Star in the Dust (1956)

John Agar plays Bill Jordan, sheriff of Gunlock, and he’s in a heap of trouble. He has Sam Hall (Richard Boone), a gunman accused of three murders, in his jail, scheduled for hanging at sundown.

He has a mean group of cattlemen — headed by cattle king George Ballard (Leif Erickson) — itching to break Hall out of jail. And he has an angry group of farmers, led by local school teacher Rigdon, determined to see Hall hang.

If being caught between the two factions isn’t enough, Jordan has to contend with the fact that he’s engaged to the lovely Ellen Ballard (Mamie Van Doren), who’s unaware of her brother George’s treachery.

Fact is, he’s the one who put a $1,000 per head bounty on the farmers Hall killed.

Hall has a pair of letters to prove that point. He’s pretty certain they’ll be his ticket out of jail.

But Ballard convinces the wife of a fellow rancher that those letters pin all the blame on her husband, not him.

John Agar as Sheriff Bill Jordan, determined to find out who brought a killer to Gunlock and fearing it’s his fiancee’s brother in Star in the Dust (1956)

Richard Boone as Sam Hall, reacting to the sound of the gallows being tested in Star in the Dust (1956)

Review:

The film features a complicated plot, several unexpected twists, a larger than usual cast of characters and should be simmering with tension.

Oddly, it isn’t, and frequent interruption of the plot with a tepid theme song doesn’t help in that respect.

One of the film’s highlights is an extended catfight between Coleen Gray, who plays a local girl who fell for the gunman Hall, and Randy Stuart, who plays the wife of one of the ranchers. They’re fighting for possession of those aforementioned letters.

This marked the largest Western role for Mamie Van Doren. She’s had supporting roles in “Yankee Pasha” (1953) and “The Second Greatest Sex” (1955), then appeared in two foreign-made Westerns, “The Sheriff Was a Lady” (1964) and “Arizona Kid” (1970).

Mamie Van Doren as Ellen Ballard, forced to see things her brother’s way in Star in the Dust (1956)

Leif Erickson as George Ballard, Ellen’s brother and leader of the ranchers in Star in the Dust (1956)

Directed by:
Charles Hass

Cast:
John Agar … Sheriff Bill Jordan
Paul Fix … Mike MacNamara
Mamie Van Doren … Ellen Ballard
Leif Erickson … George Ballard
Richard Boone … Sam Hall
Coleen Gray … Nellie Matson
Henry Morgan … Lew Hogan
Randy Stuart … Nan Hogan
Terry Gilkyson … Music Man
Paul Fix … Mike MacNamara
Stuart Randall … Jess Ryman
John Daheim … Jiggs Larribee
James Gleason … Orval Jones

Song: “Ballad of Sam Hall,” sang by Terry Gilkyson

Runtime: 80 min.

Coleen Gray as Nellis Matson, getting directions from Sam Hall on how to help him break jail in Star in the Dust (1956)

Randy Stuart as Nan Hogan, Lew’s wife, bearing the marks from a catfight with Nellie Matson in Star in the Dust (1956)

Memorable lines:

Sam Hall, to his gal, Nellie, as he awaits his hanging: “Don’t worry, No one’s got a rope my size.”

Nellie to Ellen Ballard, who thinks she’s doing the shunned woman a favor by asking her to make her wedding dress: “About your trousseau, I can’t sew and cry at the same time.”

Ellen Ballard, upon seeing boyfriend Bill Jordan with a bruise on his face: “What happened?”
Bill: “I turned the tables and spanked the school teacher.”

Fellow inmate Jess Ryman: “Where’d you get the gun?”
Sam Hall: “I fished it out of the air with a spoon.”

John Agar as Sheriff Bill Jordan, trying to prevent open warefare between farmers and cattlemen on the streets of Gunlock in Star in the Dust (1956)

Mamie Van Doren as Ellen Ballard, wary of her brother’s suspicious activity in Star in the Dust (1956)

Paul Fix as Deputy Mike MacNamara, knowing the cattlemen want to free Sam Hall and the farmers wants to lynch him in Star in the Dust (1956)

Robert Osterloh as Rigdon, the school teacher who tries to rile the farmers into a lynch mob frenzy in Star in the Dust (1956)

Stanley Andrews as Ben Smith, a farmer looking for justice for a son killed by Sam Hall in Star in the Dust (1956)

Henry Morgan as Lew Hogan, one of the ranchers deterrmined to save Sam Hall from hanging in Star in the Dust (1956)

James Gleason as Orval Jones and Paul Fix as Deputy Mike MacNamara, watching the sheriff face the predicament of searching Nellie for weapons in Star in the Dust (1956)

Terry Gilkyson as the balladeer who sings the Ballad of Sam Hall as the drama plays out around him in Star in the Dust (1956)

Mamie Van Duren as Ellen Ballard, reacting to sudden turn of events with Sheriff Bill Jordan (John Agar) in Star in the Dust (1956)

John Agar as Sheriff Bill Jordan, ready for any unexpected visitor to his office while fiancee Ellen Ballard (Mamie Van Doren) hides behind him in Star in the Dust (1956)