La ciudad indomable

An average and low-budgeted motion picture by prolific Lesley Selander , filled with presences of old Western-movie . Kansas 1879 , the life of sheriff Tom Rosser (Dana Andrews) , takes a turn when a bullet meant for him , from the gun of an outlaw called Lee Ring (Lyle Bettger) , kill's Rosser's spouse, Carol (Coleen Gray) , instead. Ring, had been sent by nasty Riley Condor (Bruce Cabot) , to kill Marshal Rosser . Two years later , the latter goes to Montana , supposedly to look over lands to but his agenda is to murder Condor and his gunslinging henchmen ; he then will use the law to eliminate him . Once there , he has to straighten out a few bad guys (Richard Jaeckel , Phil Carey , DeForest Kelley) led by Bruce Cabot . Rosser gets involved in shootouts , gun-play and betrayal . There he uncovers a land-grabbing plot led by the pillar of the community and Saloon owner . As Rosser is in town and Condor realizes that his hoodlums are no match for him , and he sets in motion a scheme to finish his power .

This ordinary and sometimes laughable western is plenty of thrills , go riding , shootouts and suspense as the dreaded final showdown approaches and the protagonist realizes he must stand alone against impossible odds , as his fellow town people for help , nobody is willing to help him ; meanwhile he attempts to clear a dark issue . This routine Western has the customary story of a sheriff-for-hire who takes the law on his own hands and based on a story and screenplay by expert Frank Gruber. It begins as a slow-moving Western but follows to surprise us with dark characters and passable plot . This short runtime tale is almost ordinary , a pacifier comes to a town just in time to make sure its citizenry but later the events get worse . Although made in low budget by the producer A.C. Lyles , it has its good moments here and there . Acceptable acting by Dana Andrews as a town-taming gunman-for-hire who takes a dangerous job . Notable for the presence of old Western-movie veteran such as Pat O'Brien ,Lon Chaney Jr. , Bruce Cabot , Lyle Bettger , Richard Arlen , Richard Jaeckel , Philip Carey , Sonny Tufts , Coleen Gray , DeForest Kelley ,Don 'Red' Barry , Barton MacLane , Bob Steele , and James Brown . Atmospheric and colorful cinematography in Technicolor , though is necessary a remastering.

This horse opera was realized in low-budget by producer A.C. Lyles and distributed by Paramount Pictures . Lyles produced a lot of Western in short or average budget such as ¨Black spurs¨(1965) , ¨Apache uprising¨(1966); ¨Johnny Reno¨ , ¨Waco¨ , ¨Red Tomahawk ¨and ¨Hostile guns¨(67) , among others ; many of them directed by R.G. Springsteen or Lesley Selander and starred by old glories such as Dana Andrews , Rory Calhoun , George Montgomery and Howard Keel . This quickie was middlingly directed by Lesley Selander , a craftsman working from the 30s . Selander is generally considered to be the most prolific director of feature Westerns of all time, with at least 107 to his credit between 1935 and 1967 . He realized his first feature in 1936, a horse opera , genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spent much of the rest of his career . He began in this genre with series starred by Buck Jones and ¨Hopalong Cassidy¨ series starred by William Boyd such as ¨Silver on the sage¨ , ¨Three men from Texas¨ and ¨Wide open town¨. In Republic production he directed his better movies such as ¨Panhandle¨and ¨Stampede¨ starred by Rod Cameron and in RKO he directed Tim Holt in 20 films such as ¨Rio Grande patrol¨ and ¨Overland telegraph¨. He subsequently shot B-movies such as ¨Fort Vengeance¨, ¨Arrow in the desert¨, Shotgun¨, ¨Town tamer¨ and his last picture ¨Texas Kid¨. Although Selander couldn't be deemed an "A"-list director, his movies had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked . He also filmed detective thrillers , action/adventure motion pictures and even a horror film or two . Rating : 5,5 . Acceptable and passable , though mediocre ; being of interest for star-watching only .

Oh, I love this movie. For all the wrong reasons. It's a creaking, crawling mess of clichés, enlivened by a geriatric cast. Town Tamer is surprisingly bloody (without the actual blood, of course). It all looks like a mid-sixties (and I mean that in more than one way) TV western with Dana Andrews and crew appearing to be dying from dyspepsia.

And yet, you might pick up on the ease in which all these many veteran actors and actresses fall--or totter--into their respective parts. I guess I have a weakness for movies that beg the MST3000 treatment.

If you ever get to see it, I'd suggest cutting out a silhouette of the guy and the two robots and taping them to the bottom of your TV screen.

C'mon, it'll be fun.

Town Tamer can only get better.

Producer A.C. Lyles made a spate of westerns in the mid-'60s that employed a lot of veteran actors who were, frankly, too old to get work anywhere else. While it was nice of him to give them jobs, the least he could have done was to not embarrass them, and I'm afraid that's what most of these movies do, especially this one. It's about a marshal hired to clean up a town, and the troubles he has and some long-ago secrets he's afraid might come out. Dana Andrews, like pretty much everyone else in this picture, is too old for the part; he was almost 60 when he made this, and age and a lifetime of drinking problems (which he has freely admitted to) had taken a toll on his physical appearance. He's just not even remotely believable as the kind of fast gun you'd hire to clean up your town. Although the cast is filled with old veterans, only a few of them, notably Lyle Bettger, can muster up the energy to turn in good performances. It's not their fault, of course, and the hack script and limp direction by Lesley Selander (who himself was 65 years old by then and had been making B westerns for more than 30 years) doesn't help either. The film has the look of someone who got some old friends together and said, "Let's make a western." While that may be a nice gesture, it doesn't make for a good movie. This one isn't. Avoid it.

1965's "Town Tamer" was the fifth of producer A. C. Lyles' run of 13 Paramount B-Westerns from the mid 60s, and one of the best, with a cast filled with more veteran performers than usual (Sonny Tufts?). Author Frank Gruber adapted from his own novel, starring Dana Andrews in the title role of Tom Rosser, whose wife (Coleen Gray) was accidentally shot by hired gun Les Ring (Lyle Bettger), on behalf of gambling house troublemaker Riley Condor (Bruce Cabot). Years later, Rosser is hired by businessman James Fenimore Fell (Barton MacLane) to take down Condor in a different town, where the corrupt judge (Pat O'Brien) and lawmen are in his pocket, leaving the citizens to hope that Rosser will succeed; if not, vigilantism will become the last dreaded resort. The most intriguing aspect is the town marshal, Les Parker, the very same gunman who murdered Rosser's wife, his unpredictable behavior keeping both sides guessing. Lon Chaney, now 5 for 5 for Lyles, enjoys a major role as Mayor Charlie Leach, who doubles as livery stable owner, Richard Arlen returns as town doctor, Richard Jaeckel makes for a despicable deputy, Bob Steele, Philip Carey, and Roger Torrey among Condor's men. In his second of four Lyles Westerns, DeForest Kelley often told the story of how he was doubled in an early fight scene opposite Dana Andrews, and how Michael Landon volunteered to do it without permission, and with his back to the camera remains easily recognizable taking the spills! (they just happened to be shooting on the same sets as his BONANZA series).

Barton Maclane used to own all the land around, but he sold off a lot of it to build a town, and is having a railroad built to it. But wile he's been working on that, saloon owner Bruce Cabot and his pals have taken over the town, installing a corrupt judge and marshal. So Maclane hires retired town tamer Dana Andrews to come in and settle things down. Andrews is agreeable, but what he wants is to kill the man who hired a killer to kill him, and who killed his wife by accident. That man is Cabot.

But the honest folks in town aren't lined up neatly behind Maclane. Some of them want to form a vigilante group, and Maclane and Andrews know that's a cure that can be worse than the disease.

It's a fine and intelligently written script by Frank Gruber, with many moving parts. The story is that Gary Cooper owned it, but he died several years earlier, and A. C. Lyles produced this version as one of the "geezer westerns" he did for Paramount at the time, with a lot of old-line talent, including Terry Moore, Pat O'Brien, Lon Chaney Jr., Richard Arlen, and DeForest Kelly. Lesley Selander, no stranger to the B western, directs efficiently, but the good script and practiced performers come through.