Vier schnelle Colts

Grade C story, grade B+ direction, grade B- actors, grade C- acting, and grade B+ ending, so a grade C+ film.

I really stumbled across this "Western" film. I had clicked on a Charlie Chan film while searching through YouTube and Four Fast Guns popped up instead.

Edgar Buchanan had star billing. Yes, Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction and from over 150+ films and TV shows where he earned fame from being listed as uncredited or with characters named: Bartender Dan, Applejack, Uncle Willie, Old Willy, Dr. Samuels, Uncle Harry, and Will "Bill" Dowdy to name a few. So, when the credits began for Four Fast Guns and Buchanan was the star, I had to watch. Especially as Buchanan intoned the opening lines with "This man came along the trail one Sunday morning in '73, taking it slow and easy, keeping his eyes open and his gun hand ready. He came from nowhere, I guess. Anyhow, he never said from where and we never asked. He was going to stop off in Purgatory, to make his stand like he lived - alone. This is Number One. He called himself Sabin."

And then there was the action from the get go as Sabin is about to be gunned down by what is termed "a town tamer." After killing the man who would have murdered him, Sabin rides into the town of Purgatory where he is taken for the sent for town tamer.

The plot is typical in that there is a villain (monster) holding a town (castle) captive, and the townsfolk gather enough money to hire a fast gun (knight errant) to save them and free the villain's wife (damsel-in-distress).

For the most part it works. The director, William J. Hole Jr., makes the most of shooting in black and white, and he know how to "show" the audience by not showing them. But he doesn't know how to keep the story tight and focused. Most of the "starring" actors are recognizable-James Craig, Brett Halsey, Richard Martin, Paul Richards-but aren't names you know. Usually, they turn in a good performance, but here there is a feeling they could have all done better.

The ending is true to the film and could have been powerful and memorable but instead it comes off as mediocre. The final shot was worthy of a Clint Eastwood Western, but here it comes close to laughable.

With someone else at the helm, this might have had a chance to be a High Noon. Instead Four Fast Guns has ended up a forgotten film.

I still recommend giving this film a viewing because the majority of what's there on the screen is pretty darn good.

The title might vaguely ring a bell as the final film of Martha Vickers; who fifteen years earlier had a father in a wheelchair in 'The Big Sleep' and this time has a husband similarly challenged.

Despite being shot in CinemaScope, the general monochromatic drabness of the town of Purgatory (which the script is fond of reminding us the town is called, and doubtless inspired the name of the town in 'Support Your Local Gunfighter') captures the cramped bleakness and propensity for violence that probably characterised the authentic Old West.

James Craig rides into Purgatory when they're taking up a collection for a town tamer. He takes the pot, then has troubling doing the job. The problem seems to be wheelchair-bound Paul Richards, who runs one of the saloons and spends most of his time playing the piano and reading poetry. Craig can't bring himself to shoot an educated, kindly, helpless man despite the waves of lust sent off by Richards' wife, Martha Vickers. So Craig moves into the dilapidated Marshal's office with Edgar Buchanan, and begins to renovate the place while four hired guns come into town seriatim to earn Richards' money.

The comedic elements work pretty well in this film, especially when Richard Martin shows up in the movie, playing a Mexican. The serious elements..... well, I'm sure they're there, I just can't take any of it particularly seriously when we don't see any gunfights, just people knocking memorials into the ground, while the good townfolk who want Craig to shoot a cripple mock him for cowardice.

Perhaps it has something to do with the fisheying of he image whenever cinematographer John Nickolaus moves the camera. Perhaps it's all a burlesque of the psychological and symbol-laden A westerns that the 1950s threw up occasionally. That would explain why they decided to call the place Purgatory, when the two towns that actually bear the name are in New England.

Four Fast Guns is an interesting if not completely successful B western, done at a time when these kinds of films and stories were finding more of a home on the small screen. I could have seen this one as an episode on The Virginian for instance which was a 90 minute show.

James Craig has an encounter with a 'town tamer' on the trail and when he gets prodded into a fight he kills the prodder. Craig goes on into the town with the name of Purgatory and proceeds to take the job of town tamer.

Who Purgatory wants to eliminate is Paul Richards, once a fast gun himself, but now limited to running the saloon and all the organized outlawry in the area. Richards is limited also because he's in a wheelchair due to a broken back. And apparently he's also limited as far as wife Martha Vickers is concerned.

Richards sends a series of gunmen against Craig, Four Fast Guns to be precise. Three come up short, but the fourth is Brett Halsey who presents some unique problems no one foresaw on both sides.

The B western had certainly moved way beyond the Saturday matinée kiddie trade. You wouldn't have a Roy Rogers western dealing with something like impotence. Four Fast Guns probably would have been more explicit but for the Code.

Four Fast Guns was done on the cheap so it won't get a higher rating from me. Still it's an interesting work.

OK, it's definitely not True grit, the acting is not great but the story has solid background.

It's good for a low budget movie and will be enjoyed as a Sunday afternoon Western.

Sadly, since the early 1980's the Western movie has been frowned upon and assigned to the B shelf ever since, there were some exceptions, though the investment which such movies enjoyed in the 50's, 60's and the early 1970's is now sadly a thing of the past.

For this very reason even the lesser quality B Westerns are enjoying somewhat of a come back among true Western fans.

Overall it's not a bad movie, the script is actually quite good, acting on the other hand is below average, with few exceptions. Direction and production seem to have suffered due to lack of funding.

All in all, a 6 out of 10, Not unmissable, but still worth seeing!.