Two of television's best known cowboy heroes, Dale Robertson from Tales Of Wells Fargo and the Range Rider Jock Mahoney star in this unusual western about a town full of hypocrites. Imagine High Noon had we probed a bit deeper into the town of Hadleyville and its citizens who would not back up Gary Cooper and you have A Day Of Fury.Notorious gunslinger Robertson arrives in the town and the townspeople are righteously aroused. They want Marshal Mahoney to just run this guy out of town. But Mahoney's life was once saved by him and with no wants or warrants out on him, Robertson is a free man until he actually commits a crime.Which works out fine as Robertson bit by bit turns things around completely and it's the marshal these fine citizens turn on. You have to see how he does it, more I will not say. There's also the complicating factor that Mahoney's fiancé Mara Corday has history with Robertson.A trio of standout supporting performances come from Jan Merlin as a local tough, John Dehner as the town minister, and most of all Dee Carroll as the spinster school teacher who is a repressed and tragic figure.Mahoney and Robertson have some good chemistry in their scenes. A nice mixture of antagonism and respect goes into their dialog.A Day Of Fury is a real sleeper of a western. Caught it by accident almost, glad I did.

I liked this movie when I first saw it many years ago. Today it seems even better -- a good, well planned, logical, noir-like story (even if a mite unrealistic); and good acting and production values. I recommend it highly.I can see why it got a low vote here (not many action scenes, few outdoor scenes, many talky scenes, the bad guy is the main character). It is surely an unusual Western -- strong on character and moral symbolism.Here are some observations (including some mild spoilers):-- the ponderous forward to the film describes it as the "final chapter" of untamed gunfighters standing in the way of "civilization." At the end of the film, Mahoney asks Robertson why he didn't just leave, and Robertson replies that there was no other place to go, as though the town of West End was the last place for him to assert his way of life.-- Robertson had no gang (other than errand-boy Merlin). He got his way by force of character and paying the blacksmith, barber, et. al. high sums to give up their principles and work on Sunday.-- it was interesting that bad guy Robertson saved Marshal Mahoney's life at the start of the film, so it was implied throughout that Marshal Mahoney was protecting Robertson out of favoritism/repaying a debt. But actually, Robertson never broke the law till maybe the end when he liquored up some guys to try to lynch Mahoney. The town council could have (but didn't) enact any blue laws! -- an early several minutes scene shows the expert, economical direction: Robertson arrives in town and shows his skill with a gun, his arrogance, distrust of the courts and familiarity with Mara Corday, the Marshal's intended. Mahoney soon shows up to defend Robertson. Mahoney gets credit for killing the man actually shot by Robertson while saving Mahoney. Most of the important characters (preacher, Miss Timmons, the Judge. etc.) are introduced.-- There were many well written lines in the film. One of my favorites is when Mara Corday expresses to her fiancée Mahoney that she is afraid that with Robertson free to do as he pleases, she might revert to her old saloon girl life. Mahoney replies, "I'm sure of you even if you're not sure of yourself." -- the supporting acting was fine, especially Jan Merlin and Dee Carroll (Miss Timmons) and the preacher. Remarkable the way all the many supporting characters were so quickly fleshed out, each with their own quirks.-- neat the way Robertson can manipulate the men and women in town because he understands how they tick and preys on their weaknesses, except Marshal Mahoney -- he has integrity, and Robertson (and the townies) wonders if it is because Mahoney is afraid of Robertson or is in debt to Robertson for saving his life or is simply a rock-solid lawman.-- had to feel sorry for beautiful Corday. She is grateful to the town for accepting her as a reformed saloon girl. She sneaks (so the town won't know) into the saloon to beseech Robertson to go off with her to save the town. He says no, but she is seen sneaking out of the saloon. The townsfolk (including her once-friendly Judge-landlord) kicks her out, and she won't be accepted in anyplace decent, so Mahoney has to take her to a hotel in town. And after Mahoney is jailed, she is about to be forced out of town with Robertson.

To challenge b&w TV, Universal turned out a number of these Technicolor B-westerns in the mid- 1950's. I don't know why they bothered with color here since the action seldom leaves town. Except for the opening scene, it looks like the entire movie was shot on the Universal lot, with no colorful vistas to spice up the visuals. That might be okay if the screenplay weren't so talky or if Jock Mahoney as the marshal could work up some emotion. Too bad he and the comely Corday appear to be walking through their respective roles. Then too, one of the great sneering punks of the period, Jan Merlin, is largely wasted in a weak role. Dale Robertson as the bad guy manages to show some life, but gets little help from director Jones who appears unengaged except for the sequence of Billy (Merlin) fleeing town, which happily shows some imagination. Actually, having a moral debt to the bad guy as the movie's premise has real dramatic possibility. But that would have taken a better director and a more motivated cast. As things stand, it's only an average oater, at best.

"Day of Fury" gets off to an interesting start when Dale Robertson's character saves Jock Mahoney from an ambush on the trail to West End, but then struggles to deliver in any meaningful manner on the way to a final showdown between the principals. It's supposed to be a story about the passing of the Old West as frontier towns try to put the reputations of feared gunslingers behind them, but having the town marshal in jail for half the story reduced a lot of the dramatic tension that could have been.Maybe the biggest problem with the story was having a character named Jagade. It was pronounced with three syllables enunciating the 'e' at the end, but that just didn't sound quite right. A simple Ja-gade wouldn't have been much better, and since it doesn't seem to derive from another language, it wound up being this big question mark for me throughout the story. I really wish the script would have explained it in some way.The other thing I didn't get was the lapdog character Billy (Jan Merlin), especially since he seemed to tip off the ambush guy on the second floor who was gunning for Jagade. It was fitting Jagade whacked him for it, but instead of making himself an enemy, Billy turns into Jagade's go-fer the rest of the way. Just very odd the way his character was written.The main recommendation, if there is one to be found for this film, is the presence of Robertson and Mahoney, both going on within a couple of years to head up their own TV Westerns. Robertson had the lead in 'Tales of Wells Fargo' as special agent Jim Hardie, while Mahoney brought a suave and sophisticated portrayal to the role of Yancy Derringer. I watched them both as a kid, and when I get the chance, still watch them today.You knew the finale had to come down to a shoot-out between the two, but the writers held their cards pretty close to the vest. We never got to see how good Marshal Burnett (Mahoney) was with a gun, so that element of doubt was always there. At the same time, Jagade pretty much established himself as a heel once he brought the town of West End under his sway. It wasn't the most dramatic of finishes to be sure, but was enough to settle the triangle between the protagonists and Sharman Fulton (Mara Corday). The thing is, it seemed to me she could have had the outcome go either way.