Rächer ohne Waffen

Randolph Scott again tries to hang up his guns and walk away from violence, but those pesky bad guys just leave him with no choice in this good-looking Cinecolor potboiler that anticipates 'The Gunfighter'.

As usual it benefits from a literate script (by Alan LeMay), good production values and a good cast, including handsome Arizona locations and a pair of handsome female leads playing sisters, in the form of blue-eyed Barbara Britton and titian-haired Dorothy Hart (best remembered as Jane to Johnny Weissmuller's Tarzan five years later in 'Tarzan's Savage Fury') in stetson and jeans.

Very little.

Randolph Scott alone is enough to make a good movie, but here he has a superlative script performed by some of the best actors Hollywood has ever had, including the excellent Bruce Cabot, a wonderful Charles Kemper, and two lovely ladies who look surprisingly like each other (at least here), which is good because they are supposed to be sisters: Barbara Britton and Dorothy Hart, two great actresses.

Mr. Scott, a genuine gentleman, used to pooh-pooh the notion he was an actor, but in "Gunfighters" he gives not only one of his best performances, but a great performance by anyone's standards.

He is alternately subtle and obvious, showing just the right emotion and attitude called for by the script, by Alan LeMay, who knew a thing or two about westerns.

Mr. Scott has a lot of help in this powerful story, with the above and Forrest Tucker, rather quietly effective as the hired gunman, and Steven Geray as Jose in an intelligently funny role (so many westerns had very unfunny funny roles), as well as so many great atmosphere and minor players, such as the ubiquitous Hank Bell, as usual uncredited.

"Gunfighters" is not only one of Randolph Scott's best movies, it is a great movie, one of the best I've seen lately, and I've been watching a lot of them recently. I highly recommend "Gunfighters," and can even highly recommend the print at YouTube. Enjoy.

Gunfighters (AKA: The Assassin) is directed by George Waggner and adapted to screenplay by Alan Le May from the novel "Twin Sombreros" written by Zane Grey. It stars Randolph Scott, Barbara Britton, Bruce Cabot, Dorothy Hart, Griff Barnett and Forest Tucker. Music is by Rudy Schrager and Gerard Carbonara and cinematography by Fred Jackman Jr.

A gunman who has laid down his guns finds that circumstances test him to the limit...

It's a familiar formula that any Western film fan can acknowledge as being over used, that's not to say that the right production isn't worth visiting as such, but expectation of something fresh can often lead to disappointment.

Built on solid foundations due to scorching location photography and Randolph Scott prepping himself for greater things in the next decade (see also The Walking Hills 1949), it's a pleasurable piece. It also - via the narrative - isn't afraid to be bold as regards the ultimate decisions made by Scott's Brazos character, giving the pic a darker edge and being all the better for it. Elsewhere, the villains are standard stuff but entertaining regardless, the twin beauties of Britton and Hart have interesting parts to play, and the action scenes are well put together - with the pursuit sequences exciting. Filmed in Cinecolor, it's nice to report this is one of the better photographed Westerns in that format, which is just as well because the Sedona locations are to die for.

Not what you would term a keeper, but for Western fans of the era and Scott fans in general, it's worth its salt. 6.5/10

GUNFIGHTERS is the unoriginal title for Zane Grey's "Twin Sombreros", which, considering the story is about two sisters who are almost twin-like in appearance, would have been a more apt title for this film.

The story is routine as depicted here, with bad guy BRUCE CABOT as the man responsible for a few killings over range rights on property owned by GRIFF BARNETT and his daughters BARBARA BRITTON and DOROTHY HART.

RANDOLPH SCOTT is the man who rides into town at the start without his gunbelt, but by the end of the story he dons it for the final gun duel before tossing it off again and heading west for the happy ending. This is after he's fought a couple of the town bullies, including FORREST TUCKER, and won.

What surprised me was how good the warm tones of Cinecolor looked, while not quite up to the standard of three-strip Technicolor. Looks as though Columbia was aiming to give the film an A-budget look.

For Randolph Scott fans, it's a treat to see him in fine shape--but the script is ordinary and the direction is uninspired. One would never guess the story is from an original penned by Zane Grey.

This is a routine but entertaining western with nice colors.Randolph Scott portrays a gunfighter who is sick and tired of killing his fellow men (that's what a voice over tells us at the beginning of the film).So he decides he will retire in a horse town where his good old pal lives.But alas the friend has just been killed when he arrives and he is a suspect (A wealthy man who owns lots of acres in the country needs a suspect ,more like).

The main originality is that ,generally ,the rich villain ranch man has two sons or more ( a good one and (a) bad one(s);see "duel in the sun" " broken lance").Here,for a change,the old rich person has two gorgeous daughters,one of whom's in love with one of his pa's henchmen whereas the second falls for...well you guess who.