Graced with an awesome cast (the polecat Dix as a marshal due to his gun-play, a job he accepts because of the landlady, Jory as a gambler and the brother of a banker played by Dekker, Palette as the marshal's friend, Jane Wyatt as a landlady, but also W. Best playing a racial stereotype for which he must now be despised by the half-wits) and certainly the best saloon fight ever, 'The Kansan' is intriguing, neither romantic or historical, but the western equivalent of a political thriller with a good dramatic plot; it is Jory's movie, and a very good showcase for his dark glamor. The script wishes us to care more for the gambling gentleman, than for the righteous marshal.
The cast has to be one of the choicest ever, because you never get the feeling that anyone is just giving a cameo; the saloon fight was made, fought, shot with a joy unsurpassed, with gusto and with the keenest sense of the slapstick, as a frenzied general fistfight.
Jory plays a gambler who's also the marshal's friend, and perhaps wishes to get his brother's insurance, anyway a very well written character; he was a much better actor than Dix, and it shows. Now, perhaps Dekker was himself better than Dix, but here he got a character role, i.e. a walking cliché. As for the others, Palette was dependable (for me, he's the father in a screwball movie). Jane Wyatt seems less assured or convincing, in a role better handled by other actresses in, certainly, other movies.
The cast has to be one of the choicest ever, because you never get the feeling that anyone is just giving a cameo; the saloon fight was made, fought, shot with a joy unsurpassed, with gusto and with the keenest sense of the slapstick, as a frenzied general fistfight.
Jory plays a gambler who's also the marshal's friend, and perhaps wishes to get his brother's insurance, anyway a very well written character; he was a much better actor than Dix, and it shows. Now, perhaps Dekker was himself better than Dix, but here he got a character role, i.e. a walking cliché. As for the others, Palette was dependable (for me, he's the father in a screwball movie). Jane Wyatt seems less assured or convincing, in a role better handled by other actresses in, certainly, other movies.