THE TIN STAR (1957)

SHORT REVIEW: A western with Anthony Perkins as a young sheriff. Sure, why not. It’s better than that time they had a young Liberace in that war flick leading the troops into the assault on Iwo Jima. “C’mon girls, get’em!” I spent most of the movie shaking my head. Anthony Perkins in a western. In a way, it works. The film is about a rough and tumble bounty hunter (played by a seemingly bored Henry Fonda) who tutors a scared and inexperienced sheriff as he faces down the bad guys. Essentially, this is the bargain bin version of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Having the young sheriff slightly mincing about makes sense within the context of the film. He's running around playing Brokeback Mountain: The Home Game while the bad guys are razing the city. I can buy that. There isn’t a problem with this film not raising the stakes high enough. Life and death are on the line. The problem is that the lives on the line are of no interest. The characters in this film are so lifeless that one could mistake them for the undead. The scenes come off as predetermined and clunky as the characters trudge toward the inevitable final confrontation with the nemesis and we all know how this ends. There are no surprises. The only one element that is of interest is the opening. Henry Fonda opens the film by riding into town with a dead man on the back of his horse. The imagery and the way it is shot offer a few seconds that hint something of note is going to take place. Nothing does, we’re left with stilted dialog and forced blocking. With a film such as Winchester ’73 under his belt, one would hope that director Anthony Mann would be able to steer a production such as this into a more fruitful direction. We have no such luck. Other than the issue of the young sheriff wearing a pink triangle instead of a tin star, there is nothing remarkable about this film. RELATED REVIEWS: Winchester '73 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance The Ox-Bow Incident Categories: film, movie, DVD, review, Anthony Perkins, Anthony Mann, Henry Fonda, Tin Star, western