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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting idea for a western that does not pan out, 18 Jul 2004
The tagline for the 1973 western "Cahill U.S. Marshal" declares: "Break the law and he's the last man you want to see. And the last you ever will." But we know that because the title character is played by John Wayne, so it really goes without saying that he is as good as it gets. But this is the Duke near the end of his career and while he made a pretty good western the year before with "The Cowboys," he was now just coasting (e.g., "The Train Robbers," "Brannigan") before he actually had some fun making a movie with Katharine Hepburn ("Rooster Cogburn") and found an excellent coda to his legendary acting career with "The Shootist."Wayne is J.D. Cahill, a tough U.S. marshal who is always on the trail of someone and never at home, which is why his sons Danny (Gary Grimes) and Billy Joe (Clay O'Brien) decide to teach the old man a lesson they go off with Abe Fraser (George Kennedy) and his gang to rob a bank. Actually they have a fairly complicated plan which involves being locked up in jail during the robbery so they have an alibi. Fraser promises no one will get hurt, but of course the sheriff and deputy are gunned down. The younger Cahill hides the loot and if either brother talks, Fraser will kill them both. With the sheriff dead, daddy shows up to track down the bank robbers and takes Danny along with him. They even capture a group of outlaws, who are sentenced to hang for the murders and the robbery. The pivotal character in the film is actual Danny Cahill, who has to get the hidden loot to Fraser, avoid having four innocent men hung, and try and pray that his father never gets everything to add up. Of course he does, although how the dots get connected is not exactly clear. There was an opportunity for a really good scene here at the big moment, but it just is not there and then Wayne's efforts to make the best of a bad situation kind of gets lost in the film's end game. Basically whatever you think Cahill should do in that situation, he is not going to make you happy, which ever of the two opposing approaches you want him to take. "Cahill United States Marshall" has an above average number of old familiar faces in supporting roles with Denver Pyle as the boy's caretaker, Royal Dano as a hermit, Jackie Coogan as Charlie the town drunk, and Harry Carey, Jr. as Hank the jailer. Neville Brand has a nice turn as Lightfoot, a half Comanche tracker, but Kennedy is not that memorable as a villain, which is rather surprising. Wayne has more than his fair share of bad lines in this one (e.g., "If a buzzard bites you, he'd never eat meat again"), and the fault here has to be with the script that sets up a fairly interesting situation and then really does not know what to do with it, which is why this becomes a pedestrian John Wayne film.
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