Abilene, Kansas is at a critical watershed moment in its history and only town marshal Randolph Scott seems to realize it. That is Scott and a bunch of homesteaders led by Lloyd Bridges. They're the future of the place if they settle there permanently and grow their crops. The homesteader has it over the cowboy. He's raising families for the future, not cain at the end of the trail drive.
In a trend that seemed to start with Destry Rides Again in westerns, Scott has two girls after him in this film. Saloon singer Ann Dvorak and storekeeper's daughter Rhonda Fleming. You figure out who the marshal winds up with.
Abilene Town doesn't lack for anything any western fan could hope for. Lots of gunplay and fist fights and the triangular conflict of cattlemen, townspeople, and homesteaders. And it has a scene stealing performance by Edgar Buchanan as the county sheriff who becomes a hero in spite of his less than honorable ways.
At the time that Abilene Town came out, Abilene, Kansas had one of the most famous people in the world calling it his home town. I don't know how they did it because Howard Hughes didn't own RKO yet, but for the premier of the film in Abilene, Kansas, General Dwight D. Eisenhower showed up himself with Randolph Scott and some of the rest of the cast. A red letter day in the history of RKO studios. To be fair Ike never missed an opportunity to be a booster for the place he grew up in.
Hey if the architect of D-Day gave his seal of approval to this film, how could any of you go wrong in seeing it?
