1957, THE TIN STAR, disappointing Western from Anthony Mann

 I'm not sure what happened with this film.  The screenplay was by a reliable old pro Dudley Nichols, Henry Fonda gave a good performance as a former sheriff turned bounty hunter.  Fonda has to teach a very new and green sheriff played by the interesting actor Anthony Perkins before he gets shot up by the town bully.  Unfortunately the film just kind of goes through the motions.

This is rather surprising, the director Anthony Mann was a master of the western genre and certainly knew a thing or two about filming in widescreen.  But for some reason Mann didn't seem to be able to work up the interest or enthusiasm for this film.  It's clear they were attempting some sort of "adult" western to compete with all of those TV westerns that were all over the early television networks.  But The Tin Star is just not interesting.  Even the action scenes are somewhat of a dud.

 

Mann had filmed all of those great James Stewart westerns so maybe he had lost interest in the genre by the time this film rolled around.

 

Running time, 93 minutes.