Rächer ohne Waffen

Back in his early days Randolph Scott did a whole flock of westerns for his original studio, Paramount, based on Zane Grey novels. In a sense Gunfighters is a return to those roots, but not terribly successful.

After he nearly kills a friend who just had to see if Scott's prowess with six shooters is for real, Scott determines to hang up the weaponry and look for an obscure place to settle down.

It's all been done before, the gunfighter with his skills are needed to right some local wrongs and Gunfighters is no exception. Before he knows it Randolph Scott is involved in the local range war and has to deal with such baddies as Forrest Tucker and Bruce Cabot and a pair of sisters who've got their eyes on him in Barbara Britton and Dorothy Hart.

Nothing terribly exceptional in Gunfighters, but Randolph Scott fans will like it.

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.

I saw the movie the first time back in the late 1940's after reading the book "Twin Sombreros". When I taped it recently from the Westerns Channel, I noted that R. Scott's name was Brazos Keene in the book, but Brazos Kane in the movie. Also I still had a hard time telling the girls apart. The story drifted away a little from the book, the names were still familiar, Kiscaden, Inskip, Johnny, Beth and Jane. One of the greatest lines in Westerns was uttered by Kiscaden when he told Brazos that his badge represented the law..."if the man wearing it goes down, it just gets up and jumps on the pocket of another man, and keeps right on coming" (that's as close as I can remember the statement). You can still watch the movie, it was very interesting.

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.

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