Taciturn Fonda Helps Perkins’ Sheriff: ‘The Tin Star’ Blu-ray Reviewed

Being a bounty hunter might be a thankless job, but it’s better than a deadly one. That’s what Morgan Hickman (Henry Fonda) believes in Anthony Mann‘s western, The Tin Star. Having learned the hard way that wearing a tin star doesn’t pay, all Morg wants is to collect his bounty and go and, given the cold reception he gets from town, the feeling’s mutual.

Rather than attempt any pretense of small towns being welcoming to strangers, The Tin Star gets right to everyone hating Morg’s guts. Even the guy who’s supposed to be the town’s moral center (John McIntire’s lecturing Doc McCord) won’t give Morg the benefit of the doubt, leaving it up to Anthony Perkins’ Ben to make up his mind about the ex-lawman.

Given that the town is already starting to doubt Ben’s capability to act as their new sheriff, his unwillingness to fall in line with their condemning of Morg isn’t going over well, and Ben has competition. The trigger happy Bogardus (Neville Brand) would happily take over the position for him.

What makes The Tin Star such an incredible movie is how Mann and cinematographer Lloyd Griggs use foreground and background to expose this self-proclaimed law and order town’s worst instincts. As author Barry Forshaw touches on in his superb booklet essay for Arrow’s Blu-ray release, this is a town that makes a show of leaving its doors and windows wide open, with the result being that viewers are constantly invited to see how they’re reacting outside. This is especially true of scenes shot in the sheriff’s office, where Morg and Ben will be lost in their own conversation yet viewers’ attention will be pulled between what they’re saying and what’s going on through the window outside. It must have been incredibly difficult to shoot, coordinating all of those scenes and timing them just right, so characters appear and interrupt Morg and Ben on the right lines. Everyone is exposed and there’s nary a CGI background in sight.

The outdoor scenes are equally well-composed and framed (there’s a moment involving a hat during the first showdown that’s breathtaking) and the performance Mann pulls out of Fonda, who’s character, Morg, is reluctantly drawn into acting as Ben’s mentor, is refreshingly subtle and different from the angry characters James Stewart would play in his Westerns with Mann.

Ben’s arc is the only part of The Tin Star that’s slightly disappointing. Apprentices are supposed to be given the space to surpass their masters and while, admittedly, the timeline of this movie is compressed, Ben is never fully given the chance to step out of Morg’s shadow. There’s some definite thunder stealing going on at the end.

As far as bonus features go, author Neil Sinyard‘s featurette on the film is this release’s crown jewel, with Sinyard paying special attention to Dudley Nichols’ Oscar-nominated screenplay.

Film historian Tony Roan‘s commentary and Arrow’s interview with composer Elmer Bernstein’s son, Pete Bernstein, are less specific to the film — though Roan provides plenty of background on most of the cast and crew.

The Tin Star is available on Blu-ray now from Arrow Films and comes with a poster and six postcards.