I like Ronnie Reagan, but this is not one of his better films. Dorothy Malone is a lightweight actress, but I don't think any female lead would have made much difference to the outcome. Preston Foster is the only authentic A actor in the film, although I did enjoy seeing the professor from Gilligan's Island as the judge.The plot is mundane and full of cliches, but the actors try to do the best with the hands they are dealt. The fascination of watching an American president acting in a film is always an extra added attraction. The end result is an amazingly average Western; watchable, but not notable. The doctor in the town is Holliday; sound familiar? Spare us.

A town that couldn't be tamed until Ronald Reagan institutes strict gun control. "But what if there's gun play?" someone asks. "Then it's a matter of law and order," replies our hero. "A town with no guns? Why, we'll be laughed out of the West," observes a grizzled bystander. Ironically, this oater documents what actually did happen in the Old West: the very first laws passed in the cities were gun control laws - because they worked. A fact the elder Mr. Reagan and his posse later chose to forget. There's little else of interest in this routine Western. Except you get to see the Professor - of Gilligan's Island - shoot down Chester - of Gunsmoke.

Too many critics sneer at Ronald Reagan's career in films. THey obviously didn't see this film. Law and Order is a solid western made in the era when westerns were made well. The script is tight, with plenty of action, but not weighted down with too much gratuitous violence that marks most of Eastwood's films. Reagan's performance as Frame Johnson is natural and believable. His skill in the saddle is displayed several times. He comes across tough and determined, yet has scruples. THe supporting cast boasts such veterans as Russell Johnson (who appears in many sci-fi films of the fifties) and Preston Foster and Dorothy Malone. Nathan Juran directed many films and television programs and was good at maximizing the low budget that Universal gave him for this effort. Another good western starring Reagan is Last Outpost (1951). Law and Order is definitely worth seeing - If Reagan had made more films of this caliber, he might not have gone into politics.

Merely serviceable B western with no special moments or performances. Reagan plays a hired gun trying to settle down to a life as a rancher who must take up the marshall's badge to clean up his new town after one of his brothers is killed. Malone is the woman he falls for. Strictly an attempt to replicate Randolph Scott's success in similar vehicles, but with so-so results.