Based on a novel by Charles Huckelmann, Deputy Marshal was a "special" by the standards of cost-conscious Screen Guild productions. The film stars Jon Hall and Frances Langford, who were Mr. and Mrs. at the time. Hall plays the title character, aka Ed Garry, while Langford essays the role of Janet Masters, a Wyoming ranchowner threatened by land thieves. While Garry does the dirty work so far as keeping the villains at bay, Janet gets to sing a couple of pleasant songs. Deputy Marshal was promoted on its novelty value; the film was photographed by Carl Berger with the Garutso Balanced Lens, a deep-focus apparatus that simulated a 3-D effect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
disliked it.
Deputy Marshal, from low-budget Lippert Productions, is an enjoyable if somewhat talky B-Western. Enjoyable mainly due to the presence of the delightful
Frances Langford, who sings Irving Bibo and John Stephens' "Levi's, Plaid Shirt and Spurs" and "Hideout in Hidden Valley." A regular of low-budget musicals during World War II, the blonde Langford was the wife of the film's star, former swashbuckler
Jon Hall, who is quite good as the vengeful title character. Relative old-timers
Dick Foran and
Russell Hayden are both cast against type here and it looks as if they enjoyed the experience immensely. On the debit side: Deputy Marshal was padded with quite a bit of stock footage and a seemingly interminable opening sequence in which
Clem Bevans, as the local medico of Tumult, WY, sets up the story. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide