Texas-Desperados

This is a western produced by A.C. Lyles--a guy who specialized in making lower budget westerns in the 1960s starring folks who were past their prime. This made casting the films cheaper but also provided work to some decent actors. But, because of the age of the cast, I have referred to Lyles' films as 'geezer westerns' and this isn't much of an exaggeration. In many of his westerns, the average age of the cast is about 60. In "Hostile Guns", however, the cast is relatively young...relatively. It stars George Mongomery (51) and also includes Donlevy (66), Red Barry (55), Fuzzy Knight (61), Yvonne DeCarlo (45), John Russell (46). However, a 36 year-old Tab Hunter co-stars in the film--making him a young pup by comparison. I don't recall Hunter appearing in other westerns--other than his ultra-campy "Lust in the Dust".

George Montgomery is in charge of transporting prisoners to prison. However, he's got a really nasty guy (Leo Gordon) in custody and needs an assistant, so he 'encourages' a prisoner already in custody (Tab Hunter plays a guy in jail for a minor charge) to assist him. Unfortunately, the nasty guy has some family members who vow to follow them and set him free. Along the route, they pick up several other prisoners--including a very stereotypical and mostly harmless Mexican (Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez), a really obnoxious public official (Robert Emhardt) and a lady (Yvonne DeCarlo) accused of murdering her abuser. In many ways, this comes off like a reworking of the film "Stagecoach"--but with a motley crew of prisoners, not stagecoach passengers. It is a well-used idea--but COULD have been a lot better. Why? Because some of the characters are terribly written--such as Gonzalez's very silly prisoner who WANTS to go to prison!!! But much worse is Emhardt is the worst, as his character lays on his routine so thick that he is utterly unbelievable. Overall, a time-passer--but also a film that should have been better.

In 1967's "Hostile Guns" George Montgomery plays a Texas sheriff who hires young troublemaker (Tab Hunter) to help him transport a handful of prisoners to the state penitentiary in another town. The captives include a burley tough guy (Leo Gordon), an embezzling railroad big shot (Robert Emhardt), an amiable Mexican (Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez) and a woman who was forced to kill her no-good man (Yvonne DeCarlo). Gordon's character has relatives & friends who seek to break him free on the trip.

This is basically a C-Grade version of "Stagecoach," but with a paddy wagon full of presumed ne'er-do-wells rather than just the Ringo Kid. Montgomery is an excellent masculine protagonist and the rest of the cast is solid, but the movie's letdown by the low-budget and melodramatic script. Like I said in my title blurb, the movie plays like a mediocre TV Western, which can be observed by the studio-bound sets and location shooting at Vasquez Rocks, where a lot of TV shows were shooting at the time (and to this day). This shouldn't come as a surprise since the director has a long history in TV productions.

While the film is worth watching if you like the cast, its ineptness is sometimes glaring. Like the stuntman they use to replace Hunter in the longshots of a fistfight at the beginning where it's painfully obvious that the guy's not Hunter, to put it nicely. Speaking of this fight, the young punk takes on his out-of-shape uncle who appears to be at least 65 years old and the old guy holds his own and even appears to be winning. Why sure!

The film runs 91 minutes.

GRADE: C-

This movie shows how efficient Hunter was at westerns :you should try and watch "these burning hills" and mainly the brilliant "gunman's walk " ,probably the best role in his career;here he effortlessly outstrips the johnny-one-note Montgomery .As for De Carlo ,she's too made up ,too glamour ,dressed up as though she were going to a ball : how could you believe she's a prisoner en route to jail ?

The Montgomery /Hunter rivalry is predictable but not too much cardboard ;the latter is sexually attracted to her but he feels she has been mistreated by her brutal husband as he was by his wicked stingy uncle ; the supporting characters are colorful : Leo Gordon is a convincing bad guy named "Pleasant" (sic) ; RC Crawford is an opportunist politician and Pedro Gonzalès provides the movie with its welcome comic relief:"I want to go to jail to lean cooking to be able to work in town afterwards"

Not a great western,which actually belongs to the precedent decade ,but never dull.

In 1967, when "Hostile Guns" was released, the movie western had already started to change. Spaghetti westerns were starting to be shown on this side of the Atlantic, and dark themes and anti-hero characters were starting to show up. Compared to other westerns coming out around this time, much of "Hostile Guns" seems old-fashioned, like the movie was actually made ten years earlier. The story is pretty predictable, even with the various twists that happen along the way. Still, the movie is competently made for what it is. No, it won't convert a non-western fan to the genre, but those who love westerns will probably find it acceptable.

The first half of this Western isn't bad at all. The dialogue is crisp, the situations believable, and it efficiently establishes all the central conflicts and relationships. But around the halfway point, things go terribly wrong. It's as if the filmmakers let their sons and daughters take over and complete the picture. Action scenes are poorly staged, characterizations become muddled and repetitious, plots and subplots get unsatisfyingly resolved in a strangely rushed, banal fashion. And the previously sharp dialogue gives way to howlers like "Mike, this could be your last chance to grow up!"

Interesting mish-mash of a cast however. I had often wondered who George Montgomery was, having seen his name listed for so many films, and while this was evidently made towards the end of his career, he's certainly a classicly square-jawed, masculine lead in the Clark Gable mold. Tab Hunter is okay as the rowdy young hotshot deputized by Sheriff Montgomery for a dangerous prisoner transport, and there are faint (very faint) echoes of the Wayne/Clift relationship in "Red River". Yvonne DeCarlo, though aging, is still believably fetching as the woman prisoner who drives a wedge between the two men.

I guess I should have known there was something fishy about this movie early on, judging by the God-awful stunt doubling done for Tab Hunter in his first fight scenes. The double, quite clearly and amusingly, doesn't look a thing like him.