Showdown at Abilene

The main reason to watch is Ted de Corsia as Dan Claudius, he is one of the most thoroughly evil characters you will see in a movie. There is one scene where he whips Grant Williams so bad , even the people assisting him cringed. Deputy Vern Ward ( David Jansen) said "It is the worst he ever saw." The hero of the movie Jim Trask (Jock Mahoney) simply did nothing for me ( especially when dressed in a checkered shirt and bow tie like a nerd ( unlike the Sheriff he was supposed to be)). Spoilers ahead: Of course, Trask who would not wear a gun because of an incident in the Civil War, has the showdown with Claudius, a battle he had no business winning ( Vern and his sweetheart Peggy were sure he would lose). Again 7/10 stars mostly for de Corsia.

Director Haas does a reasonable job with a B Western production suffering from a somewhat less than believable script- It is partly compensated by an in-form Jock Mahoney, well accompanied by David Jansen, Ted de Corsia and Lyle Bettger. Interesting Secession War aftermath, strange character development for Lyle Bettger, Mahoney's guilt over past incident. Photography, action sequences are OK. Watch it if you have nothing else to kill your time with.

This is an average western that is predictable right from the start. Excellent performances by Jock Mahoney as Jim Trask, Martha Hyer as Peggy, Lyle Beher as Dave and, a young, David Janssen as Deputy Vern Ward make Showdown At Abeline worth a look. The hired gun was played by Ted de Corsia which was the only error in casting that I could find. The town of Abilene and surrounding areas, do not match the flat lands of Kansas but otherwise, excellent photography give the film added appeal.

Jock Mahoney and Martha Hyer star in this good B western about a Civil War veteran returned from the war with a dark secret and a desire not to carry weapons. Naturally he has no plans to return to his former occupation as sheriff of Abilene. Abilene has a new sheriff in the coarse and brutal Ted DeCorsia and he's in the pocket of Lyle Bettger who in the interim has moved in on Mahoney's girlfriend Martha Hyer and they plan to be married. Everybody did think Mahoney was killed and one who was killed was Bettger's younger brother. Abilene has also changed from a peaceful agricultural community to a trail's end for cattle shipping. How many gazillion westerns have been made with that plot premise and all it entails. Given Mahoney is a cowboy hero in the tradition of Tom Destry you know he only has one way to go. Still Showdown In Abilene is nicely packaged for any western fan.

While this modestly-cast production from 1956 has a number of the elements found in the usual B-western, its plot and characters offer a bit more depth and complexity than one might expect. This is largely due to the "triangle" relationship between Jock Mahoney, his former girlfriend, Martha Hyer, and the man she's now engaged to marry, Lyle Bettger. It's an awkward situation and the fact that these three people, at least at the start of the story, like each other gives the situation refreshing ambiguities and nuances. At least it's not the usual "good guys and bad guys." As has been mentioned in other reviews, this movie is well-cast though I agree Ted de Corsia is too old and out-of-shape to be convincing as the "hired gun." Curiously, just 11 years later, Universal released a re-make of this movie called "Gunfight in Abilene" with, of all people, Bobby Darin in the Jock Mahoney role. Though they're quite similar, it's still of interest to compare the two productions.