Truly Dreadful Film

Touches You

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Jim Davis was a popular western actor in the fifties who usually played villains and/or second leads. In "The Badge of Marshal Brennan" he gets to play the lead, a hero in spite of himself.The story has accused killer Jeff Harlon on the run from a posse. He crosses into Apache territory where the posse abandons the chase. He then comes across a wounded marshal, Matt Brennan (Douglas Fowley). When the marshal dies Harlon picks up the marshal's badge and rides into the next town, Banock.Arriving in Babbock, he learns that the town doctor, Steve Hale (Harry Lauter) suspects an outbreak of black spot fever which he believes is being spread by the cattle of cattle baron Colonel Doniphon (Louis Jean Heydt). The son of local Indian Chickamon (Lawrence Dobkin) has died from the fever and vows to kill the doctor. In fact. the doctor is almost lynched by Doniphon's son Shad (Lee Van Cleef) when Harlon intervenes.Posing as Marshal Brennan, Harlon steps into the dispute between the cattlemen and the town. Assisting him are the town sheriff (Carl Smith) and his Deputy (Ric Vallin). Meanwhile "Brennan" strikes up an acquaintance with café owner Murdock (Arleen Whelen).This was a essentially a low budget "B" movie. It doesn't have much in the way of action until the finale, which includes a dandy fight between the Davis and Van Cleef characters.Also in the cast is Marty Robbins complete with Mexican accent, as a ranch hand. Robbins and Smith were both popular country and western singers of the day, however neither sings a note in this film. As actors both made excellent singers.As "B" westerns go, this one is average although it's good to see Davis finally get the girl.

I'm watching it on the western station, as I write this. Jim Davis stars, Carl Smith,, first husband of June Carter Cash, plays the town sheriff and Marty Robbins, as a blond Mexican, co-star, both are famous Country singers but don't sing in this offbeat western. Through out the movie, as noted in other comments, a fender guitarist plays music that occasionally seems appropriate. The movie is about a bad guy(Davis) reformed by a conversation with a dying Marshall, he encounters as he is on the run.He poses as the Marshall and saves a town from the diseased cattle of Lee Van Cleef. Not an A movie but definitely watchable.

The Badge of Marshall Brennan is an extremely SLOW moving western from 1957. The basic premise is fine. A rather tame outlaw named Jeff Harlan (Jim Davis) helps the title character (Douglas Fowley) - who was wounded by hostile Indians out in the desert. When Marshall Brennan dies Jeff takes his badge, their last conversation had been about Jeff's childhood dream of being a lawman. In the nearest town a conflict is starting between the doctor (Harry Lauter) and a rich cattleman and his son Shan (an extremely young Lee Van Cleef-already playing a bad guy). The doctor suspects the cattle are infected with Black Spot Fever and that it is being transmitted to the people in the town. There will soon be a love triangle with Jeff and the good doctor vying for the attentions of a redheaded café owner named Murdock (Arleen Whelan-still extremely pretty at age 40). Marty Robbins (soon to be a county music star) plays a Mexican with blonde hair and a very bad "Cisco Kid" accent.The problem is that the story elements are enough for a 40-50 minute television show, not a 74-minute feature film. So there are expanded establishing shots and considerable chatter, not in the service of the plot but as a way to pad the running length. Making this the type of film that is best watched while doing your homework or reading a book; it is hard to give the thing more than 30% of your focus.Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

For a low-budget film, this one really captures the imagination. Jim Davis gives one of the most enigmatic performances of his career in a very off-beat Western that draws its main plot elements from a combination of Eastern mysticism and tried-and-true Western cliches. A truly eccentric and haunting score adds to the ethereal nature of the proceeding. On one level almost laughable, but on another, deeply profound.