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Dan Mitchell: I understand you filed for reelection next fall, Bravo.
Sheriff Bravo Trimble: Yeah, they talked me into it. I figured on opening up a saloon or maybe going back to practicing dentistry. But somebody has got to keep law and order in the county.
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Rita: You ought to grow a beard, too.
Dan Mitchell: When you wear a sun bonnet and apron, I'll grow a beard.
Rita: When I wear a sun bonnet and apron, I'll grow a beard.
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Dan Mitchell: Now, Bravo, I thought we were old friends.
Sheriff Bravo Trimble: We are, Dan, we are. But you got the idea that you ought to kick up a fuss about things that are going to happen anyway. I don't figure it that way. A man's got to live. Cows get lost, sometimes accidents happen and fellas get killed. Why get hot under the collar about I? And why go hunting for fellas that don't want to be found?
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Dan Mitchell: The opinion in town is... you won't last long.
Hannaberry: The opinion here is... we will.
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Chet Younger: You've been out looking for the man who stuck up the train?
Sheriff Bravo Trimble: I figure I got more trail dust than he did dollars.
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Dan Mitchell: I saw a motto on a sundial once that said: it's always later than you think
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Rita: You know, I think what I like least about you is you're so sure of yourself.
Dan Mitchell: When a man rides down the middle of Texas Street, confidence is all he's got.
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Dan Mitchell: Funny, you never know who's going to fire the first shot until the fight begins.
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Rita: I don't know whether you joined us or we joined you, but it's good to be together.
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Sherry Balder: Oh, Dan, if you care anything about me at all, take me away.
Dan Mitchell: Sherry, I... I wouldn't be any good to you running away. Being afraid would take half the fun out of life for me.
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Amazon.com
Stiff-as-a-board town marshal Randolph Scott, with his laconic drawl and smiling as if at some personal joke, is the moral authority of an end-of-the-trail frontier town in this surprisingly intriguing 1946 Western. The community is literally split down the middle--shops and churches line one side of main street, saloons and taverns the other--and Abilene's citizens tolerate the rowdy, rough-and-tumble antics of trail hands and rambunctious cowboys as long as they remain on their side of the street. Lloyd Bridges plays the leader of a flock of newly arrived settlers who inadvertently tip the uneasy balance when they string up the open range and draw the fire of the cattlemen, who bring their reign of terror into the town. Edwin L. Marin's professional (if pedestrian) direction keeps the film plugging along, but the smart script, an ingeniously mercenary climactic battle plan, and a defiantly righteous performance from Bridges give the film bite. Hellfire in heels dance-hall girl Ann Dvorak's love-hate relationship with Scott provides comic sparks and a potent challenge to his chaste courting of shop girl Rhonda Fleming. Edgar Buchanan is suitably dry as a cowardly, card-playing county sheriff who knows the value of a voting constituency. --Sean Axmaker
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