Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Richard Widmark | ... | Marshal Frank Patch | |
Lena Horne | ... | Claire Quintana | |
Carroll O'Connor | ... | Lester Locke | |
David Opatoshu | ... | Edward Rosenbloom | |
Kent Smith | ... | Andrew Oxley | |
Jacqueline Scott | ... | Laurie Mills | |
Morgan Woodward | ... | Ivan Stanek | |
Larry Gates | ... | Mayor Chester Sayre | |
Dub Taylor | ... | Doc Adams | |
John Saxon | ... | Lou Trinidad | |
Darleen Carr | ... | Hilda Jorgenson | |
Michael McGreevey | ... | Dan Joslin | |
Royal Dano | ... | Arch Brandt | |
Jimmy Lydon | ... | Luke Mills (as James Lydon) | |
Kathleen Freeman | ... | Mary Elizabeth |
In the turn-of-the century Texas town of Cottownwood Springs, marshal Frank Patch is an old-style lawman in a town determined to become modern. When he kills drunken Luke Mills in self-defense, the town leaders decide it's time for a change. They ask for Patch's resignation, but he refuses on the basis that the town on hiring him had promised him the job for as long as he wanted it. Afraid for the town's future and even more afraid of the fact that Marshal Patch knows all the town's dark secrets, the city fathers decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the unwanted lawman. Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
A Western that shows how the "West growed itself up and got itself civilized".Richard Widmark gives what is probably his last great performance as a Sheriff whose way a doing things don't sit right with the "powers-that-be" personified by town merchant Carrol O Conner.This movie ,like Invitaion to a Gunfighter made some years before it reveals just how gutless and desperate the power-brokers are when there's no one to do their bidding.The film still holds up (even with the much mentioned two directors)though it has that "back-lot"look to most of it.John Saxon has a brief but memorable piece of work in this must see film for western fans or good movie fans.