Law of the Lawless

A.C. Lyles gets together a cast of Hollywood veterans for another of his low budget westerns which vary in quality though the veteran players are always giving it their best shot. This one doesn't quite come off mainly because of the near saintliness of the lead, Dale Robertson.

Dale should have been put in for beatification. He plays a former fast gun who still straps his iron on the left side as he did in television's Tales Of Wells Fargo, but who has now studied law and become a judge. In his courtroom the unwritten law about shootouts is not enforced, you get hung. An old pal played by John Agar is awaiting trial for just such a shootout where he provoked a young man into a gunfight. Agar is truly a rat and when you learn the circumstances of the gunfight, you'll agree he ought to be hung.

However Barton MacLane who is Agar's father doesn't see it that way. He tests Robertson in a variety of ways with saloon girl Yvonne DeCarlo, when young deputy Rod Lauren is killed, and finally with imported fast gun Bruce Cabot who happens to be the man who outdrew Robertson's father. Robertson emerges with his halo intact.

William Bendix is in the cast as well as both sheriff and prosecutor and Kent Taylor is Agar's attorney. Law Of The Lawless is tight and compact and if Robertson's character was a little more human, this could have been one of A.C. Lyles best senior citizen westerns.

AG Liles made a series of low budget westerns at Paramount with a veteran cast. This is simply one of them. The cast includes: Dale Robertson ( Judge Clem Rogers: A former gunfighter turned Judge who no longer carries a gun), Yvonne DeCarlo ( Ellie Irish a saloon girl), John Agar (Pete Stone the heavy), his father Tom who is the most powerful man in town played by Barton MacLaine, William Bendix as ( Sheriff and Prosecutor Ed Tanner), and last but certainly not least Bruce Cabot. as hired gunman Joe Rile who killed Clem's father years ago. Cabot is the one to watch for. He hangs over the entire film very ominously.The story is about Stone who is accused of murder, his father who will do anything to not only get his son off, but ruin Rogers reputation, by having him seen with Ellie and hiring Rile to force Rogers into a gunfight, and Rogers who is also a friend of Stone's, and is the presiding judge in the trial. It is important to note that there is a most unexpected ending to the movie, but unlike far too many movies with one, it actually works with the theme of the film. For that reason, I will not spoil the ending. It is basically an excellent western 9/10 stars.

A judge rides into a Kansas town (Dale Robertson) to arbitrate a murder trial involving the son of the formidable mogul (John Agar and Barton MacLane). Yvonne De Carlo plays a saloon girl, Lon Chaney Jr. A friend of the accused and Bruce Cabot a hired gun.

"Law of the Lawless" (1964) is an A. C. Lyles Western, who produced over a dozen 'second-feature' Westerns in the mid-60s, which all featured former A-list actors and were shot in 10-14 days. The teams Lyles gathered together for his productions always knew what they were doing and did it competently and efficiently.

As such, there's little artistic merit to this Western, but it effectively gets the job done if you're in the mode for traditional town-bound Western. De Carlo was certainly a beauty and this was her last film before focusing on The Munsters for the next few years.

The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes, and was shot at Iverson Ranch & Paramount Studios, Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-/C+

Nothing special in this dusty western, belonging to the AC Lyles prod, specialized in the early sixties in recycling old timers on retirement, or not far, such as Richard Arlen , Bill Bendix, Yvonne de Carlo, Dale Robertson, Bruce Cabot and many other actors and actresses concerning other features of this kind. For die hard western fans only. It is cheap, lousy, even directed by good directors, who are not convinced at all by those predictable stories. Bill Claxton, Lesley Selander, RG Sprinsteen, were the main directors for thiese productions. Close to retirement directors too. Here, i have no strength to tell this already seen topic; this film made me half sleep. The only good point is that this movie is probably the best of all A C Lyles productions, maybe because of also being the first; the others will be more action oriented and the quality will also decline. They try to put some psychology here, more than anywhere else in AC Lyles films for Paramount. An excellent anti climax ending, that justifies the seven stars for rating.

Law of the Lawless is an okay film. Telling the story of a circuit judge who comes to a Kansas town to oversee a murder trial, only for the accused's father, who runs the town, to plot to ensure the judge does not convict his son by threatening his reputation. Sadly, there is not much action in this film, as this becomes more of a courtroom drama set in the wild west. While the actors do a good job, the pacing is very slow. Only recommended for true western fans.