Hey, wasn't that a great way to open the film - Ronald Reagan rides into view wearing that tin star, championing law and order and democracy. One of history's great ironic tributes to life imitating art.

Ultimately though, the film is largely a run of the mill Western, a notch above the 'B' programmers churned out incessantly from the 1940's and '50's. This one was done in color, so it gets some points for that, and it was admirable to see that the nominal comic relief character (Chubby Johnson as Denver) had guts enough to stand with Frame Johnson (Reagan) and his brothers when things got rough. By the time Jimmy (Russell Johnson) duped Denver to open the cell door, it seemed almost out of character for him to get taken like that.

You know, I got curious watching Reagan get on and off his horse. Twice when he dismounted, he did it by swinging his right leg over the saddle and sliding to the ground. The only time he mounted was from a raised deck where he was relatively level with the saddle. I'm wondering if Reagan might have been physically impaired during filming to allow for more mobility.

The other point has to do with brother Jimmy. Right after Lute (Alex Nicol) dies, it only takes about a minute for Jimmy to get staggering drunk at the bar downstairs. However when he's on the run from Cottonwood after being sprung from jail, he manages to down a whole bottle of tequila with no ill effects!

Some time during the '50's, and maybe earlier, it seemed to become the custom to show the best assets of a film's leading lady in profile. This is done extensively here with Dorothy Malone as Reagan's romantic interest, and to a lesser extent with Ruth Hampton's character. Somehow I don't think the ladies of the 1880's really looked like that, but who knows. At the same time though, Jeannie (Malone) had one of the picture's most memorable lines describing her man - "You're big and you're ugly and you're stupid, and I happen to be in love with you".

'Law and Order' is hardly a rich strike, and might be considered as a solid, conventional Western of 'retired gunfighter' breed...

Frame Johnson (Reagan) is a respected lawman who has cleaned up the wicked ways of Tombstone, Arizona, and wants to retire to the life of a rancher... This pleases his fiancée, Jeannie (Dorothy Malone), who runs the saloon left to her by her father... She, too, is eager to leave the rough community and be her beau's wife: 'You're big and you're ugly and you're stupid, and I happen to be in love with you.'

With his brothers, Lute (Alex Nicol) and Jimmy (Russell Johnson), and their undertaker friend, Denver (Chubby Johnson), Frame proceeds to the town of Cottonwood... Unfortunately, Cottonwood is under the domination of Kurt Durning (Preston Foster), who hates Frame because he crippled him in a previous encounter...

The citizens of Cottonwood appeal to the famous marshal to take up the badge of law and order once again, and rid them of Durning... Frame declines, but Lute accepts, which soon costs him his life when he tries to apprehend one of Durning's sons...

Frame takes the job as marshal and brings the Durning empire to an end...

Adapation of William Burnett's story "Saint Johnson" is also a follow-up to (or rehashing of) 1932's "Law and Order", yet has enough energy and excitement to stand on its own. Ronald Reagan is very good playing the Marshal of Tombstone in the 1880s, tired of being a "hired killer" and quitting for a rancher's life on the outskirts of Cottonwood--only to find the citizens there much tougher than in Tombstone, including a scurrilous family who has tangled with the Marshal before. It's never made clear how the Marshal managed to get on the bad side of the Tombstone residents (they seem to want a no-nonsense approach to the law--and they've got it with Reagan--so what is their beef?). Dorothy Malone is wasted in frivolous role as Ronnie's girl (she always seems to be saying, "I'll be here when you come back") and the (blonde) actors playing Reagan's brothers are poor choices--they don't look or act anything like him. Still, there's a few evil, grinning sonsofbitches in the line-up who give the narrative dramatic flavor, and Reagan has a terrific scene early on protecting a prisoner from a lynch mob. Most of "Law and Order" (terrible title!) is strictly rote, a western formula, but the locations are good and the finale very satisfying. **1/2 from ****