The Marshal (2019)

Ken Arnold plays Bill Tilghman, a famed lawman who has settled into a quiet family life in a West that, by 1915, is no longer all that wild.

Then movie producer William N. Selig arrives in Fort Bowers, Oklahoma, where Tilghman’s still the law.

Selig is determined to capture the Wild West flavor on film, in part by having real Western heroes and villains appear in his next project.

He makes Tilghman an offer he can’t refuse. And then he takes Tilghman to the local territorial prison to hand-pick his villains for a film in which they will pretend to rob a bank and the lawman will pretend to apprehend them.

Turns out Cole Younger (Darby Hinton) is imprisoned there. So are several inmates with grudges against Tilghman, including a man named Murphy (Richard Cutting).

Ah, and the film will also star Frank James (Robert Carradine). Upon learning that bit of information, Tilghman begins to wonder if the film is a good idea, regardless of salary.

Reunite Frank James and Cole Younger, and you’re just asking for trouble, he figures.

Sure enough, the former outlaws begin to wonder how they can turn a movie bank robbery into a real bank robbery.

And Murphy begins to wonder if he can turn a movie role into a chance to get revenge against the man who put him in prison.

Ken Arnold as Bill Tilghman, the lawman about to go Hollywood in The Marshal (2019)

Darby Hinton as Cole Younger, spotting trouble on the horizon in The Marshal (2019)

Review:

An interesting idea, based on a 1915 film “Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws” in which Tilghman and former outlaws actually participated.

Unfortunately, this cast and crew isn’t quite up to the task of pulling it off.

Oh, the movie isn’t bad once the director shouts action. But the first hour is filled with pointless or overlong scenes and way too many bit parts filled by folks who have no business in front of a camera.

The oft tongue-in-cheek tone helps some. So does a decent score. And solid performances from Arnold and Hinton as Tilghman and Younger, respectively.

As or the rest of the cast, yep, that’s the Lana Wood — Plenty O’Toole in the 1971 James Bond vehicle “Diamonds Are Forever” — as the mom of two of the villains. And, yep, that’s Johnny Crawford — Chuck Connors’ son in “The Rifleman” — in a bit role as William S. Hart.

This movie was originally named “Bill Tilghman and the Outlaws.” Then someone decided to rename it “The Marshal” for DVD release. Except marshal was embarrassingly misspelled marshall on the DVD cover, an error that’s since been corrected on the One-Eyed Horse Productions website.

Robert Carradine as Frank James, remembering the good old days in The Marshal (2019)

Richard Cutting as Murphy, the man with a grudge in The Marshal (2019)

Directed by:
Joe Cornet

Cast:
Ken Arnold … Bill Tilghman
Darby Hinton … Cole Younger
Robert Carradine … Frank James
Richard Cutting … Murphy
Kathy Searle … Zoe Tilghman
Johnny Alonso … Big Joe
Lana Wood … Ms. Darling
John Buttram … Boyd
Don Collier … Red
Mathew Greer … William
Johnny Crawford … William S. Hart
Christine Nelson … Melody Selig
Marge Bowers … Edith Hathaway
Robert Neal Marshall … William N. Selig
Brian St. August … Wolfgang Gulman
Mark Cardinale … Pepper
Marc Goodman … Bat Masterson
Jesse Milliner … Chicken Man, aka John Russell

Runtime: 116 min.

Songs: “Hell’s Train,” “The Ballad of St. Anne’s Reel,” “Bad Man Road,” “The Walk Home” and “Movin'” performed by The Walker Avenue Gang
“Wait ‘Till the Sun Shines, Nellie” performed by The Four Plaids
“Izzy’s Hurricane” performed by Edna Searles and The Walker Avenue Gang
“One More Round” by Steve Lowe

Kathy Searle as Zoe Tilghman, a sheriff’s wife not afraid of gunplay in The Marshal (2019)

Jesse Milliner as John Russell with producer’s daughter Melody Selig (Christine Nelson) in The Marshal (2019)

Memorable lines:

Cole Younger: “You’re lookin’ old.”
Bill Tilghman: “Beats not looking old, I guess.”

Big Joe: “You ever pretend, Cole?”
Cole Younger: “I never pretended at a thing in my life.”

Murphy, having been smacked across the face by Zoe: “Oh, the touch of a woman. It had been so long.”

Cole Younger: “Murphy, you spill a drop of blood and I’ll stop your clock myself.”

Cole Younger, after the getaway horses bolt: “What’s left in the livery?”
John Russell, aka Chicken Man: “One old mule and about 50 chickens.”
Cole: “Family reunion.”

Frank James: “Another Cole Younger tale.”
Cole Younger: “Yeah, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Johnny Crawford in a cameo as WIlliam S. Hart in The Marshal (2019)

Lana Wood as Ms. Darling, mom of Big Joe and Little Joe in The Marshal (2019)

Robert Neal Marshall as William N. Selig, the man from Hollywood in The Marshal (2019)

Brian St. August as Wolfgang Gulman, director of Bill Tilghman and The Outlaws in The Marshal (2019)

Mark Cardinale (right) as Pepper, the town scoundrel in The Marshal (2019)

Johnny Alonso as Big Joe (right) considers an offer to play villain on film in The Marshal (2019)

Jesse Milliner as John Russell (aka Chicken Man) and Darby Hinton as Cole Younger in The Marshal (2019)

Ken Arnold as Bill Tilghman, the law in Fort Bowers, Okla., in The Marshal (2019)