Town Tamer (1965)

Town Tamer (1965)

Plot Summary

The life of Tom Rosser a town-taming gunman-for-hire, takes a turn when a bullet meant for him kills Rosser's wife Carol instead. The killer had been sent by the ruthless Kansas gang leader, Riley Condor to kill Rosser. The latter goes to Great Plains after being hired to clean up the town but his agenda is to kill Condor. Word gets around that Rosser is in town and Condor realizes that his gunslinging henchmen, Horsinger, Tavenner, Slim Akins, Flon and Ring, are no match for Rosser and he sets in motion a plan that will use the law to eliminate him.

It's time to break out the Geritol folks!

This movie was produced by A.C. Lyles who is best known for producing a run of "geezer" westerns in the mid '60s as he hired a lot of older actors who quite frankly were having a tough time finding roles in Hollywood. Something like this is bound to be pretty embarrassing and indeed some of the Lyles films definitely fall into that category however I found this flick to be mildly enjoyable and the script isn't too bad. 

The movie had some very good stars who were obviously fading away starting with the leading man Dana Andrews who was 60 years old yet playing a part meant for someone 20-30 years younger than his age. The heavy of the piece was played by Bruce Cabot who despite his age gave a very credible performance as a gang leader who had his finger in just about everything in the town as he had control of the marshal played by Lyle Bettger who gave an energetic and somewhat nuanced performance and most of the business folk. Some of the other names in the cast were familiar but long past their prime like Lon Chaney Jr, Barton MacLane and Richard Arlen. Despite this the movie moves along at a good pace and the acting is at the very least passable. The film also boasts a great one scene performance by Pat O'Brien who plays an absolutely corrupt judge hired by Condor to render a guilty verdict on Rosser. I wish there were more scenes of O'Brien in this.

The story is basically a revenge story as Rosser is hired by James Fell (MacLane) who's a railroad magnate who is building a railroad so that the town can grow and become a place for immigrants and their families to raise their children. Rosser accepts the job but his real motivation is to avenge his wife's death by killing Condor (Cabot) and the man he hired. Rosser is pretty much persona non grata with Condor's people running the town but cozies up with Charlie Leach (Chaney Jr.) and Doctor Kent (Arlen) who are among the folks that want to clean up the town. Leach advocates a more direct approach while Rosser is trying to do things his own way by goading Condor into provoking a fight so he can get away with killing him in "self defense".

Condor gets wind of Rosser being in town and tries to get information by having a two bit gambler Tavenner (played by De Forrest Kelley) use his wife to get info from Rosser on what he's doing and why he's there. Rosser pretty much figures out what's going on but Condor finds out the true reason of why he's there and it becomes a situation where Condor uses his hired Marshal (Bettger) and his flunkies to get Rosser by any means necessary.

The interplay between Andrews and Cabot is pretty good IMO as you really feel the hatred that these two characters have but the real strength of the film is the cagey relationship between Andrews and Bettger. See, there's a twist (not to the viewer but to Andrews' character) in that the marshal is the guy that killed Rosser's wife by accident. Rosser, of course doesn't know this and the marshal has a LOT of guilt going on so he's basically trying to uphold the law because he wants to be fair to Rosser but at the same time he's under the thumb of Condor. It's a fascinating piece of character building that one ordinarily wouldn't see in a B western but it works here. The movie is worth it just for these three characters and the acting of those three. Andrews and Cabot are a bit listless but Bettger is giving it his all and as he's seen a lot in the film it adds some vitality.

The movie was directed by Lesley Selander who by this point had 30 years of B Western directing to his credit. He was always known as a guy who could push the pace of his movies and keep it interesting even if the story wasn't so great so while the movie feels like a group of old actors making a western for kicks it does have a good pace to it and the scenes are generally staged well. Selander BTW, is a director that Quentin Tarantino has been on record as being one of his influences and someone he respected for what he did behind the camera.

I give this about ** out of ***** stars. It's not bad, but it's not any great shakes either. I do think the material would've been MUCH better with a younger cast especially when you have scenes where MacLane is crying about how they can't form a vigilante group because that'd kill the wave of immigration into the town. It's a bit laughable because just about EVERYONE is an old fart and the youngest cast member of note is in his mid 30s!