GLENN FORD IN GEORGE MARSHALL'S WESTERN 'THE SHEEPMAN'

Title: THE SHEEPMAN Year: 1958 Rating: ****

George Marshall's THE SHEEPMAN could have been a genuine satire, deliberately playing upon Western tropes as "stranger in town" Glenn Ford knows there's always the expository-spouting "cracker barrel philosopher" (Edgar Buchanan); the brawling bully everyone fears (Mickey Shaughnessy); and Leslie Neilsen as the powerful yet sophisticated villain, an old acquaintance of Ford's Jason Sweet about to marry oblivious local tomboy Shirley MacClaine.

Co-written by William Bowers, THE SHEEPMAN is a lot like his latter SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF with a resilient, revenge-seeking sharpshooter who, no matter what's thrown at him, from fists to bullets, deals with cowboys fearing sheep messing up their cattle-laden landscape. 

The only real flaw is both THE SHEEPMAN movie and character doesn't always take itself/himself completely serious. Then again, like James Garner in SHERIFF, it's practically an unflappable superhero Western flick, so why worry? That's left to everyone he's conning or, in headstrong-stubborn MacClaine's case, romancing... And yet, even for a picture that toys with so many purposeful clichés, it's never too predictable.