A Lawless Street *** (1955, Randolph Scott, Angela Lansbury, John Emery, Warner Anderson, James Bell, Jean Parker) – Classic Movie Review 13,648

Randolph Scott and Angela Lansbury star in director Joseph H Lewis’s 1955 American Columbia Pictures Technicolor Western film A Lawless Street.

The film is also known as The Marshal of Medicine Bend in the US, the title of Brad Ward’s 1953 source novel.

Randolph Scott stars as Calem Ware, the marshal of Medicine Bend in 1874, and Angela Lansbury plays his old flame, Tally Dickenson, performing at the local music hall.

Co-starring are John Emery as saloon owner Cody Clark, Warner Anderson as music hall owner Hamer Thorne, James Bell as wealthy rancher Asaph Dean, Jean Parker as his lonely, middle-aged wife Cora Dean, and Michael Pate as hired gunman Harley Baskam.

Basically, Marshal Calem Ware has a lot of villains to run out of town. There’s not much more to it than that.

Randolph Scott is way too old for his character but soldiers manfully on, and Angela Lansbury is hardly at her best, basically wasted here, though there are good villains in Warner Anderson and Michael Pate. The film is no more than a standard, routine mid-Fifties Western, with a regulation, though passable plot (screenplay by Kenneth Gamet), and some capable handling. But thanks to the cast and director the film is a small cult item, and Ray Rennahan’s Technicolor cinematography and the short running time of 78 minutes certainly help.

Scott and Lewis reunited for 7th Cavalry (1956).

Scott and Anderson also appeared together in Santa Fe (1951).

Scott later appeared in Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (1957).

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,648

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