TCM Star of the Month October 2017: Anthony Perkins

We're in the first full week of a new month, which of course means a new Star of the Month on TCM. This time around it's Anthony Perkins, who I think is being so honored for the first time. Perkins' movies will air every Friday night in prime time. This week, I'd like to mention the airing of The Tin Star, overnight tonight at 12:15 PM, since it seems to be out of print on DVD.

The male lead here is actually Henry Fonda, not Perkins, who is a strong second behind Fonda. Fonda plays Morgan Hickman, who opens up the movie riding into town with a dead man draped over his horse. The townsfolk seem none too happy to see Morgan, which probably shouldn't be surprising. Morgan is a bounty hunter, and he's shown up in town to claim a reward. To do that, he has to contact the sheriff.

The sheriff, Ben Owens (Perkins), is a young guy who got the job by default. The old sheriff was killed and Perkins got the job by default while the town is trying to find a new sheriff. And it's clear to Morgan that Ben is thoroughly unsuited to be sheriff, as is shown when Ben has to deal with people who can't be bothered to respect the law. Ben, for his part, knows that as things currently stand he's ill-suited for the job, but he's willing to learn. And Morgan is just the man to teach him.

Morgan really just wants to get out of town, since nobody really wants him there. Indeed, he can only stay with the widow Mayfield (Betsy Palmer) who has a mixed-race son, which is what got her more or less ostracized from town. And the only reason he's staying there is because he has to wait for the town to get the money for the reward brought to them. Having nothing better to do, though, Morgan does try to give Ben some lessons, reminiscent of the later The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. And then the town doctor is murdered, giving Ben the chance to be a real sheriff and bring the alleged criminals to trial. At least if the mob posse doesn't find the criminals first and lynch them.

The Tin Star is, like the recently-recommended The Third Key, the sort of movie that's representative of its genre, something I say in a good way. (And The Tin Star benefits from having Hollywood's higher production values.) Perkins is good as usual playing the man with moral doubts, while Fonda is pro at playing morally conflicted characters and beginning to develop into a sort of elder statesman of such characters. Everything else about the movie is more than entertaining enough and competent enough, although there's something about it I can't quite put my finger on that leaves it less memorable than something like Liberty Valance. Not that it detracts from the movie; it's just more the sort of movie that everybody involved can be proud to have had a part in, but which for none of them will be the movie for which they're remembered.

All of that makes The Tin Star more than worth a watch, and frankly deserving of a fresh DVD/Blu-Ray release.