THE TIN STAR, one of eleven westerns Anthony Mann directed between 1950 and 1960, was one of three 1957 properties featuring Anthony Perkins, joining another western (The Lonely Man) and a contemporary drama (Fear Strikes Out) as vehicles for the offbeat 25-year-old to test his box office appeal. Though reviewers applauded, none of the three caught much fire from the public; this one ranked 90th with a gross of $2,700,000. It did scoop an Oscar nomination for Best Story. Henry Fonda, 52, has the lead role. He’s rock solid as ever, but the year brought him a stronger role in a much more memorable film, 12 Angry Men. *

When laconic bounty hunter ‘Morg Hickman’ (Fonda) comes into (the generic) town bearing the corpse of a recently most-wanted killer, he gets a chilly reception from the ‘good folks’. He’s bemused to discover their sheriff is the callow ‘Ben Owens’ (Perkins), dismayed to learn that hospitable widow ‘Nona Mayfield’ (Betsy Palmer) is scorned because her little boy’s father was an Indian, and can quickly see that Ben doesn’t stand much chance against ‘Bart Bogardus’ (Neville Brand), racist and local bully. Some lessons in are order.

MORG: “I notice you’re wearin’ your guns too low.”   BEN: “That’s the way Sheriff Parker wore his.”   MORG: “Parker’s dead.”

The show has a good (make that outsized) rep: Mann called it “a fair film” and we side with him. Fonda’s fine, Brand readily covers the bad guy slot, but twitchy Perkins isn’t a comfortable fit (plus the character’s naivete is more than a bit much) and the too-talky production resembles a somewhat more elaborate TV show rather than a compelling feature picture. Based on the scads of rhapsodic reviews on the Netscape (half of them frankly smell AI generated) we’re in the minority on this one, but that’s the way the cards cut: it bored me as a tyke and doesn’t wow me much as an old hand.

Still, Fonda’s calm, dryly honest delivery registers and warm Palmer, who deserved bigger stardom, gets a quality scene explaining her feelings to Fonda.   NONA: “I’m just so used to everybody hatin’ Indians.”   MORG: “We’re raised that way.”   NONA: “Well I wasn’t. My father was an Indian agent. He respected Indians. He liked them. So did I. I grew up with some who were really fine men.”   MORG: “When you grow up hating’em, you don’t get rid of it easy.”  NONA: “I know. They say the only good Indian is a dead Indian. When they find one with a man’s pride and courage, to stand up as an equal—they kill him. And it isn’t called murder. They’ve just made him a good Indian. And it doesn’t even end there…not when there’s a boy to hate–and a woman to take it out on.”

Barney Slater (Mister Scoutmaster, Gorilla At Large) and Joel Kane were the fellows who came up with the Oscar-nominated story. Dudley Nichols (Stagecoach, The Big Sky) wrote the screenplay, Loyal Griggs manned the camera, rising light Elmer Bernstein gave it an okay music score. With Michel Ray, John McIntire and Lee Van Cleef. Keen buffs will spot Howard Petrie, Russell Simpson, Frank Cady, Mickey Finn and Frank McGrath. 93 minutes.

* This was Fonda’s seventh western, and it had hard acts to follow: The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine, Jesse James, The Return Of Frank James, The Ox-Bow Incident, My Darling Clementine and Fort Apache. His eighth, 1959’s Warlock, came out while he started a two-year TV run in The Deputy. Back in the saddle a few years later for How The West Was Won, he then added to the genre with A Big Hand For The Little Lady, Welcome To Hard Times, Firecreek, Once Upon A Time In The West, The Cheyenne Social Club, There Was A Crooked Man…and My Name Is Nobody.