The Quick Gun

source: The Quick Gun

Love everything Audie Murphy does even with the character name changes from 1955 Top Gun but the plot was spot on and the over acting in this film was entertaining. Seems like a lot of remakes were being done then, must have been a lack of good film writers and slim pickens for Mr. Murphy to choose from but I liked the filmed nonetheless.

Producer: Grant Whytock. An Admiral Pictures production, released through Columbia. Copyright 1 May 1964 by Admiral Pictures. No New York showcasing. U.S. release: April 1964. U.K. release: 10 May 1964. Australian release: 10 April 1964. 7,918 feet. 88 minutes. Censored to 86 minutes in Australia. SYNOPSIS: Clint Cooper, who left his home town after being forced into a duel in which the sons of a powerful rancher were killed, decides to return and claim his right to his father's ranch and to Helen Reed, his schoolteacher sweetheart. On the way he learns that a large gang plans to rob the town bank. When he arrives he finds that most of the townsmen have left on a cattle drive but he agrees to help Scotty the sheriff, an old friend of his, and a few elderly men remaining in the town, defend the town against the gang. NOTES: This movie was filmed in Techniscope which was an anamorphic projection system developed by the Technicolor company. Scenes were photographed in CinemaScope proportions by using a wide-angle lens that threw two images instead of one on a single frame of standard 35mm film stock, thus saving companies half the cost of raw film. In processing, each wide-angle image was anamorphically squeezed on to a single frame. The prints look identical to CinemaScope prints and are projected in the same way. Despite the 50% reduction in camera frame area, the prints were claimed to be nonetheless sharp and well defined. COMMENT: Villain Ted de Corsia is not nearly as appealing in the first half of this low-budget western, as he is in the second half where he shares a delightful scene in a saloon with heroine Merry Anders. Indeed most of the action in the film also takes place in the second half and while this is attractively photographed (the townsfolk against the yellow flames of the barricade), the people generally, with the exception of Audie Murphy, are not photographed half as well. Miss Anders, particularly, suffers from this unattractive lensing. Musician Richard La Salle has obviously been listening to Jerome Moross' score for "The Big Country", but I liked it anyway! The film does have one really unusual feature in that the script kills off the second lead before the big action finale. Frank Ferguson does not altogether make the happiest of substitutes.

This film opens with gunslinger Clint Cooper heading back to his home town of Shelby, Montana. Before he can get there he runs into Jud Spangler and his band of outlaws; Spangler is planning to head into Shelby and rob the bank. Spangler invites Clint to join him stating that he has reasons for going into town alone; after a brief confrontation Clint gets away and heads into Shelby. He is clearly not welcome there any more; we learn that he left after a shoot out that left two brothers dead; their father Tom Morrison and his nephew Rick are still determined to see Clint die. Clint warns his old friend Sheriff Scotty Grant that Spangler is going to attack soon. As the town prepares for Spangler's arrival Clint must deal with both the Morrisons and the fact that the woman he loved is now engaged to Scotty. This is a fairly standard Audie Murphy western; his character very similar to those he usually plays; the likable but misunderstood man who is quick with his gun. The plot is fairly simple with no unexpected twists but that doesn't really matter as it was fun to watch. There was plenty of decent action including shoot outs and a thrilling scene where Clint and Rick fight with baling hooks! As Spangler attacks the town a surprising number of townsfolk are gunned down and it is clear that his intentions towards the women are less than honourable. Murphy does a good job as Clint but Ted de Corsia steals the show as Spangler; a bit of a pantomime villain but a lot of fun to watch. Merry Anders put in a feisty performance as love interest Helen Reed; although her scenes with Spangler were more interesting that the potential love triangle involving Clint and Scotty. While this was obviously a fairly cheap B western it was still an enjoyable way to pass a quiet afternoon.

Inspiration was running low when Steve Fisher's original story was recycled yet again in what is basically a TV episode glossily opened out for the big screen in Techniscope with meaner brawls (marred by the obvious use of doubles), a noisy score by Richard LaSalle, and Audie Murphy as usual impossibly pretty and clean-cut despite his supposedly shady past (with Merrie Anders gorgeous but largely peripheral as the local schoolmarm). Among a generally rather elderly supporting cast (including silent veteran Raymond Hatton), Ted de Corsia, Mort Mills and Rex Holman make memorably mean heavies (with Mills' eventual fate quite pleasing).

I'd just finished watching this without paying much attention to the title and figured I'd have no trouble finding it on IMDb.com. What a mistake. Hollywood had been grinding out cheap Westerns forever but by this time, the mid 60s, the rivalry with television must have gotten frenzied. Few actors of consequence bothered any longer with these inexpensive effort. The 50s had produced some superb example of what were called "adult Westerns," meaning the target audience was older than ten, but by 1964 the genre was moribund. Nope. "The Quick Gun" did not stand out from the list of desperately blank titles. Murphy is returning to his home town of Shelby to warn the residents of an impending raid by the notorious Ted DeCorsia's gang. But they don't want him around. Before he left, he became a fast draw, always in trouble, and now no one trusts him. Not even his old friend who is now the sheriff and who has been a-courting that blond gal who always had a kinda crush on Murphy. The sheriff dies bravely, although die he must because he has to be gotten out of the way so that Murphy can wind up with that there blond gal with the 1964 brassiere. The plot isn't worth going into any farther. In some ways the most interesting feature of the movie is the musical score by Richard LaSalle. It's extraordinarily dull. Except for a few suspenseful periods when it lapses into a barely recognizable "Carlotta's Theme" by Bernard Hermann from "Vertigo." I don't have the musical vocabulary to describe it, but if you listen closely you'll see just what I mean. Murphy performs as Audie Murphy. He was always Audie Murphy, just as Ted DeCorsia was always Ted DeCorsia. In the course of his career, Murphy gave one triumphant performance -- in John Huston's "The Red Badge of Courage." He still was playing Audie Murphy but that was precisely what the template called for.

Having read previous reviews, I nearly didn't bother to watch TQG, but was glad that I did. By the standards of the 1960s and Audie Murphy Westerns, it wasn't at all bad. Murphy wasn't the greatest actor (though he did well in The Red Badge of Courage and The Unforgiven), but many of his facial reactions in TQG were quite good. Certainly Ted de Corsia over-acted, and the hotel seemed remarkably plush for such a small town. But I've seen far worse well-lit night scenes, and the townsfolk were elderly because all the young ranch-hands were away on trail. The old gang member seemed no older than grizzled old coots such as Gabby Hayes and Walter Brennan who featured in many Westerns. Spoiler begins: Sheriff Grant's strategy was all wrong. He locks up the only other fighting man in town and lets go the two outlaws sent to reconnoitre the town. (Later, when they are captured, Dan Evans remarks that's two less; pity that they weren't arrested earlier.) And Grant was foolhardy to go out to parley with Spangler. I did suspect that some of the revolvers might be seven- or eight-shot, but at least both sides went through the motions of reloading them.

Other than Ted DeCorsia's over the top performance as an outlaw gang leader, The Quick Gun will never rate as one of Audie Murphy's better big screen westerns. After Murphy does not accept DeCorsia's offer to get cut in on bank robbery in his old home town, Murphy who was going there anyway goes double quick to warn them. His own reputation as a gunslinger precedes him though and the townfolk are skeptical. Two of them uncle and nephew Walter Sande and Rex Holman want to kill him because of range war that took Murphy's father and Sande's two sons. But his friend sheriff James Best does believe him and so does the school teacher Merry Anders who has them both on a string and the town prepares. What comes after that is for you to see, but all I can say is Best the sheriff makes one colossally stupid mistake and the plot flows from there. But don't doubt that Audie doesn't save the day after most of the cast is killed in the siege of the town. Definitely not as good as some of his work for Universal in the previous decade.

"The Last Man On Earth" director Sidney Salkow's "The Quick Gun" ranks as one of Audie Murphy's lesser efforts. Nevertheless, western movie fans may find it tolerably entertaining as a B-movie horse opera with enough noisy gun play, clattering hoof beats, and dead bodies to compensate for all its dusty clichés. Audie plays Clint Cooper, a swift-shooting son of a six-gun who returns to the quiet frontier town of Shelby, two years after he shot it out with an influential rancher's two sons, to work the ranch that his deceased dad left him. Along the trail to Shelby, Clint runs into outlaw leader Jud Spangler and his gang of trigger-happy hard-cases. Spangler plans to raid Shelby, rob the bank brimming with cattle money, drink the town dry and carry off the women folk. When Clint and Jud (veteran tough guy Ted de Corsica of "Nevada Smith") tangle early on, we know half of everything that will transpire in this predictable but bloodthirsty oater. It seems that Jud and Clint were old pals that are now on opposite ends of the gun barrel. Clint escapes from Jud's army of pistoleros and rides to Shelby to warn Sheriff Wade (James Best before "The Dukes of Hazzard"). Meanwhile, one of Clint's vengeful enemies Tom Morrison (pot-bellied Walter Sande of "Bad Day at Black Rock") wants to settle an old score between them. Clint gunned down two of Tom's sons before he rode out two years ago, and Tom refuses to let anything stand in his way when it comes to payback. At the same time, Sheriff Wade has herded all the women and children into the local church and the remaining townspeople have erected a barricade across Main Street and doused it with kerosene to discourage Spangler's gun-hands. Were that not enough drama, the town's schoolmarm—Helen Reed (Merry Andrews of "Women of the Prehistoric Planet")—plans to wed Wade until she lays eyes on Clint and second thoughts plague her. The surprises are few and far between in "Utah Blaine" scenarist Robert E. Kent's saddle sore screenplay, but he serves up a passel of quotable dialogue. Surprises aren't what count here, it's the complications that give "The Quick Gun" its fleeting edge. As the townspeople are erecting the barricade, Tom and his nephew jump Clint in the barn and try to string him up. As a result, our hero is compelled to kill them. Wade arrives in time to disarm Clint and haul him off to jail, even when they need everything gun that they can lay their hands on. Unshaven Ted de Corsica is more obnoxious than intimidating, but he chews the scenery with such gusto that you actually look forward to seeing him. Murphy plays his usual,tight-lipped protagonist. Murphy's stuntman gets a good workout, especially in one scene when he leaps from a second-story balcony and hits the ground running. Clocking in at a brisk 87 minutes, "The Quick Gun" doesn't wear out its welcome and a higher-than-average body count gives it more menace than most American oaters made 1964 typically had before the advent of the spaghetti western. Seasoned western director Sidney Salkow doesn't waste a lot of time getting around to the gun play. The ending has a "High Noon" quality to it.

With all due respect to Audie Murphy the war hero, I'm going to wind up repeating myself here as in my other reviews of his films. He just doesn't have the looks or charisma to appear in a Western, either as an outlaw or a hero. And when the story itself isn't very exciting, the end result leaves you with just a ho-hum experience. I don't really want to be that critical of "The Quick Gun", as the premise was a decent one. Murphy's character Clint Cooper returns to the town of Shelby, Montana a couple of quick years after killing a pair of brothers in self defense. Apparently the citizens of Shelby were never in on that secret, or else Tom Morrison (Walter Sande), father of the dead men, did a pretty good job of keeping the murder angle alive. I guess it didn't help Clint's cause when he winds up killing Morrison and his nephew Rick (Rex Holman) in another throw down while the good folks of Shelby were preparing to defend themselves against the Spangler gang, intent on robbing the bank, ravaging the women and then burning it down for a night cap. You know, I was thinking about something after Clint knocked off two of Spangler's (Ted de Corsia) henchmen in the early going. If only a couple more villains gave chase and caught up to him, Clint would have been toast. It's not like he had a real easy time with the first two. The other thing that bothered me in a way was how quick and easy sheriff Scotty Grant was taken out by Spangler himself. James Best might not be the best character actor, but I always enjoy seeing him show up in a picture. In this one, he had the unenviable assignment of being engaged to Clint Cooper's former gal Helen Reed (Merry Anders), so they had to find a way for Clint to get back together with her without destroying the friendship between the two men. But having him gunned down was just a bit too convenient. Oh well, if you're a Western movie junkie like me you'll give this one a go and move on I guess. If I had to come up with a recommendation for an Audie Murphy flick, try 1959's "No Name on the Bullet" for a better than average one. Of course there's always his real life story, one in which he plays himself in 1955's "To Hell and Back".