The Broken Star
Howard Duff, Bill Williams
Directed by Lesley Selander
Widescreen Black and white 1956
MGM Home Entertainment 2011
82 minutes
Cowboy movie meets murder mystery in the 1956 western The Broken Star. This is an enjoyable B movie with an interesting story. The Broken Star is also a bit odd as it plays more like a cop movie than a western. The print used for this on demand MGM Limited Edition Collection DVD is very good with only the occasional spec here and there.
A rancher is murdered by a deputy (Howard Duff) who claims self defense. Marshal Forrester has deputy Bill Gentry (Bill Williams) investigate. Gentry has a hard case to make: the deputy is his best friend and he is in love with the victim’s cousin. Men working for the local land baron (Henry Calvin who played Sergeant Garcia in the Zorro TV series) are in the picture looking for eight thousand dollars of protection money the victim was collecting for the local land baron.
The Broken Star makes an interesting use of forensic evidence in a couple of instances.
The plot starts to unravel after a while but by then the viewer is hooked enough to keep watching to the end.
The ending to The Broken Star is a little weak.