Man in the Shadow

Jeff Chandler gives a capable performance as Ben Sadler, the Sheriff of the small town of Spurline. The main business is an enormous ranch presided over by arrogant fat cat Virgil Renchler (Orson Welles). One night, two of his hands, Ed Yates (John Larch), and Chet Huneker (Leo Gordon), go too far and kill a young worker. Now, a witness (Martin Garralaga) sees this, and goes to tell the Sheriff. Ben still believes in things like justice, so he takes on all comers in order to discover the truth of the matter. This also means he must go against the entire town, who are far too eager to keep Renchler happy and to keep his business.

Written by Gene L. Coon, and directed by Jack Arnold, this is overall a more routine and less interesting yarn than their previous Western, "No Name on the Bullet". Welles is awfully low-key as the antagonist; it seems as if his heart really wasn't in this one. But at least his role isn't purely one-dimensional; he's more tender around his young daughter "Skippy" (the stunning Colleen Miller). Really, it's the swaggering attitude of jerks like Yates and Huneker that helps to pick up the slack since Welles / Renchler gets relatively little screen time.

The filmmaking is generally very good, with top black & white cinematography by Arthur E. Arling. For a change, the action takes place in the present day, with people using phones and cars regularly. The atmosphere is strong, with a nearly wordless opening five minutes or so.

The main value of "Man in the Shadow" is the presence of a superior gathering of character actors: Ben Alexander, James Gleason, Royal Dano, Paul Fix, Mario Siletti, William Schallert, Forrest Lewis, and Mort Mills. Larch and Gordon are effective as the brutish thugs, but Barbara Lawrence gets a rather thankless role as the Sheriffs' concerned wife.

The theme is solid if hardly inspired: the good lawman surrounded by townspeople too afraid to back him up. At least Coon and Arnold make the proceedings reasonably entertaining.

Seven out of 10.

Jeff Chandler is always a rewarding actor, his parts are usually paragons of virtue, courage and all good male characteristics, and in the film, a minor counterpart to "Touch of Evil", he walks the full length in fighting alone for a seemingly hopeless cause as the whole town is ruled by the corruption of Orson Welles. It's not a major film, but it has definite qualities which make it worth watching and learning from. Orson Welles' daughter (in the film) plays an important part and actually ultimately saves the plot, while almost all the other (male) actors are ordinary corrupt hoodlums. There is a circle around the leadership of the town that ultimately wakes up to what is going on - when it is almost too late. It's a moral story with the message to never give up if you are certain that you are right, especially if you fight for the truth, and as such it's an important film and argument.

With the debate over illegal immigration and the concern that it is mostly coming from south of the American border, Man in the Shadow is a film that has assumed a serious relevance for us today.

Jeff Chandler is the sheriff of a small southwestern town and a Mexican migrant worker, Martin Garralaga, has brought news of a homicide committed by white ranch hands on the property of his employer Orson Welles. It seems that a young Mexican was paying to much attention to Welles's daughter, Colleen Miller, and Welles wanted to teach him the error of his ways. Of course Leo Gordon and John Larch go too far and now a murder has to be covered up.

It becomes two murders when witness Garralaga also turns up dead. Though Welles and his Golden Empire Ranch have a stranglehold on the local economy and the town's leading citizens beg Chandler not to pursue the case, Chandler doggedly goes ahead anyway. He's the sheriff and it's his duty.

Chandler in this modern western is a standup straight arrow sheriff in the mold of Gary Cooper or John Wayne. He takes his oath of office quite seriously. And what happens to him during the course of the investigation makes the townspeople want to re-examine just how much they want to kowtow to Welles and his hired thugs.

Mario Siletti, the town barber and one of the few who backs Chandler without reservation, puts it best in that his father fled from a guy who was running Italy in the Twenties the same way Welles was running this corner of the USA.

Orson Welles just by his appearance in what is a B picture lent enormous prestige to it. This was one of those acting jobs he did trying to earn money to finance his own projects. But Welles never gave less than 100% of himself in anything he did. His portrait of a malevolent Ben Cartwright is a great piece of work.

Man in the Shadow played the bottom of double features in the Fifties, but those who saw it were not disappointed.

This is a good "pre-civil rights movement" western, continuing in the tradition of "High Noon" and "Bad Day at Black Rock". Colleen Miller plays Orson Welles daughter, (not his wife as someone posted previously.) Jeff Chandler (who died way too young at 42) is the sheriff and conscience in the film and he does a good job in this role. The fact that the cowboys have beaten a defenseless Chincano to death is something that most citizens in the town would rather forget.Chandler's character and his family are harassed by the murderous and prejudiced cowboys who work for Welles.The climax of this film is hard to watch even today. The director was Jack Arnold,who was great at expressing his opinions in low-budget films,such as "It Came from Outer Space" and "The Tattered Dress."

I'm going to make no apologies for this: I am an Orson Welles fiend. I've seen everything he's directed, and have moved onto chasing down all the little cameos he did to finance his other pictures. I can't explain it, its just a thing. So bear that in mind when you read the following.

For people who sit through all kinds of trash hoping to catch a glimpse of Orson Welles, this movie is a 8/10. Its one of the better ones. It has value. He is a main role, a sort of villain type. He is in more than a few scenes. Feels like half of the picture.

The value here is that the movie is a fun schlocky noir movie, and that Orson appears with little makeup, just one of his noses by the look of it. Highly recommended for my kind of people.

Now, for people who don't care about Orson Welles, this movie is also not bad. Its a pretty fun B-movie. I'd say only a 5/10 though. For balance, therefore...

7/10.