The Badge of Marshal Brennan ** (1957, Jim Davis, Arleen Whelan, Lee Van Cleef, Carl Smith, Harry Lauter, Marty Robbins, Douglas Fowley, Louis Jean Heydt, Lawrence Dobkin) – Classic Movie Review  13,515

‘MAN OF STEEL… OR TINHORN KILLER!’ The black and white Western film The Badge of Marshal Brennan stars Jim Davis, Arleen Whelan and Lee Van Cleef.

‘MAN OF STEEL… OR TINHORN KILLER! He had to make his play. ..He was running out of time and territory!’

Producer/ director Albert C Gannaway’s 1957 Allied Artists black and white American Western film The Badge of Marshal Brennan is written by Thomas G Hubbard, and stars Jim Davis, Arleen Whelan, Carl Smith, Harry Lauter, Marty Robbins, Douglas Fowley, Louis Jean Heydt, Lawrence Dobkin, and Lee Van Cleef.

Jim Davis stars as a man on the run, a gun-toting drifter known as the Stranger, who takes on the name and badge of dying Marshal Matt Brennan (Douglas Fowley) and proves his worth by sweeping away a town’s bad guys.

Davis and Lee Van Cleef – as violent baddie Shad Donaphin, son of cattle baron Colonel Donaphin (Louis Jean Heydt) – are worthy opponents and make this B-grade Western better than expected.

There is a feeble, familiar plot and a pretty poor production though, but, even so, it still entertains quite nicely. Arleen Whelan is stuck with the token woman role as Murdock, the beautiful local lady Stranger gets mixed up with, inevitably taking the film on a wrong turn from horse opera to soap opera.

It was partly shot in Kanab Canyon and Johnson Canyon in Utah.

The film was released by Allied Artists Pictures on 14 April 1957.

The Badge of Marshal Brennan is directed by Albert C Gannaway, runs 76 minutes, is made by Albert C Gannaway Productions, is released by Allied Artists, is written by Thomas G Hubbard [Tom Hubbard], is shot in black and white by Charles Straumer, is produced by Albert C Gannoway, and is scored by Ramey Idriss [Ramez Idriss].

The cast are Jim Davis as ‘Brennan’, Arleen Whelan as Murdock, Carl Smith as Sheriff Carl Smith, Harry Lauter as Doc Hale, Marty Robbins as Felipe, Douglas Fowley as Marshal Matt Brennan, Lee Van Cleef as Shad Donaphin, Louis Jean Heydt as Col. Donaphin, Lawrence Dobkin as Chicamon, and Eddie Crandall as Peey.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review  13,515

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