Cinema: Cardin Cowpokery

Death of a Gunfighter might have been as good as its actors. As bone-weary Marshal Frank Patch, Richard Widmark is as legitimate and leathery as a saddle. His mistress (Lena Horne) cannot make a move or a speech that is not correct or elegant; her appearance in this symbol-minded film sadly recalls a 13-year absence from Hollywood. Like the High Lama in Lost Horizon, Widmark and Horne seem at once endlessly old and miraculously preserved, as if they were waiting for a revelation. Death of a Gunfighter is not it. In a town settling...

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