An Exercise In Nonsense

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Adapation of William Burnett's story "Saint Johnson" is also a follow-up to (or rehashing of) 1932's "Law and Order", yet has enough energy and excitement to stand on its own. Ronald Reagan is very good playing the Marshal of Tombstone in the 1880s, tired of being a "hired killer" and quitting for a rancher's life on the outskirts of Cottonwood--only to find the citizens there much tougher than in Tombstone, including a scurrilous family who has tangled with the Marshal before. It's never made clear how the Marshal managed to get on the bad side of the Tombstone residents (they seem to want a no-nonsense approach to the law--and they've got it with Reagan--so what is their beef?). Dorothy Malone is wasted in frivolous role as Ronnie's girl (she always seems to be saying, "I'll be here when you come back") and the (blonde) actors playing Reagan's brothers are poor choices--they don't look or act anything like him. Still, there's a few evil, grinning sonsofbitches in the line-up who give the narrative dramatic flavor, and Reagan has a terrific scene early on protecting a prisoner from a lynch mob. Most of "Law and Order" (terrible title!) is strictly rote, a western formula, but the locations are good and the finale very satisfying. **1/2 from ****

Even with technicolor and location shooting, the remake of the classic western Law and Order with Walter Huston pales in comparison. Ronald Reagan just isn't Walter Huston, he doesn't create the singleminded purpose of Huston's Frame Johnson. Reagan's forte is affability, it doesn't translate well here.Frame Johnson and his two brothers, played by Alex Nicol and Russell Johnson, leave Tombstone where Johnson is marshal because Johnson is tired of it. They go to Contention, but the problems of lawlessness are rampant there. Corrupt sheriff Barry Kelley and town boss Preston Foster pretty much run things their way. The decent citizens call on Reagan and the brothers to help out. Brother Alex Nicol does and is killed. You can figure the rest out.The film does have the always lovely presence of Dorothy Malone, three years away from her Oscar in Written on the Wind. Dorothy was first noticed as the bookstore proprietess who catches Humphrey Bogart's eye in The Big Sleep. She did mostly westerns after that, usually as the nice girl in gingham that the hero gets. Good thing someone saw she had more going for her than that. Here she's a reluctant saloon owner, her old man left her the place and she runs it to earn a living. Girl's gotta do, what a girl's gotta do.And of course you would have to be blind and ignorant of any kind of western history not to notice the obvious parallels between this film and any and all films with Wyatt Earp as the central character.

Law and Order is the story of Frame Johnson (Ronald Reagan) a town tamer who wants to retire. He has two brothers played by Alex Nicol and Russel Johnson who help him and a fiancee Dorothy Malone. Sounds familiar? Yes, it is Wyatt Earp all over again, but in the story of Wyatt there was the gunfight at the O.K. corral, which involved strategy, and also a lot of conflicting feelings from different factions.Here it is basically Reagan fighting a bandit called Durango Kid at the beginning,and then moving to another town where the bad guy is Preston Foster. There is a lot of action but a lack of anything else. Reagan, who was a good actor, and the excellent Dorothy Malone don't have much of a chance to show their feelings. Alex Nicol, with the collar of his jacket lifted, looks more like a model for a fashion magazine. But if your looking just for plain entertainment, this film is ok.

'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...