Graced with an awesome cast (the polecat Dix as a marshal due to his gun-play, a job he accepts because of the landlady, Jory as a gambler and the brother of a banker played by Dekker, Palette as the marshal's friend, Jane Wyatt as a landlady, but also W. Best playing a racial stereotype for which he must now be despised by the half-wits) and certainly the best saloon fight ever, 'The Kansan' is intriguing, neither romantic or historical, but the western equivalent of a political thriller with a good dramatic plot; it is Jory's movie, and a very good showcase for his dark glamor. The script wishes us to care more for the gambling gentleman, than for the righteous marshal.The cast has to be one of the choicest ever, because you never get the feeling that anyone is just giving a cameo; the saloon fight was made, fought, shot with a joy unsurpassed, with gusto and with the keenest sense of the slapstick, as a frenzied general fistfight.Jory plays a gambler who's also the marshal's friend, and perhaps wishes to get his brother's insurance, anyway a very well written character; he was a much better actor than Dix, and it shows. Now, perhaps Dekker was himself better than Dix, but here he got a character role, i.e. a walking cliché. As for the others, Palette was dependable (for me, he's the father in a screwball movie). Jane Wyatt seems less assured or convincing, in a role better handled by other actresses in, certainly, other movies.

Bystander Richard Dix stops a bank robbery by the James gang. Badly injured, he awakens to find himself unwittingly elected the town's new marshal, at the behest of local bank president Albert Dekker, who turns out to be a tyrant who wants Dix firmly under his thumb, a position the marshal has no plans to assume.The best things about this are the presence of Dix and Dekker, as well as a rowdy saloon fight that has people swinging from chandeliers and rioting uncontrollably. Everything else is too derivative and too mediocre to be memorable.Look fast for George Reeves as Jesse James.

This obscure 'B' Western stands a cut above most with some creative writing and rather good performances by the principals. The film also offers a number of elements that I hadn't seen before after reviewing almost three hundred Westerns in this forum. Though a standard feature for this venue, the barroom brawl here is one of the longest and best staged fights you'll ever see, initiated by cattleman Tom Waggoner's (Eugene Palette) response to a couple of cowpokes who reach for their guns (see my summary line above). Once the fur starts to fly, you'll notice a couple of saloon girls join the action, and they manage to get the upper hand in their respective segments.Speaking of saloon girls, there was also a spirited song and dance rendition of 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home' by an actress who wasn't the female lead, another rarity. For that role, it was a surprise to see Jane Wyatt in an early film appearance, looking rather gorgeous as the hotel manager in Broken Lance. She spends her time in the film balancing her affections between the picture's star, Richard Dix, and Victor Jory, portraying the brother of town boss, Steve Barat (Albert Dekker). Jory always manages to succeed well in his roles, and is one of the few actors who can pull off hero and villain roles just as easily. In this one he straddles the fence for pretty much the entire picture, keeping you guessing on which way he'll turn by the finale. Speaking of which, one gets a fairly good impression that Jory's character didn't make it, but if this was a serial, he would have shown up in the next chapter.Then there's Willie Best in a comic relief role, used unfortunately to so much of the stereotype of a scaredy cat black man when facing danger. There was also an unfortunate line uttered by John Bonniwell (Dix) when he asked 'Bones' to "Come here boy". This was a pretty common occurrence in pictures of the era, and subliminally comes across as racist. With today's rarefied sense of political correctness, the comment was certainly noticeable, however Bonniwell treated Bones well throughout the rest of the picture.As for the story, a couple other reviewers do a good job of explaining the basic plot, so I won't dwell on that. With my viewing, I was on the lookout for supporting and uncredited actors that often pop up in these oaters, and "The Kansan" is a gold mine if you pay attention. Robert Armstrong is a Waggoner cattleman behind a mustache, and Rod Cameron is on board as a cowhand. It's easy to miss George Reeves in that quick shoot 'em up opening scene as Jesse James, while Jason Robards Sr. operates as one of Steve Barat's bank tellers. The rest of the uncredited cast holds a whole pile of bit actors whose names pop up in Westerns all up and down the Forties and Fifties.

In Broken Lance, Kansas, John Bonniwell averts the Jesse James gang from holding up the town bank, but is severely wounded in the process. When he awakes in the hospital, he finds that he has been elected town marshall, with high recommendations from the bank owner and leading citizen, Steve Barat. Bonniwell accepts the job (especially after getting an eyeful of the hotel owner Eleanor Sager) even though he knows that he was only appointed to become a pawn in Barat's scheme to bleed Broken Lance, and the Kansas, dry. Bonniwell's position is put to the test when Barat sues Bonniwell's friend Waggoner for running his cattle without paying the $1 a head toll enforced by Barat. When he sees that Bonniwell isn't going to be controlled so easily, Barat has Bonniwell's enemies go after him followed by an attempt by Barat's gambling brother, Jeff (who seems to be playing both sides of the standoff, while in love with Eleanor). Bonniwell then starts to rid Broken Lance of Barat's influence without losing his life, or anyone else's, in the process. Very good western with an excellent script, direction, characterization, and performances by everyone. Dix is right at home as Bonniwell, even though he seems awkward at times. Jory gives one of his best performances as Jeff, and his characterization is very surprising and different from others in the genre. The movie also contains one of the biggest barroom free for alls in any western, with everyone getting into the fracas. Only flaw was the climax was not as action packed as other sequences in the movie, but still a winner all the way. Rating, based on B westerns (this may count as a B+ however), 9.