Scott LeBrun John Wayne is fine as always in the title role of J.D. Cahill, a man who's very good at his job. However, it's required him to always be on call, and as a result he hasn't had much of a part in the lives of his two sons. Now his teenage kid, Danny (Gary Grimes of "Summer of '42") is being rebellious and hooking up with very bad types played by the likes of George Kennedy (as Fraser), Morgan Paull (as Struther), and Dan Vadis (as Brownie). Danny and his younger brother Billy Joe (Clay O'Brien) become implicated in a bank robbery masterminded by the older men in which the sheriff and one of his deputies are killed."Cahill United States Marshal" is a good, diverting Western. It's not exceptional in any way, but it tells a decent story (scripted by Harry Julian Fink and Rita M. Fink of "Dirty Harry" fame) told in capable enough fashion. The Duke is good as a single father who realizes that his experience as a parent hasn't been the best for his children. But the best moments tend to belong to the supporting players. Kennedy gives the tale a real shot in the arm with his villainous performance, as does Neville Brand as Lightfoot, the half breed Comanche hired for his services as a tracker. Brand didn't feel that he was right for his role, but it's one of the better ones that he had. It's a treat to spot the continuous lineup of familiar faces in supporting and bit parts: Marie Windsor, Royal Dano, Scott Walker, Denver Pyle, Jackie Coogan, Harry Carey Jr., Walter Barnes, Paul Fix, Pepper Martin, Hank Worden, and Hunter von Leer.Production design (by Walter M. Simonds), cinematography (by Joseph F. Biroc), and editing (by Robert L. Simpson), are generally well done, and Elmer Bernsteins' score is catchy and rousing. Things get fairly intense - Billy Joe does get a knife held to his neck - and the violence is definitely of the post-"The Wild Bunch" variety.It's not a great Western, but it held this viewers' attention for 103 minutes.Seven out of 10.

WandrinStar (6/10) Not a great film, but is underrated simply for the fact that this is labeled by many as one of Wayne's weaker westerns in the latter stages of his career. Duke has a great supporting cast around him highlighted by Neville Brand as Indian tracker Ben Lightfoot, and villain George Kennedy. The Fink couple and writing team famous for penning Dirty Harry lacked originality for bringing up the same plot devices used in the Duke western Big Jake they wrote two years prior (Wayne choosing a gun slinging career over his children and Wayne teaming up with an Indian tracker). However I can forgive them since both areas were improved in this go around. Although some of their writing, such as Kennedy's sudden change of heart when Billy Jo was sick, was pretty weak.

ianlouisiana I'm glad Duke didn't bow out with this bit of hack work from A.V.McClaglen which doesn't bear comparison to even his routine Westerns. Names familiar from his John Ford days decorate the cast including the great Mr Hank Worden,but on the whole "Cahill - U.S. Marshal" doesn't add up to much. Mr George Kennedy is a bit of a pantomime villain,I almost expected him to disappear from every scene in a cloud of smoke like the Demon King. Duke's attitudes to racial minorities had been called into question and his answer in the movie was to inform an African - American prisoner that if he kills him it won't be simply because of his colour. Unfortunately the movie's more liberal approach is slightly spoiled by having Mr Neville Brand - splendid though he is - blacked up as a "half - breed". There are several stumbling - blocks scattered throughout the exposition of the plot that are better ignored. Nice to see "The Body" as she was briefly known cast as a Boarding House keeper with half - hearted designs on Marshal Cahill. I couldn't in all honesty recommend this untidy and unsatisfactory film,but as an admirer of the late Mr Wayne I don't have the heart to trash it either.

jldmp1 There are few actors who define national attitudes. Wayne is one of them. He matured in a simpler time, when white hat vs. black hat was expected, not just acceptable. He didn't need to be anything more than an archetype, his presence was cartoonish...the hapless bad guys were equally cartoonish. His triumphs affirmed who we were as Americans.He was displaced by flinty Clint, the iconoclast. But Clint, for the most part, also faced cartoon bad guys.The current postmodern hero archetype is Willis in the "Die Hard" narrative -- the ironic hero now has to face off with fully dimensional villains. Most studios now invest in getting the perceived 'best villain', and all other considerations form a line behind that.So it's shocking to see this today...the mind has to jump back not one, but two generations and adjust.This is a failure on many levels. The visual storytelling is distinctly uncinematic -- it would pass for a "Little House on the Prairie" TV show. The acting and props are horrible. Wayne tries to stay aloof, brushing aside everyone in his path with smoking barrels and one-liners. He tries to validate for us that "a man can't ignore his duty".By 1973, this no longer worked. Whatever Wayne had built up for us in "True Grit" or even the "Green Berets" was lost forever...like sand against a tsunami caused by Vietnam and all of its flotsam and jetsam that rushed at us(My Lai, Kent State, the bombing of Cambodia, etc.) We were rapidly becoming a nation of quiche-eaters.