The Tin Star
1957·United States·93 min.
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Anthony Mann made some of the greatest Westerns of the 1950s, all in partnership with James Stewart. Perhaps needing to prove himself as his own man, in 1957 Mann dropped out of Night Passage to do this film. It's a rather schematic character study about a lawman-turned-bounty-hunter (Henry Fonda) who undertakes the professional shaping-up of an effete young sheriff (Anthony Perkins) too tentative to police the streets of his town. Those streets are compositionally present right outside the oversize window of the office where Perkins undergoes a lot of his soul-searching and arguments with Fonda. That's typical of the film--scrupulously designed, yet abstract to the point of dramatic aridity.
DirectorAnthony Mann
ScreenwriterDudley Nichols
MusicElmer Bernstein
CinematographyLoyal Griggs
CastHenry Fonda·Anthony Perkins·Betsy Palmer·Michel Ray·Mary Webster·Neville Brand·John McIntire·Peter Baldwin·Lee Van Cleef·Howard Petrie·James Bell·Richard ShannonShow all
Original titleThe Tin Star