Randolph Scott plays the Marshall Dan Mitchell who tries to keep things peaceful in town. Edgar Buchanan plays the sheriff Bravo Trimble who rather gambles than shoots. Lloyd Bridges can be seen as Henry Dreiser. And sure there are also some pretty ladies involved.
In this town one side of the dirt, dusty road are Saloons. And on the other side of the road are shops. In the beginning the town is dependent on the cowboys driving their trail herds to the railroad stockyards. Then there comes the settlers: the “tame” people. And the Saloon keepers become concerned that the shop keeps will see where they can make more money from the settlers than from the cowboys who are a rough lot when they hit the saloons.
It might be compared to what is happening to the internet right now. We cowboys (content creators) are being chased off while the shop keepers, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon think they no longer need us. They just want the “tame” people on their sites who will think what the shopkeeper’s “preacher” tells them to think and who to elect to office.
Of course in the movie the homesteaders are the “good” people and the cowboys are the villains. Never mind that the trail that was on public land and should NOT have been fenced off. The movie was made in 1946. 8 years later in 1954 martial law would come to Russell County, Alabama to “clean” Phenix City up from the brothels and the Saloons and the Gambling Houses. The intent of the propaganda in the movie was to encourage people to “clean up” the many such towns across the United States.
The movie is a good, fun movie and with some pretty legs to view. But even while showing the fun part of the town, the propaganda line is clear that the fun part of the town must come to an end. In the end, the “tame” always win.
Ann Dvorak and Rhonda Fleming are reason enough to want to watch this movie. Giving Randolph Scott not one but two such leading ladies was genius in itself.
Keywords: Romance, Western, Ann Dvorak, Lloyd Bridges, Edgar Buchanan, Randolph Scott