The Kansan ** (1943, Richard Dix, Albert Dekker, Jane Wyatt, Eugene Pallette, Victor Jory, Robert Armstrong) – Classic Movie Review 13,387

‘SMASHING FISTS AND CRASHING BULLETS OF DESPERATE MEN IN LOVE.’ The 1943 Western film The Kansan is based on the novel Peace Marshal by Frank Gruber, and stars Richard Dix, Albert Dekker and Jane Wyatt.

‘SMASHING FISTS AND CRASHING BULLETS… OF DESPERATE MEN IN LOVE! BOISTERIOUS! BRAWLING! THRILLING! EXCITING!’

Director George Archainbaud’s 1943 Western film The Kansan is based on the novel Peace Marshal by Frank Gruber, and stars Richard Dix, Albert Dekker, Jane Wyatt, Eugene Pallette, Victor Jory, and Robert Armstrong.

Richard Dix plays a heroic Civil War veteran drifter called John Bonniwell, who reluctantly takes over as a Kansas marshal as elected sheriff of Broken Lance and battles the bad guys (the Hatton gang, led by Gil Hatton, played by Francis McDonald)  and the wicked town boss Steve Barat (Albert Dekker).

This may be just a standard B-picture oater but it has spirited performances and a helpful music score by Gerard Carbonara to move it along. Harold Shumate’s careful screenplay is better plotted and written than most B-Westerns, and the production is better budgeted too. The film runs quite smoothly, with a lively tone and a brisk pace, plus a stalwart hero in Dix. The sympathetic Jane Wyatt plays Eleanor Sager, the young owner of the only hotel in town. But it is Albert Dekker who is the film’s hit turn as the uncrowned king of Broken Lance.

Produced by Harry Sherman as a Sherman Action Special, it is one of 21 movies produced by the production company Harry Sherman Productions for Paramount Pictures and released under a deal by product-starved United Artists.

It was renamed Wagon Wheels in the UK.

Release date: September 10, 1943,

Running time: 79 minutes.

Albert Dekker, Jane Wyatt, and Victor Jory in The Kansan (1943).

The cast

The cast are Richard Dix as John Bonniwell, Jane Wyatt as Eleanor Sager, Albert Dekker as Steve Barat, Eugene Pallette as Tom Waggoner, Victor Jory as Jeff Barat, Robert Armstrong as Malachy, Beryl Wallace as Soubrette, Clem Bevans as Clem, Hobart Cavanaugh as Mayor Josh Hudkins, Francis McDonald as Gil Hatton, Willie Best as Bones, Douglas Fowley as Ben Nash, Rod Cameron as Kelso, Eddy Waller as Ed Gilbert, Ray Bennett as Messenger, Jason Robards Sr as Bank Teller, George Reeves as Jesse James, Forrest Taylor as Doctor, Jack Norton as Saloon Drunk, Sam Flint, Glenn Strange, Byron Foulger, Walter Baldwin, Ralph Bucko, Art Felix, Robert Frazer, Beatrice Gray, Herman Hack, Al Haskell, Fred Kohler Jr, Pierce Lyden, Frank McCarroll, Jack Mulhall, Dewey Robinson, and Dan White.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,387

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com