Der schweigsame Fremde

Fresh from his work on 'House of Wax' Andre De Toth was assigned another 3D project by Columbia in the form of this Randolph Scott western with rather Gothic-looking interiors in which De Toth demonstrates a liking for shadows when not pushing objects at the audience. These include Lee Marvin, already teamed with Ernest Borgnine, with whom he soon made such an ugly pair of heavies in 'Bad Day at Black Rock' (the two of them vying with Alfonso Bedoya to see who can show the most teeth while grimacing).

There's hardly any romance this time round, Claire Trevor providing wry asides rather than fluttering her eyelashes.

I saw this movie in a naval base movie theatre, in, I think, 1956. It was the first thing I recall seeing Lee Marvin in. This guy just absolutely fascinated me. Randolph Scott had been a "Semi-hero" of mine in the late thirties and the forties. In this movie, he was so old, and so slow drawing his gun, that they had to speed up the film to make it look like he was drawing his gun fast. Lee, on the other hand didn't need any "camera" tricks to make him look fast. Lee Marvin, as he was dying from having been shot by this amazingly slow lawman (Randolph Scott), looked down at his two hands, as if to say, "Hands -- how could you have failed me". I thought, facetiously, "Boy oscar is written oll over that!" Really a neat scene. That began a continuing admiration for Lee Marvin,, who could do bad guys, good guys, good guy-bad guy (Cat Ballou), Comedy, Drama, Action, He was a craftsman, and a master at it.

The location shooting was done at Movie Flats off Route 395 near Lone Pine, California, and, along with a lot of faces in this film, will be familiar to experienced moviegoers. They've been making movies up there for years. The rocks themselves are studded with bolts and adhesions of cement left over from early productions, which date back at least to "Gunga Din." And it's easy to see why it was used so often in inexpensive Westerns like this. The jumbo-sized boulders seem made of stucco and the Sierra Nevadas in the background include Mt. Whitney, as colorful as a painted backdrop. The whole place looks as if nature had put it there to be used as a spectacularly realistic phony movie set.

Yes, it's alive with history. The ghosts of a thousand extras in sombreros haunt these rugged trails, and at night when the wind moans you can hear the hoofbeats of yesteryear. Zzzzz.

Some of the ghosts must surely include Randolph Scott, who spent so much time before the cameras here in so many movies. In this one, he's an ex-confederate who allows himself to be hired out to save a stagecoach company that ships gold to -- well, never mind.

Scott is in his burnished Western middle age and rides his usual horse, a beautiful mount, a kind of rusty brown animal with a white face, white maine, and white tail. (I was momentarily tempted to call the horse a "roan" but hesitated to do so because I don't know what the word means.) Anyway, the horse will be almost as familiar as Scott. Scott's hat will look familiar too. So will Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin, the two outstanding heels of "Bad Day at Black Rock," but they don't get enough screen time. Alfonso Bedoya, Gold Hat from "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," has more screen time. He can't act, but he doesn't have to. If you think he did curious things to the word "badges" in "Treasure," you absolutely must hear how he wraps his speech organs around "foreigner" in this one. George MacReady is the chief villain. I prefer it when his villainy is of a slyer, more boardroom-bound sort.

Claire Trevor is a hooker with a heart of gold. I know it's hard to believe, but hookers come in all different varieties. Joan Weldon is pretty and was a singer rather than an actress. There is a marvelous scene in which Scott introduces his old girl friend, Trevor, to Weldon, the new young beauty he's just met, and the two women trade the kind of insults and suspicious queries that only women know how to sling about. "It's funny he never mentioned you to me." And, "From the way he described you, I thought you'd be much older." Scott, meanwhile, is standing there with this dumb smile, looking back and forth at his two friends, as if pleased that they are being so nice to one another, giving an excellent impression of a man who hasn't the slightest idea of what's going on between them.

Movies like this don't crop up on TV very often and sometimes, remembering how much I enjoyed them as a child, I find myself missing them. Then sometimes they DO show up, as this one did, and I watch it out of curiosity and wind up realizing that there are a lot of things to be nostalgic about but Westerns like this aren't among them.

'The Stranger Wore a Gun' did have a good deal of potential. The premise sounded interesting as was seeing how early 3D would fare. Randolph Scott was always well worth watching, well when his acting style matured, especially his work with one of his most prolific directors Budd Boetticher (i.e. 'Seven Men from Now'). Andre DeToth was another frequent director, with he and Scott doing six films together. Ones that were watchable at least for namely Scott but not must sees.

Which is where 'The Stranger Wore a Gun' fits under exactly, watchable but not essential. While Scott is one of the best aspects and it is a good representation of him as an actor, he did do a lot better films and performances. It is not a good representation really of DeToth, who was no stranger to good and more films himself, my first exposure to him being 'House of Wax'. Does all that mean that 'The Stranger Wore a Gun' is a bad film? No. It's not great or even good either, my feelings if anything were very mixed and a large part of me was disappointed seeing as it was an opportunity to see Scott in the film genre he was best known for.

Sure 'The Stranger Wore a Gun' has good things. Some of the production values are nice, the film is handsomely shot and the scenery is attractive regardless of whether they're authentic or not. The music is pleasant and rousing enough. The climax has fire and excitement that wasn't present enough in too much of what came before it.

Found the cast to be a very mixed bag. Scott comes off best, typically purposefully stoic but very authoritative too. Claire Trevor brings a good deal of class to her role and does a great job with what she has. Seeing Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine in anything is always worthwhile, and seeing both of them being menacing and fun (especially Marvin) and making the most of the too little they had was a pleasure.

Others were less successful. Worst was Alfonso Bedoya, who overdoes it and comes over as really grating. Joan Weldon is rather pallid, acting inexperience showing, and the film does too little with her character, to the point where you question why she is even there. Was not sure what to make of George MacReady, he does what he can but did think at the end of the day that he could have been more menacing and gone for it more (being almost too smooth). DeToth's direction is pretty routine and didn't seem properly engaged with the material or know what to do with it.

While some of the production values were nice, the 3D is pretty cheap looking and added nothing (almost gimmicky) and the editing in some scenes is haphazard. Lets not get started on the blatantly obvious stunt doubles. The script lacked toughness and grit, playing it too safe too often, and was very stilted and hard to take seriously. The story's action is pretty forgettable and under-utilised, shining properly only in the climax, and the soapy love triangle is just as pointless as the 3D. Not only was the story bland and silly, it felt incomplete and like things had been dropped out in editing when they should have been left as some events and character motivations are vague at best and downright beyond confusing at times.

In conclusion, definitely not something to write off but there are far better Scott, DeToth and Western films around. 5/10

Having been shot in 3-D, expect a lot of guns to be pointed at you and sometimes shot, fire coming at the camera, and even rock formations in Lone Pine to appear to have shelves. Outside of this minor distraction, the story is a good one concerning the aftermath of Quantrill's Raiders involving one of his spies, Jeff Travis (Randy Scott), who is determined to run away from his past and begin a new life. Following a fracas on a riverboat, he ends up in Prescott, Arizona, just as the capital of the territory is being moved to Phoenix because of the lack of law and order in the town. Somewhat of a mentor to him as well as lover is the soiled dove Josie Sullivan, played knowingly by Claire Trevor. He rides into Prescott loaded for bear, hence the title "The Stranger Wore a Gun." That he can't shake his past even in an out of the way western hamlet becomes obvious when both Josie and Jules Mourret (George Macready), another ghost from yesterday, turn up there. It's not quite clear where the stranger is heading until a close pal is murdered by Jules' henchmen. To muddy the water a damsel in distress appears, pretty Shelby Conroy (Joan Weldon), who seems shy and innocent. The stranger begins falling in love with her to the displeasure of Josie. Newcomer Jules is holding a Mexican gang at bay led by the colorful Degas (Alfonso Bedoya). The stranger begins playing one gang against the other to almost be gunned down in the crossfire.

Two of Jules' henchmen would go on to win Academy Awards a few years later, Lee Marvin as Dan Kurth and Ernest Borgnine as Bull Slager. Borgnine wears one of the loudest cowboy outfits ever, including a green shirt. He looks like a dude from the east. This doesn't stop him from being the sadistic bully he usually played in those days. Marvin too is his usual twisted demented character fans loved to hate. To see these two in action is worth the price of admission.

Postscript: Look for Tap Canutt, son of famous stunt man Yakima Canutt, in a bit part. He was also one of the stunt men for the film.