One of my all time favorites.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

I'm not a big fan of westerns in general and can muster up only so much enthusiasm about the best of them, but "The Tin Star" is a pretty entertaining addition to the genre. Anthony Mann certainly knows his way around the wild west, and he's ably supported by Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins, two terrific actors who are well cast in their roles as a jaded bounty hunter and the inexperienced sheriff who he takes under his wing, respectively. Betsy Palmer is on hand as a love interest for Fonda, but try as I might I cannot look at that woman without being freaked out by her because of her performance as Mrs. Voorhees in the original "Friday the 13th," so needless to say I wasn't overly invested in whether or not the two would get hitched.Dudley Nichols, Joel Kane, and Barney Slater were Oscar nominated for their original story and screenplay.Grade: A-

Westerns of the 50's are the best and to be missed if not for the fact we can see them again via rentals, DVD's and TCM entertainment. They had the quality movie stars, great plot points, good subject matter, were educational and tugged at all our emotions. Throw in horses, good and bad guys, love interest, dust, posse's and some shootings and we are off! Fonda comes through as a veteran of the time who survived using his abilities, guts, savvy and experience but gets dealt a life blow which he doesn't recover from until this movie. Its a believable story and will pull you in. Then there is the new sheriff who wants to do good and right but doesn't know what that is. That be Perkins. Put him together with Fonda and the story takes hold. The Wild West was unexplored times and territories and there are no end to the stories that came out of it. This be one of them. Good solid entertainment from start to finish with one of the best endings around. Feel good is so thick you can cut it with a knife. That's good directing. Enjoy a nice meal while watching along with a tasty drink too. Saddle up

This is better than one would expect looking at the poster and cast and what not. Obviously running in at about 1h30, and given its plot, it's not meant to be a masterclass in film making either, but it's always at least interesting to have a watch of Anthony Perkins or Henry Fonda on screen. Here, we're even given a pretty entertaining flick with interesting scenes and fine moments of sensitivity. There's a nice subtly to the film that helps instill a certain sense of fairness, respect and ultimately justice. It's not done in the cheesy way you'd expect though. The characters are good: the film is complex enough in its actors to not be the utterly straightforward affair these often become. Sure it could've had a bit more development, depth, and quality overall, and it really did have potential for more - but this is good enough.

1957 was a good year for movies and amongst all the strong contenders, The Tin Star still managed to get Oscar nominated for best original screenplay, by the same screenwriter that brought that real trail- blazing classic, Stagecoach, to life.Anthony Mann's black & white Western isn't a long, sprawling John Ford epic, nor does it feature Ford's often comical characters but at a fairly concise 92 mins it feels like a real book - a story that's never hurried and which includes proper characterisation and dialogue. Those wanting John Wayne spitting into the dust and cowboys and Indians need look elsewhere...I've always liked Henry Fonda - and whilst many have pointed out that Mann's main man had previously been James Stewart, Fonda takes that slim thoughtfulness that Stewart eschewed and added dignity as well as grit - maybe somewhere between a Wayne and Stewart mix. You can never take your eyes off Henry Fonda - tall, dark and brooding if there ever was one. Anthony Perkins is (of course) very different to Norman Bates in Psycho and for those of us who saw him in that long before this earlier work, will not be disappointed. Fonda plays the older, wiser but now turned to bounty hunter ex lawman, who helps out rookie sheriff Perkins, both strategically but morally, too, when an outlaw gang terrorise the town.The near-silent ending is as tense as you'll find anywhere within any Western - and you will be both too - silent AND tense...Radio Times gives Tin Star a rare five stars - and you won't see this undervalued and under-known western on TV very often. It does get onto Sky Movies Classics once in a while but I don't recall it ever being on terrestrial TV, at least recently, so the DVD does make good sense. If you like the western genre and not yet seen The Tin Star, you really should...