Simply Perfect

Perfect cast and a good story

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Star In The Dust is certainly an illusion to where Gary Cooper's sheriff's badge wound up at the end of High Noon. But John Agar's star never wound up there as he walks a fine line between homesteaders and cattlemen in this rather grim Universal western.Hired killer for the cattlemen Richard Boone is scheduled to hang at sundown. But Agar's facing a real problem. The homesteaders just want to lynch him before the appointed hour because the cattlemen are fixing to break him out. Agar would also like to find out who exactly hired Boone to intimidate the homesteaders. He did more than intimidate, he's hanging because he killed three of them.Head of the cattlemen is Leif Erickson and his sister Mamie Van Doren is supposed to marry Agar. Boone has a girlfriend also in Coleen Gray, a plain Jane sort who never got any attention until Boone. Now she's ready to do anything for her man.Terry Gilkyson, country singer and songwriter sings The Ballad of Sam Hall which is Boone's character and serves as a kind of Greek chorus to the events.Though Agar's star never winds up in the dust, the film is a decent enough B western, grim and violent.

"Showdown in Abilene" director Charles F. Haas' western "Star in the Dust" qualifies as routine in several respects and is largely predictable. This is the yarn about the lawman sworn to protect his murderous prisoner until he can slip a noose around his neck. Cowboy stalwart John Agar of "Fort Apache" stars as Sheriff Bill Jorden, the grim son of a sheriff determined to see justice carried out despite what his father would have done in similar circumstances. The desperado in his custody is Sam Hall (Richard Boone of "Man without a Star"), and he has been sentenced to swing for killing three men. The town of Gunlock, where Jorden wears the star, is divided between the opposing forces of ranchers and farmers. Roughly speaking, the Oscar Brodney screenplay, based on Leigh Leighton's novel, draws on the historical demise of Tom Horn. Haas isn't adept as building up tension, but he has assembled a sturdy cast, with a young Clint Eastwood walking on in one scene, about seven minutes into the action, to chat briefly with our hero. Paul Fix is excellent as Jorden's deputy, and career character actor James Gleason is lively as the man who built the gallows. The mystery behind everything that our badge-totting protagonist wants to resolve is the identity of the man who hired Hall. Obviously, Haas took some cues from the Gary Cooper classic "High Noon." Unfortunately, Haas isn't as adept at scaring up suspense the same way Fred Zinnemann did in "High Noon." Mamie Van Doren spices up the cast. "Star in the Dust" appears to have been lensed on the Universal Pictures' backlot. Production values are good.

For a Western movie this was very boring and had very little going on. There is no real plot and only a couple of muddled and drama-free sub-plots.The movie is about some hit-man in a cell who is awaiting hanging for the killing of some cattleboys. The sheriff wants a peaceful hanging (!) without having to prove that he's as good a Sheriff as his father was. And a couple of other minor characters serve no purpose other than to complicate matters for petty reasons.There are a few silly fight scenes that remind of the A-Team with the wooden furniture falling apart very easily. And, as always, there are embarrassingly fake fights in which there is no penetration seen or any shown. Were there any R-rated movies in the 50's? But the most annoying thing about this movie is the songs but the 'singing narrator' who only ever uses the same tune but uses marginally different words each time. Ugh! If this is on TV on a Sunday afternoon…miss it. Go out for a walk, even if it's raining.

This seems to be yet another telling of the Tom Horn saga. In this incarnation, Sam Hall(Horn?)waits in jail and torments the sheriff, as various citizen groups attempt to break him out, for various, and obvious reasons. The minstrel, wandering, singing, and updating the plot for the viewers, becomes very annoying. Features an interesting, if not great cast, but the plot drags.