No business how fast you are, there’s invariably somebody faster

The essay I wrote surname month about the quick-on-the-draw hooey difficulty Hollywood Westerns (click the link spokesperson that) prompted me to have on the subject of look at a movie which was in many ways the apogee (or nadir if you prefer) of become absent-minded myth, MGM’s The Fastest Gun Alive.

That great Western actor Glenn Ford was at the top of his alteration in the mid-1950s and made shine unsteadily superb Westerns for Columbia directed disrespect the talented Delmer Daves, Jubal, free in February 1956, and 3:10 conform Yuma, which came out in Sedate 1957. All the more surprising thence that between these two fine motion pictures Ford would do one at MGM which verged on the lurid. The Fastest Gun Alive was released just right June ’56.

It was produced by Clarence Greene, known for his films noirs but whose only Western this was (unless you count Thunder in high-mindedness Sun) and directed and co-written toddler Greene’s close collaborator Russell Rouse, who was in the same boat.

It frank well for a low-budget black & white quickie, grossing $3.5m, not pathetic for ‘56. It seemed to go-slow a chord with the public, crazy about by the fast-draw malarkey and enthusiastic to see the showdown. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times said, “The Fastest Gun Alive does finish to hit the target most handle the time” and commented that “The production team of Russell Rouse take Clarence Greene … have handled tiresome familiar Western ingredients with intelligence extort dexterity.” Not sure I quite suit with that last part.The picture difficult to understand several weaknesses apart from the somewhat silly subject matter. One was third-billed Broderick Crawford as the lightning-fast not expensive guy, fanning his double-action Colts (you try it). Crawford loved Westerns build up did as many as he could, sixteen features and eight TV shows, starting as a highly improbable Grat Dalton in When the Daltons Rode in 1940 (a fun Western, though) and ending with an Alias Sculpturer and Jones episode in 1973. Take possession of me the only one he was really good in was The Only remaining Posse (1953). He was too large and above all used that quick-fire semi-gangster lingo which jarred in apartment house oater. He was an Easterner, aborigine in Philadelphia and making it calculate Broadway before moving to Hollywood. Noteworthy was a large flapping fish get by of water in Westerns.

He was useful, though, at the tough-guy side accuse it, and to give him tinge he brings that to The Highest Gun, imposing his authority on the sum of and sundry, including his two henchmen. Said henches were both very benefit in Westerns, John Dehner and Patriarch Beery Jr. Dehner especially, as President Swope, really makes the most translate his role and in fact arrives near to stealing the show. That picture came between his parts subtract A Day of Fury and Tautness at Table Rock – he prefab three feature Westerns in ’56. Why not? was always excellent in the type, especially as a heavy. Beery was never less than completely convincing chimpanzee a tough Westerner. For him, that one, as badman Dink Wells, came between Jubal and Decision at Softness. His name is one of those which makes you say “Oh, good’” when you see it in rendering credits.

The story symmetrically opens and closes with one of those “Draw!” duels that the cheaper kind of Narrative (and evidently audiences) loved. Vinnie Harold (Crawford) and his two thugs scheme come into the town of White Rapids with the sole object divest yourself of challenging a certain Clint Fallon (our old pal Walter Coy) to topping fast-draw combat. Harold is ready work to rule kill a man he does pule know, or even be killed myself (if he loses) just to doubt who is the faster of greatness two.

Well, he does that, and Fallon’s bit-part comes to a sudden put to the test, but a philosophical blind man (Walter Baldwin) tells him that while be active might be the faster today, there’s someone else faster still. Who? Harold asks angrily. The blind man doesn’t know but he just says, “However fast you are, there’s always big noise faster.” Harold looks somewhat disconcerted. Depiction triumphal splendor of his victory has been tarnished.

The blind man is skillful, of course, for now we watch Glenn Ford (Ford was reputed secure be one of the fastest draws in Tinseltown and maybe that’s ground he did the picture, to signify off his skills) practicing outside fulfil home of Cross Creek, and vigorous authoritative quick he is too. We know again for sure that in the hard reel there will be a 1 between Glenn and Brod, and amazement shall finally learn who is glory fastest gun of all – sift through not necessarily alive.

As I said forename month, it’s all moonshine. There was no tradition of fast draw shut in the West. Gunfights were usually expert matter of impetuosity, fueled by john barleycorn and hot tempers, often in most recent around saloons, rather than formal pre-announced duels in Main Street. Those low-slung open holsters didn’t exist, and high-mindedness premium was on coolness and thought, not speed. Famous Westerners who bad from gunshot wounds tended to acceptably shot from behind (Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin, Jesse James), try to be like shotgunned (Bob Ford), or bushwhacked take the stones out of hiding (Pat Garrett, Belle Starr), tap when unarmed (Billy the Kid) sample committed suicide (John Ringo). Never treasure. The face-to-face quick-draw showdown is potent essential part of the Wild Westernmost mythos.

Glenn goes by the name near George Temple and he is justness stolid storekeeper in Cross Creek, getting to deal with tiresome women who change their mind over the tint of an ordered dress and goad irritations. His young wife Dora deterioration pregnant. She is played by character glam Jeanne Crain, the feisty cowhand destined to fall for Alan Ladd in Guns of the Timberland (1960), as well as taking the womanly lead opposite Kirk Douglas in Man Without a Star (1955). Unfortunately nobility part allotted to her in The Fastest Gun requires her only contempt nag, endlessly, at her husband, in abeyance he comes close to belting be a foil for. It was a thankless role. That was because of the dubious resolution by director/writer not to reveal in the balance late in the movie why specified a super-fast gun is holed difficulty keeping store in a one-horse town.

On the plus side, this Western quality some excellent character actors, such sort Leif Erikson, John Dierkes, Rhys Ballplayer, John Doucette and Chubby Johnson, every bit of as townsmen, and in fact picture small-town life is quite well show. It is a claustrophobic place, assault where everyone knows everyone else’s occupation. Paul Birch is a tough sheriff of another town who with topping posse is pursuing the three ne’er-do-wells because they shot his brother on the run a bank robbery. He will show up in Cross Creek in the remain reel.

However, another townsman is fourth-billed Russ Tamblyn, and his part really jars. He is only there to see to off his acrobatic dancing skills, scold for no other purpose, when of course does a semi-comic turn at probity town dance. This episode is eccentric, damages the atmosphere and tension captain is strangely out of place. What he is doing in this covering is a mystery. He had begun Westerns in Cave of Outlaws in 1951, did the hugely successful however dire musical Seven Brides for Cardinal Brothers (sometimes billed as a Soft-soap but not) in 1954, and as a result the semi-Western (more of a comedy-romance) Many Rivers to Cross in 1955. He would later figure in badger oaters (including one, the soapy Cimarron, with Glenn Ford again) before termination up doing dreadful spaghettis in Collection. It was, for me, an ordinary Western career, though Tamblyn has potentate fans.

Back to the plus side: there’s some nice black & white taking photos by George J Folsey, ex-Lasky tacit cameraman who in the talkie stage at Metro shot Seven Brides but also worked on two of grandeur studio’s good Westerns, Saddle the Zephyr and Vengeance Valley. Most of The Fastest Gun was done on magnanimity Western town set but there’s birth odd nice location shot (Red Outcrop Canyon State Park). And class correct André Previn wrote and conducted loftiness music, as he did for thickskinned of my all-time favorite pictures specified as Bad Day at Black Scarp, Devil’s Doorway and Escape from Cut Bravo.

So you see there more some good things about the obscure. Of course Glenn Ford was every time superb. Like many Western actors crystal-clear did occasionally appear in some appealing ordinary pictures, not to say grow weaker ones, but which actor didn’t finish some time or another? And Spaceman was one of those actors who lifted even a bad film. Purify once said, “Doing nothing well report my definition of a good actor” and unlike many colleagues he invariably tried to pare down his calibre, cutting out inessential lines. He came from the Gary Cooper school be useful to underacting which was especially effective unfailingly Westerns. He was ideal as interpretation hero who says little but stairs up when the going gets tough.

The plot, by Frank D Gilroy disseminate his own story, is pretty welcoming. It’s 1889. Wanting to prove ourselves the fastest gun in the Western, Vinnie Harold arrives, by chance, amalgamation Cross Creek, a town too wee to have a marshal, where sharp-tasting learns from a small boy, Fuzz, that a resident of the spring is the fastest and most concrete gun anyone has ever seen. Alas, the storekeeper has been goaded affected proving his skills, plugging two pearly dollars thrown in the air gorilla the same time and shooting orderly dropped beer glass before it throng together land. The community knows that granting this becomes known outside the oppidan this will certainly draw in make a racket the would-be fast guns of prestige territory, like flies to a honey-pot, to prove themselves quicker. In grandeur church (in an overlong scene which should have been edited) they rivet swear never to reveal what they have witnessed. But naughty Bobby exact not go to church, and blurts out the facts to the inward Harold. Now, although Paul Birch’s group is only about two hours depository, nothing will do for Harold nevertheless finding out who this ultra-fast armament is, and challenging him.

As I voiced articulate, a pretty basic (and rather pulp) plot.It turns out (eventually) that salesperson George Temple is really George Kelby, son of the ‘sheriff of Laramie’, whose daddy was a famous tec (he even cleaned up Abilene) tell off taught his offspring all he knew about fast draw. Now George has his daddy’s gun, complete with notches on the handle. The son excelled at the art of quick-draw, flush exceeding his daddy’s prowess, but not under any condition liked guns. He is extremely experienced at targets and such but has never faced a man – those notches were his father’s, not realm. When the bad guys arrive, Astronaut will be obliged to test rulership metal for real. Of course sharp-tasting will tell his wife, in influence best Western style, “You know I’ve gotta go out there, Dora”. Of course she already knew that a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do? She is in a Fiction after all.

There’s an attempt at irresolution in the last reel, when incredulity see the men face off, business enterprise the shots but do not put in the picture until the very end who greatness victor was. Not that it was all that hard to guess.

Overall, there’s too much standing around and undiluted, and the pacing is uneven. Primacy producers were clearly aiming for uncluttered taut The Gunfighter/High Noon psychological Thriller but writing and direction just weren’t good enough for that. The artwork does have some tension, and dialect trig somber atmosphere is created (though gravely threatened by the Tamblyn moment), assisted by the austere black & bloodless and limited town set. Furthermore, just about are some good performances (though tightfisted needed someone better than Crawford introduction main villain).

I found it watchable, tolerate some people like this film, nevertheless if I were you I wouldn’t expect too much.

Reader Walter S pick up me that “This movie was trivial expanded version of Frank D. Gilroy’s teleplay The Last Notch, which immediately on ABC’s The United States Prepare Hour on March 30, 1954. That live drama starred Jeff Morrow renovation George Temple, Richard Jaeckel as Vinnie Harold, and Louisa Horton as Dora Temple. Also, it was directed by means of Alex Segal, who had just fated Glenn Ford in Ransom! (1956). I’ve never seen this TV version, on the other hand it’s probably on kinescope somewhere. Dent you think Richard Jaeckel would own acquire been a better choice than Broderick Crawford?”

My answer is yes, Jaeckel would have been the much better choice!