A Day of Fury (1956)

Two of television's best known cowboy heroes, Dale Robertson from Tales Of Wells Fargo and the Range Rider Jock Mahoney star in this unusual western about a town full of hypocrites. Imagine High Noon had we probed a bit deeper into the town of Hadleyville and its citizens who would not back up Gary Cooper and you have A Day Of Fury.Notorious gunslinger Robertson arrives in the town and the townspeople are righteously aroused. They want Marshal Mahoney to just run this guy out of town. But Mahoney's life was once saved by him and with no wants or warrants out on him, Robertson is a free man until he actually commits a crime.Which works out fine as Robertson bit by bit turns things around completely and it's the marshal these fine citizens turn on. You have to see how he does it, more I will not say. There's also the complicating factor that Mahoney's fiancé Mara Corday has history with Robertson.A trio of standout supporting performances come from Jan Merlin as a local tough, John Dehner as the town minister, and most of all Dee Carroll as the spinster school teacher who is a repressed and tragic figure.Mahoney and Robertson have some good chemistry in their scenes. A nice mixture of antagonism and respect goes into their dialog.A Day Of Fury is a real sleeper of a western. Caught it by accident almost, glad I did.

Dale Robertson has always been a great actor, and Jock Mahoney was one of the most talented horseman, stuntman, and gunslinger in Hollywood. This movie was not right for Dale Robertson, because he was always better than this. I don't really know how Jan Merlin fit in at all. We were never told he and Dale were old friends. However, the female role Mara Cordey,threw me. I thought for certain that she was Margaret Field (or later Maggie Mahoney) who became Jocks real wife. I had to check that out to make sure she didn't use another name. Margaret did some acting in Mahoney westerns so I was sure that was her. I couldn't tell the difference...but I guess Jock could. Her role did make the movie interesting. I never say Mahoney in a bad movie, and my favorite was Slim Carter.

To challenge b&w TV, Universal turned out a number of these Technicolor B-westerns in the mid- 1950's. I don't know why they bothered with color here since the action seldom leaves town. Except for the opening scene, it looks like the entire movie was shot on the Universal lot, with no colorful vistas to spice up the visuals. That might be okay if the screenplay weren't so talky or if Jock Mahoney as the marshal could work up some emotion. Too bad he and the comely Corday appear to be walking through their respective roles. Then too, one of the great sneering punks of the period, Jan Merlin, is largely wasted in a weak role. Dale Robertson as the bad guy manages to show some life, but gets little help from director Jones who appears unengaged except for the sequence of Billy (Merlin) fleeing town, which happily shows some imagination. Actually, having a moral debt to the bad guy as the movie's premise has real dramatic possibility. But that would have taken a better director and a more motivated cast. As things stand, it's only an average oater, at best.

This movie was similar to Audie Murphy's "No Name On The Bullet," but it was better....but not by a whole lot. It was still too talky for a western.The hero of the story, played by Jock Mahoney, was very bland and the female lead, played by Mara Corday, also offered little. The villain was the only interesting character. Dale Robertson played him. Mahoney and Robertson went on to star with TV westerns that were good.The movie is only 72 minutes but really doesn't a whole lot, story-wise. You might see it on TV as it has never been issued on VHS or DVD. Since it's a free look, fine, but I don't think you'll be too impressed.