US Marshal Calem Ware (Randolph Scott) struggles to keep the peace in the western town of Medicine Bend. While Ware is distracted by the arrival in town of old flame Tally Dickenson (Angela Lansbury), a pair of ambitious businessmen in town conspire to have him killed.

The American western is running in a low-key mode in Joseph H. Lewis’ A Lawless Street, that runs at a fairly moribund pace and energy level despite the life-or-death stakes involved. Randolph Scott, who appeared in more than 60 westerns over the course of his career, is in a typical reluctant gunslinger mode: all gruff and weary. Slightly more interesting is Angela Lansbury, who only ever appeared in one western: this is it. In turns out that Dickenson left Ware because she could not stomach his violent profession. Now back in his life, she forces him into a reassessment of his entire career. Truth be told, Lansbury feels rather miscast. A saucy vaudeville number falls flat, and she looks terribly uncomfortable in a corset.

There is a slightly more complex arrangement of characters around the lovers than anything to be found between them. The corrupt theatre producer Thorne (Warner Anderson) is attracted to his new leading lady and tries to woo her – as good as abandoning his current adulterous lover Cora (Jane Parker), but also unaware that Dickenson is the estranged wife of the man he has just arranged to kill. There is also the matter of Dooley (Don Megowan), who has arrived in town with plans to kill Ware for himself in revenge for Ware’s shooting of his brother. There is plenty to go on in A Lawless Street, but for whatever reason it simply never gets any momentum going. What makes that particularly unfortunate is that the film is only 78 minutes long – by all rights it should not have time to feel so slow.

Joseph H. Lewis was a solid hand at B-grade movies, and does ensure the film is at least watchable and visually engaging. Some of the compositions even betray Lewis’ background directing film noir. A Lawless Street does hit all of the expected beats of a mid-1950s western, but it does only that.