Abilene Town Review

Abilene Town (1946) (DVD)

Director: Edwin L. Marin

**1/2 Rating

With the people of the United States stretching out across the new lands gained by America, came a conflict that would cause great blood shed. Would this land be used by cattlemen, with large herds moving through it or homesteaded by farmers growing acres of food? The sheriff of these newly formed towns had the thankless task of policing cowboys and farmers that would rather fight and kill one another, than share the land peacefully.  

The plot follows Marshall Dan Mitchell (Randolph Scott), who has just become the law in Abilene Town. Abilene Town, the biggest cattle towns in the west, is on the brink of war between cattlemen and the newly arrived homesteaders. They lay stalk in the town and are met by cowboys raiding and burning their farms. Along with the cattlemen and homesteaders, lead by Henry Deiser (Lloyd Bridges), Mitchell also has to deal with his love life.

This a film that has everything you'd expect from a western. Loads of gunplay and fist fights and even a love triangle between Mitchell, Saloon singer Ann Dvorak and storekeeper's daughter Rhonda Fleming. Not too much of a stretch to figure out who he chooses. My biggest problem with this film is that the director didn't want the audience to take the story too seriously. Edgar Buchanan's county sheriff was more of a buffoon then the comic relief and Dvorak seems promising, but spends most of her time singing. Between the comedy, the romance, and the sing, there wasn't much time left for character and plot development. A very watchable western, but could have been better.