As the film starts it looks as if it will start with a bang; two men, one in Confederate grey, the other in Union blue meet; it turns out though that the war is over and they are friends who chose different sides returning to their home town of Abilene Kansas. There are been a lot of changes while they were gone; before the war everybody was growing wheat but with the coming of the railway the town is becoming part of cattle country. The Confederate soldier is Jim Trask, who everybody thought was dead, the former sheriff of Abilene and a close friend of the most successful cattleman, Dave Mosely. Things start off awkwardly between the two of them; while Trask survived the war Mosely's brother who served with him died and Mosely is now engaged to Trask's former fiancée, Peggy Bigelow; they appear to be willing to bury the hatchet though and Mosely asks Trask to take his old job back. The current sheriff, Dan Claudius, and villain of the story then returns to being Mosely's senior stock man. It isn't long before feelings are running high between the farmers and Mosely after Claudius whips a farmer who he accused of stealing a cow despite the man protesting that he was in fact returning it. Matters are complicated by the fact that Trask will not carry a gun because he is haunted by an event that happened during the war and the fact that his ex-fiancée still has feelings for him.
While this is far from a classic it is a decent enough film with a solid performance from Jack Mahoney as Trask and it was a nice twist making the sheriff unwilling to use a gun; although he will inevitably be forced to use one in the end... you can't call a film 'Showdown at Abilene' without there being a showdown between hero and villain! Ted de Corsia was okay as the villain but didn't have the lean, mean look of a dangerous gunfighter; at least his character was suitably unpleasant. The love triangle between Trask, Mosely and Peggy didn't have any surprises apart from the reason Trask didn't seem willing to try to get her back, this is also the reason for most of his actions and I won't spoil it although I'm sure several people will guess it as they watch the film. Overall this is worth watching if it is on the TV if you enjoy westerns but it isn't a must see example of the genre.
While this is far from a classic it is a decent enough film with a solid performance from Jack Mahoney as Trask and it was a nice twist making the sheriff unwilling to use a gun; although he will inevitably be forced to use one in the end... you can't call a film 'Showdown at Abilene' without there being a showdown between hero and villain! Ted de Corsia was okay as the villain but didn't have the lean, mean look of a dangerous gunfighter; at least his character was suitably unpleasant. The love triangle between Trask, Mosely and Peggy didn't have any surprises apart from the reason Trask didn't seem willing to try to get her back, this is also the reason for most of his actions and I won't spoil it although I'm sure several people will guess it as they watch the film. Overall this is worth watching if it is on the TV if you enjoy westerns but it isn't a must see example of the genre.