the fresh-faced idealism a bit thick and Fonda’s grizzled weariness more often suggests an actor that’s tired than an actor that’s making a character choice. Talky script, credited to Joel Kane, Dudley Nichols, and Barney Slater, wavers between insight and cliché.

64/100