Once a respected sheriff, a cynical bounty hunter takes to mentoring the nervous, inexperienced young sheriff of a sleepy town in this western drama starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins (in the time before he became typecast in psychopath/horror roles). A common criticism of the film seems to be the casting of a timid Perkins as a sheriff, but his uneasiness in the role is very much deliberate and the chemistry between Fonda and Perkins works every step of the way. What does not quite work so well is a subplot with Fonda finding a surrogate son in a local boy of mixed ethnic descent. While a stranger to the town, Fonda is incredulously invited by the boy's single mother to stay at their house, and sleep in his bedroom (!), and when the boy later goes missing, Fonda's search for him is too obviously metaphorical to click (it is revealed that he lost his own son years ago). The entire second half of the film - not just the search for the boy - is weaker than the first half though with more action than acute dialogue exchanges between Fonda and Perkins. The second half does, however, feature a memorable final scene for John McIntire, who is great throughout playing a character one and a half times his actual age. The final showdown is not half bad either. The juice of the film though comes from the first half with the bond between Fonda and Perkins in the spotlight. Fonda almost seems to see a little of himself in Perkins at times, and he curiously seems to admire how genuine Perkins is about a job that he long ago dismissed as not worth the trouble or shiny, bright tin star.
Review of The Tin Star
