People are voting emotionally.

Admirable film.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

One of the Things that Elevates This One to Slightly Above Average for a Fifties Western is the Ever Present, Ever Humble, Ever Dependable, Ever Demanding, Randolph Scott, the Western Icon Who was Immortalized for His Contribution to the Genre by Mel Brooks in "Blazing Saddles" (1974),Astute Fans of the Western Know That His Collaborations with Budd Boetticher are the Highlights of His 60 Westerns, and Of Course, No One Could Forget His Curtain Call in Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962).Angela Lansbury Does a Singing and Dancing Number, but Not Much Else. There is an Extended Fist Fight Between Scott's Marshall and a Hulk of Man (said to have killed a mountain lion with his bare hands because the cat scratched his face). Some Solid Supporting Actors Like Wallace Ford and Others, and the Steady Direction from Joseph H. Lewis Help Somewhat. This Beast of a Town is There to be Tamed by Scott, but He Needs the Help of the Townspeople to Be Successful. Will They Pitch In Before It's Too Late? Good Guess.Overall, Worth a Watch for Genre Fans. It's a Notch Above Standard Fare but Nothing that Special. Starting the Next Year Randolph Scott Starts the Ball Rolling with Some Very Special Stuff with Boettcher.

Marshal Randolph Scott is the only thing standing between the town of Medicine Bend and lawlessness. Corrupt businessmen in town hire gunmen to get Scott out of the way. Meanwhile, Scott's estranged wife Angela Lansbury shows up, having left him years before due to his violent lifestyle.Scott and Lansbury are fine. Solid support from Wallace Ford, Jeanette Nolan, and Michael Pate. One of Jean Parker's last movies. She's reduced to a minor part as a married woman having an affair with one of the villains. Predictable western. A couple of nice action scenes. Nothing special but a decent time-passer. Ending is pretty flat.

This is really no lesser an achievement than the renowned Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher Westerns; then again, director Lewis was no slouch (for he made his fair share of minor classics)! Scott's role is typical – a legendary marshal involved in a HIGH NOON (1952)-type situation, where he's practically left alone to clean up a town riddled with corruption and violence – but the underrated actor invests it with warmth, humor, tenacity and a quiet dignity. The star, then, is supported by a most excellent cast: Angela Lansbury (a fine actress but a rather unlikely chanteuse), James Bell (a usurped town leader), Jean Parker (an ageing belle and the latter's wife), Wallace Ford (predictably in the role of the reliable town doctor), Ruth Donnelly (as Scott's gracious elderly housekeeper), Jeanette Nolan (as the wife of a revenge-seeking ex-con whom Scott has killed in self-defense), and an interesting trio of villains – powerful boss Warner Anderson (who also fancies himself a ladies' man and, in fact, strikes up relationships with both Parker and Lansbury throughout), shifty but nervous gambler John Emery and smooth gunslinger Michael Pate (making for a worthy opponent to Scott).The above-average script by Kenneth Gamet (an in-joke shows the calendar in the hero's room as being sponsored by Gamet's Vegetable Compound!) gives characterization reasonable depth: Scott and Lansbury are married but she had left him because of his dangerous job (a situation which she has to live through again now); Scott tells Donnelly that he hears The Beast (which symbolizes the scourge of the town) every morning until it's replaced by church-bells at the end of the picture. The highlights – most of the action seems to take place in and around one particular saloon, though in a montage we're shown that Anderson's 'protection' extends to many others in town – include an energetic and brutal fistfight between the hero and a dim-witted giant (who subsequently joins forces with him), an astonishing shoot-out two-thirds of the way involving Scott and Pate which ends with the former left for dead, and the splendid extended climax. On top of it all is the pleasing cinematography by an expert in color lensing, Ray Rennahan.

This western has a good story and many excellent action scenes. There is quite a fistfight between the Marshal (Scott) and Dooley Brion (Don Megowan), a very strong guy. The gun duels are unusual and well staged. Marshal Calem Ware is a man who lives not knowing if he will survive that day, because of gunfighters that keep showing up to kill him. There are two women of strong character in the film: Tally (Angela Lansbury)who used to be the Marshal's wife but left him because she could not stand the constant fear and Cora who is the wife of Asaph Dean, and the mistress of Hamer Thorne. Thorne wants to take Asaph's place as the most important man in town. I enjoyed every minute of this film which was probably influenced by "High Noon" and must have influenced "The Fastest Gun Alive".