In 1973, John Wayne only had three more years left in his film career when he brought his last truly traditional western to the screen with CAHILL: UNITED STATES MARSHALL.
The Duke stars as JD Cahill, a by the book lawman who spends nearly everyday on the road tracking down bad guys.
He's like George Clooney in "Up in the Air", never home and devoted to his job (but with less suits and airplanes and a lot more horses).
Unfortunately, his young boys are starved for attention, never seeing their dad except for a quick stop between jobs.
17 year old Danny falls in with the wrong group, led by George Kennedy (Airport, Cool Hand Luke) as Fraser. Manipulating Danny, Fraser gets them all locked up for a night and plans a daring bank robbery.
Danny is very well played by Gary Grimes, who broke out on screen several years before in "Summer of '42". He's a very good actor in what could have been a cliche role. Kennedy is terrific and menacing, chewing the hell out of a cigar and threatening Cahill's boys with false loyalty and explosive violence.
Soon Danny's little brother Billy is pulled into the bank plot and Cahill comes home to find Danny in jail and Billy in trouble.
When Fraser and his men escape, Cahill must track he and his gang down, racing against time to make sure the right men serve justice.
It's surprisingly well constructed, written by the same screenwriters that wrote the first three "Dirty Harry" films.
It's also badly dated at times, with Neville Brand (Birdman of Alcatraz) forced to play a half-Indian tracker in the worst ethnic makeup since Mickey Rooney played Mr. Yunioshi in "Breakfast at Tiffanys".
Elmer Bernstein (The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven) delivers a rousing Western music score that suits the Duke.
Wayne is at ease throughout, playing an old fashioned lawman as comfortable sermonizing on right and wrong as he is blazing across the trail with both six guns blazing.
Wayne followed this film up with two modern detective films, "McQ" and "Brannigan" before filming one more western, "The Shootist" in 1976.
If you love the Western genre, CAHILL's a great example of what Wayne always did best, providing family friendly, old-fashioned entertainment with a message layered just beneath the action.
Cahill rounds up a B-.
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