Abilene Town is a 1946 American Western film directed by Edwin L. Marin and starring

ed54387453904e15842079f78a723d75Randolph Scott2218c07ae3f44e93bd292721eeec1958

,

d150e5c62e254ee690730348011a8d3cAnn Dvorak46538cea9e784a64a1296fad2d613b99

,

c34ec40173f74cbd84a16aabb546e7aeEdgar Buchanana86dc1f248b54932b8dd38df30bf2c81

,

85a5acb1197f462589942a677039ad81Rhonda Flemingf3e65df064e44af6a9b09fcad8f78f39

and

3416059861c14992b147eab134c269b4Lloyd Bridges51893ad248a9448c87d2617ca8ecfa88

. Adapted from Ernest Haycox's 1941 novel Trail Town, the production's plot is set in the Old West, in the cattle town of Abilene, Kansas in 1870.

Plot

In the years following the Civil War, the state of Kansas is increasingly divided by opposing economic and social forces. Homesteaders are moving into the West, trying to start new lives, and their increasing presence is clashing with the established commercial interests of cattlemen, who had settled in the region before the war. Abilene, a major cattle town, is on the brink of armed conflict between the cattlemen and the homesteaders, and the town marshal, Dan Mitchell, strives to keep the peace between those two groups as well maintain the uneasy coexistence between Abilene's townspeople and the ranchers with their legion of cowboys. For years, the town had been literally divided, with the cattlemen and their supporters occupying one side of the main street and townspeople occupying the other side. Mitchell likes it this way; it makes things easier for him, and prevents dangerous confrontations from arising between the two factions. However, when homesteaders decide to lay stakes on the edge of town that existing balance is upset and leads to a deadly showdown.