The Gunfighter (1950)
Country: US
Technical: bw 84m
Director: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Richard Jaeckel
Synopsis:
A notorious gunfighter, at whose door have been placed far more killings than are geographically possible, arrives in the Texas town that houses his former sweetheart and over which presides a former partner, now marshal; meanwhile three men are in pursuit to avenge the death of their punk brother.
Review:
Possibly the first of the classic Westerns of the genre's golden decade, unpicking the myth of the gunslinger, turning it into something of a curse, rather in the way Shane would later. Here the figure is a man on whose shoulders hangs the weight of all that killing and riding, an effect superbly rendered by a star entering his own prime (as opposed to a Gary Cooper, who essentially did the same thing for the lawman in High Noon). Mitchell has never been better as the conflicted friend with a past of his own but now only too anxious to get the gunfighter out of town. Townsfolk and kids gather round to catch the inevitable stand-off while the womenfolk cluck their displeasure: this could almost be a Peckinpah picture. Far from an action number, the film is essentially a dramatic piece confined to the stage of the town's saloon, and King frames some beautifully deep-staged shots at key moments; elsewhere he lets the action speak for itself. Of course, the genre was due more than one revision to come, and Peck's Johnny Ringo now seems an impossibly romantic creation, all but sanctified in the closing funeral sequence.
Country: US
Technical: bw 84m
Director: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Richard Jaeckel
Synopsis:
A notorious gunfighter, at whose door have been placed far more killings than are geographically possible, arrives in the Texas town that houses his former sweetheart and over which presides a former partner, now marshal; meanwhile three men are in pursuit to avenge the death of their punk brother.
Review:
Possibly the first of the classic Westerns of the genre's golden decade, unpicking the myth of the gunslinger, turning it into something of a curse, rather in the way Shane would later. Here the figure is a man on whose shoulders hangs the weight of all that killing and riding, an effect superbly rendered by a star entering his own prime (as opposed to a Gary Cooper, who essentially did the same thing for the lawman in High Noon). Mitchell has never been better as the conflicted friend with a past of his own but now only too anxious to get the gunfighter out of town. Townsfolk and kids gather round to catch the inevitable stand-off while the womenfolk cluck their displeasure: this could almost be a Peckinpah picture. Far from an action number, the film is essentially a dramatic piece confined to the stage of the town's saloon, and King frames some beautifully deep-staged shots at key moments; elsewhere he lets the action speak for itself. Of course, the genre was due more than one revision to come, and Peck's Johnny Ringo now seems an impossibly romantic creation, all but sanctified in the closing funeral sequence.
Country: US
Technical: bw 84m
Director: Henry King
Cast: Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Richard Jaeckel
Synopsis:
A notorious gunfighter, at whose door have been placed far more killings than are geographically possible, arrives in the Texas town that houses his former sweetheart and over which presides a former partner, now marshal; meanwhile three men are in pursuit to avenge the death of their punk brother.
Review:
Possibly the first of the classic Westerns of the genre's golden decade, unpicking the myth of the gunslinger, turning it into something of a curse, rather in the way Shane would later. Here the figure is a man on whose shoulders hangs the weight of all that killing and riding, an effect superbly rendered by a star entering his own prime (as opposed to a Gary Cooper, who essentially did the same thing for the lawman in High Noon). Mitchell has never been better as the conflicted friend with a past of his own but now only too anxious to get the gunfighter out of town. Townsfolk and kids gather round to catch the inevitable stand-off while the womenfolk cluck their displeasure: this could almost be a Peckinpah picture. Far from an action number, the film is essentially a dramatic piece confined to the stage of the town's saloon, and King frames some beautifully deep-staged shots at key moments; elsewhere he lets the action speak for itself. Of course, the genre was due more than one revision to come, and Peck's Johnny Ringo now seems an impossibly romantic creation, all but sanctified in the closing funeral sequence.