Showdown at Abilene ** (1956, Jock Mahoney, Lyle Bettger, Martha Hyer) – Classic Movie Review 9696

The 1956 Western film Showdown at Abilene provides a fair level of entertainment, in which presumed dead Civil War soldier Jim Trask (Jock Mahoney) comes home to Abilene, Kansas, where he had been sheriff, to find things awry. 

‘THE BLAZING STORY OF THE GREAT ABILENE RANGE WAR!’

Director Charles F Haas’s 1956 workaday Western film Showdown at Abilene provides a fair level of entertainment from a short story by Clarence Upson Young, in which a presumed dead, battle-sick American Civil War soldier called Jim Trask (Jock Mahoney) comes home to Abilene, Kansas, where he had been sheriff, to find things awry.

His old buddy Dave Mosely (Lyle Bettger) has gone off with his former girlfriend Peggy Bigelow (Martha Hyer), and land-grabber Mosely has commandeered the countryside from the scared local farmers. So Mahoney (who killed Mosely’s brother by mistake in the Civil War) becomes a lawman again to help the farmers battle Bettger and get his sweetheart back.

Another stock Western plot is rehashed to moderate effect. The performances are on the lacklustre side, but Universal Pictures’ handsome Technicolor production helps.

Also in the cast are Grant Williams, Ted de Corsia, Harry Harvey Sr, Dayton Lummis, Richard H Cutting, Robert G Anderson, John Maxwell, and Lane Bradford.

It is remade with significant plot changes in 1967 as Gunfight in Abilene, with Bobby Darin, Emily Banks and Leslie Nielsen.

Showdown at Abilene is directed by Charles F Haas, runs 80 minutes, is made by Universal Pictures, is released by Universal International Pictures (1956) (US) and J Arthur Rank Film Distributors (1956) (UK), is written by Bernie Giler, based on a short story by Clarence Upson Young, is shot in Technicolor by Irving Glassberg, is produced by Howard Christie, and is scored by Joseph Gershenson.

Haas recalled about Jock Mahoney: ‘Stunts were easy for him, but as an actor he lacked a certain energy. So I had David Janssen leaning against a door in every scene. He never understood why. The reason was, if I hadn’t had him leaning against a door in every scene that he was in, he would have outdone Mahoney, who was the star.’

The cast are Jock Mahoney as Jim Trask, Martha Hyer as Peggy Bigelow, Lyle Bettger as Dave Mosely, David Janssen as Verne Ward, Grant Williams as Chip Tomlin, Ted de Corsia as Dan Claudius, Harry Harvey Sr as Ross Bigelow, Dayton Lummis as Jack Bedford, Richard H Cutting as Nelson, Robert G Anderson as Sprague, John Maxwell as Frank Scovie, and Lane Bradford as Loop

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9696

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