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Death of a Gunfighter was directed by Robert Totten and finished by Don Siegel who took over when Totten was fired as he did not get on with star Richard Widmark.

The gunfighter is Marshall Patch Frank (Widmark) the long tome sheriff in a small town in transition at the tail end of the nineteen century. The bad guys have gone and the town council wants to become respectable and attract new people and new industry. Their once feared Marshall in an anachronism and after one shooting too many they want him out.

The Marshall does not one to leave, he was promised the job for as along as he wanted. He also has dirt on these important men in the council. In the background are some slimy men such as Carroll O'Connor who wants to see the back of the Marshall for their own reasons.

I once heard a critique of the film Shane. One man rides into town, gets rid of the bad guys and then leaves. In reality he would stay, feted as a hero at first and eventually morphs into another bad guy before some years later he is confronted by someone else.

This has what happened in this town. The Marshall did not leave and is now out of place. When he is confronted by the country sheriff a Mexican that he recruited once as a deputy despite the misgivings of the then town council, he punches him and throws him out on the street. It becomes clear to this viewer that the Marshall's unbending ways will be his undoing.

Richard Widmark gives a fine performance of a confused man who realises that he past his sell by date and wants to stick around not knowing that he is stinking the place out. Belatedly he marries Lena Horne the local Madame and for the time it is a daring interracial romance.

This is small scale character study. A western with veterans of the genre such as Royal Dano and Harry Carey jr but not always the stereotypes of the normal western films. It does suffer by trying to paint Widmark as too black and white a good guy when he needed more shades of grey. Maybe this is the creative differences that led to the original director departing.

We see other characters telling him that it is always Marshall's way or no way without it being properly spelt out.

At the end the town decides to get its own type of justice as the only way to bring the violence to an end.