Benutzerrezensionen

Jerry Thorpe may have been something of a lightweight director but even lightweights can hit pay-dirt once in awhile and "Day of the Evil Gun", which he made in 1968, is a fine and somewhat unusual western. The story is not dissimilar to such earlier westerns as "The Searchers" and "Two Rode Together", (two men searching for a woman abducted by the Apaches), but it takes a few diversions along the way. The men in question are played by veterans Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy and the slightly grizzled cast also includes Dean Jagger, Paul Fix and John Anderson as well as a young Dean Stanton sans the Harry. It's no classic, I'll grant you but it's sufficiently different to be of interest and fans of the western won't be disappointed.

Good western with Ford playing a gunman trying to put his guns down and come home to the wife and kids. Upon arrival at the homestead he finds his family has been taken by injun raiders. This leads to his searching for them in a harsh land where he must battle not only the redskins on their own turf but Army deserters, a gang of cutthroat Mexican outlaws, and a man he must ride with who is close to losing his mind. Lots of action and gunsmoke.

Ford's performance as Warfield anticipated by nearly a decade the western anti-heroes of Sam Peckinpah. It is a gripping and surprisingly well-produced oater (considering its modest budget). It really succeeds in evoking the terror of man alone against the wilderness. The villains - of which there are a number - appear two-dimensional and even sympathetic; e.g., Captain Addis and his men, reduced by massacre and desertion, perform almost heroically in their desperation (watch for Harry Dean Stanton's understated role as a cavalry sergeant). The Apaches are seen as brutal, but no more so than their white enemies or the surrounding deserts and moutains, which are haughtingly evoked in this first-rate western. Highly recommended.

Presumed dead, aging Gunslinger Warfield (Glenn Ford) returns to Adamsville to find that wife Angie and two young daughters have been kidnapped by the Apaches. Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) is the man giving out the news and also claiming Angie was to marry him after giving up on Warfield ever returning. An uneasy alliance forms as the two men set off to find the missing girls.

Directed by Jerry Thorpe and scripted by Charles Marquis Warren, Day Of The Evil Gun is a low budget mixture of more notable genre pieces. Tho the production value is low, it is however boosted by two enjoyable lead performances and the story is never less than interesting as our duo run into a number of feverish like encounters. In fact the film very much feels like a spaghetti Western at times, such is the odd ambiance that accompanies the men on their perilous odyssey. Fine support comes from Dean Jagger & John Anderson, while Harry Dean Stanton also weighs in with an appearance.

No great film by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly one that has a little more to it to keep it above average. 6/10

An ex-gunfighter searching for his kidnapped wife and children is joined by his peaceful neighbour. Accompanied by an eccentric scout and a trader, the men run into Apaches and bandits - encounters that eventually turn the neighbour into a cold-blooded killer.

Though a traditional western, Day of the evil gun has touches of the spaghetti western with its grittiness and violence. A reworking of the Searchers, it's a bleak film that starts slow and without much energy, but it gradually hooks you, especially with the two performances from Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy, who make an uneasy alliance, which adds some tension. I mean, they have enough to contend with- Apaches, Army deserters.

Day of the evil gun isn't a great western, but it's watchable and gets better as it goes on. The location adds to the grim mission our heroes are on.

I like Glen FORD and consider this western a minor classic. Pretty unknown and still waiting to be recognized even by movie buffs this little gem has definitely not yet the reputation it deserves.

"Directed with lazy assurance" as the TIME OUT FILM GUIDE correctly writes, by veteran director Jerry Thorpe, and played with laid back gusto by all involved, this western offers a very grim and dark view on the "old west", more influenced by the Italo-western (which was in full bloom in the later 60ies) than the classic US-flick. Gunfighter FORD, aged, bored, tired and with "have-seen-it-all" eyes, comes back home just to find his wife and 2 small daughter carried away by Apaches. Arthur KENNEDY claims his wife was about to marry him and after an incredibly tough fist-fight they team up (unwillingly) to rescue them.

What follows is an odyssey through some very bizarre situations, staged with the aforementioned lazy assurance, situations, which one does not happen to see in many other US-western: everything is dark, depressing, cynical and void of any sympathy. Whereas THE SEARCHERS had some hope underneath, this is more than 10 years later and the characters, scripted by veteran scriptwriter Charles Marquis Warren, are driven by the urge to do what has to be done, but equipped with little hope. FORD plays the "lost character" in an old west with dark cynical humor, one of his best later performances. Kennedy is fine, too, and also very worth mentioning is the character played by Nico Minardos, whom you would more expect to find in any Quentin Tarantino movie than in a B-western from the later 60ies. Great rough music by Jeff Alexander! All in all a very watchable outing, made by experts, each of whom must have had a dozen or more western to his credit at the time, when they teamed up to put DAY OF THE EVIL GUN on celluloid.

Watch out for this and don't miss it, it's very well worth a viewing !

This agreeable, meaty Western contains engaging plot, intrigue , thrills , shootouts and results to be quite entertaining. It's a classical recounting about an experienced gunfighter called Lorn Warfield (Glenn Ford) who returns home after an absence of three years. Lorn finds his ranch in ruin. His neighbor, Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy), informs Lorn that his ranch was raided by the Apaches who kidnapped his wife and two children. Forbes claims that the wife intented to marry to marry him, presuming her husband dead; not knowing his neighbor has unknown reasons of his own for helping him. Later on, Lorn decides to find the Apache camp and rescue his wife and daughters. His neighbor, Owen, also joins Lorn in his quest. The two men don't get along because Owen courted Lorn's wife in Lorn's absence. Angie consented to Owen's courtship only because she believed her husband Lorn to be dead. Despite the tension between Lorn and Owen the two men are determined to find Angie and her daughters. Things get really hard when Lorn and Owen run into Mexican bandits led by DeLeon (Nico Minardos), army soldiers commanded by Captain Jefferson Addis (John Anderson) and Sergeant Parker (Harry Dean Stanton) and eventually Apaches. They had one enemy even more deadly than the Apaches... each other!. Two men on a desperate search to save a woman only one of them could have!

An interesting and unknown Western with frantic action, pursuits, emotion, impressive attacks, fights and shootouts. The highlights of the film are the breathtaking assaults, horse chases and of course, the final gundown . The traditional story and exciting screenplay was well scripted by Western expert Charles Marquis Warren though clichés run through-out, the enjoyable tale is enhanced for interesting moments developed among main characters and especially on the relationship between Glenn Ford and his friend/enemy Arthur Kennedy, both of whom giving sensational interpretations. A Western directed with lazy assurance is something like a cross between ¨John Ford's The searchers¨ and ¨Sam Peckinpah's The deadly companions¨. It also deals with the legendary gunfighter who wants to give up his weapons, a role already explored by Glenn Ford in other films and especially in the classic ¨Russell Rouse's The Fastest gun alive¨, one of the best Westerns in the fifties. Regarding the ordinary kidnap of a family, and the husband of the captured woman enlists the help of his neighbor to find the Apaches that seized his beloved ones. Glenn Ford is an ageing tired of the macho kick who goes back home after 3 years only to learn from a neighbouring farmer that his wife and two small daughters have been carried off by Apaches. Along with Glenn Ford stars as well, Arthur Kennedy, who get together in uneasy alliance and they set out on the trail. Their odyssey , with the two men subtly changing sides as the farmer starts to revel in the hunt and the gunfighter leaves him to get on the killing, is studded with pleasingly strange encounters: a minister's wife brooding in a darkened room over her experiences as an Apache captive; a cluster of the burning shacks that results to be a town in the death-throes of cholera; Indians who disarm them with lassoes and stake them out to die from buzzard's beak; a Mormon ghost that harbours a sinister band of suspicious soldiers. Along with these two great interpreters there are a lot of familiar secondary cast providing adequate interpretations, such as: Dean Jagger, John Anderson, Paul Fix, Nico Minardos, Harry Dean Stanton, Pilar Pellicer, Royal Dano, Ross Elliott, Barbara Babcock, Jaime Fernández and James Griffith.

It displays an evocative and enjoyable musical score by composer Jeff Alexander. Likewise, a colorful and brilliant cinematography by cameraman Wallace Kelley. The motion picture was professionally directed by Jerry Thorpe. He was a craftsman who often worked in television and occassionally cinema: ¨Venetian affair¨. He made a lot of episodes for popular TV series , such as: ¨Falcon Crest, Harry O, Kung Fu, Hawaii 5-0, The Texans , Storefront Lawyers, American Dream , Chicago, The interns, Lazarius syndrome¨. Day of the Evil Gun (1968) rating: 6.5/10. No masterpiece, but distinctly effective.

Released in 1968, "Day of the Evil Gun" stars Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy as two older men pursuing the Apaches who kidnapped the wife and daughters of the former. The two are at odds because the latter wants to be the man of the family after the former skipped out and was thought dead. Unfortunately, the trail is two months cold and they run into numerous problems, like being staked out in the desert and being hindered by a curious group of remote soldiers.

"Day of the Evil Gun" has a quality late 60's Western vibe, so if you favor Westerns from this period, like 1966' "Duel at Diablo" and 1970's "Two Mules for Sister Sara," it's worthwhile, but it's mortally hampered by several unbelievable scenes, particularly the "yeah right" climatic rescue sequence. Another problem is the way a certain character curiously morphs into a brutal, conniving and cowardly murderer at the end, which he was not previously during all the various stressful trials. It's unfortunate because with just a little tweaking this would've been an effective Western.

The film runs 95 minutes and was shot in Durango, Mexico.

GRADE: C

Make movie available on DVD as you can't buy this excellent movie on any format. Anyone who likes westerns should not miss this one. The psychological roles that Ford and Kennedy play make this movie definitely different and spellbinding for the viewer. What's interesting about this movie is the apparent role changes that take place between Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy. They switch from Ford as a reforming gunslinger to Kennedy a mild family man turning the opposite direction. The movie lived up to my expectations of both actors. I missed this movie when it was first released in 1968 and can not find it available in any format. So far, catch it on TV if you can in your area.

An offbeat ,almost dusky western ,with two veterans of the genre ,Arthur Kennedy and Glenn Ford ,both at their best and giving their characters substance :who is really the"hero"?Even when the movie is over ,you will not know..

The subject is well known and was often treated in the past notably by John Ford : rescuing women captured by the Indians ,but the script is bizarre,including scenes which you would not expect ,which makes the two men's adventures an odyssey in miniature :the prisoners ,tied under the blistering sun ,and the birds of prey which gather à la Hitchcock's "the birds";the town where cholera is rampant;the pacifist man who does not understand why one can murder his fellow man.

Not very plausible (particularly the final stampede ) ,most likely a fable with an ambiguous "moral".

"Day of the Evil Gun" is the sort of western you probably wouldn't have seen before the 1960s. This is because the film is filled with a lot of non-heroes...folks who are just scum and no nice guys like you'd have found in earlier movies. Again and again, the two anti- heroes meet up with folks who end up being pretty much awful people...a true late 60s sort of plot, that's for sure.

When the film begins, Lorn (Glenn Ford) returns home after being absent for a couple months--only to find his homestead deserted. It seems the Apaches kidnapped his wife and kids and so he sets off to find them. A neighbor (Arthur Kennedy) insists on coming along...but Lorn is a tough guy and insists of doing it alone. Why would Owen insist on coming along and risking his life? This is something you'll have to learn through the course of this picture. To find the women, both men resort to being scum-bags themselves-- threatening folks and picking up clues as to the whereabouts of the three. And each time they stop to look for clues, they find folks who are just awful.

Overall, the film is enjoyable but a bit grim. Additionally, the rescue was AMAZINGLY easy--too easy. Fortunately, the film is redeemed with a terrific ending...after Lorn gives up his gun forever. Worth seeing but grim....

Like Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter Glenn Ford in Day Of The Evil Gun is a gunfighter who deserted his wife and two daughters and has now come home. But on arrival discovers that they've been taken by the Apaches and he sets off to find them.

Unlike Peck's wife though, Barbara Babcock has grown inpatient for her man and has given up. She's taken up with her neighbor Arthur Kennedy who declares himself in on the hunt. These two form one uneasy alliance.

But they have to stay allied because they do come across a whole lot of low lifes on their journey into Apache country. On the way there they come into a charming, but coldblooded Mexican bandit in Nico Minardos, a cholera epidemic in a town with an avaricious store owner in James Griffith and some army deserters who are an outlaw gang with John Anderson in charge.

During all this time Kennedy who has lorded his moral superiority over Ford develops into quite a killing machine himself. Makes for an interesting climax.

In his recent biography of his father, Peter Ford who played one of the army deserters said that this was one cursed production. Some kind of malady was going around in Durango, Mexico where the film was shot and everyone in the cast came down. The most serious was Dean Jagger who nearly died. Jagger has only one scene in the film, but he plays an itinerant peddler who pretends he's crazy so that the Apaches will deal with him. He looked somewhat ravaged in his appearance. The malady whatever it was also affected the crew on Guns For San Sebastian shooting at the same time.

Peter Ford who played one of the army deserters also said his father was pleased to be working with Arthur Kennedy again, they had been together on one of Ford's best films Trial. Day Of The Evil Gun is a competently made western does drag a bit in spots. Still fans of the horse opera and Glenn Ford should like it.

I used to enjoy Westerns. Now I wonder. This one has a good: cast, color scenery, and production values. The last few minutes were well done. But as a whole it moved way too slowly.

I am writing this review to draw attention to the typical way adventure movies --and this one in particular-- have such ridiculous and improbable action scenes. I was really charged with disgust at the way the two men rescued the wife and two kids from the Indian camp at the end of the movie. Everything fell so improbably into place for them. Using ropes they somehow silently scale an escarpment in daylight out of sight and hearing by the Indian guards. They sneak up and kill a guard. They are in a perfect place to spy on the Indian village, including the convenient placement of the wife and kids tied to outdoor poles. The two men scale down the escarpment in plain sight of Indians below, who don't notice them. Conveniently the three captives are in a perfect position to be rescued -- at the edge of the Indian camp (so the two men can sneak up behind them to untie them) and right next to the horse corral (so Glen Ford can stampede the horses so the Indians can't pursue) and near the ammunition wagon and an oil lantern (so Glen can blow it up) and an empty horse-driven wagon (so Arthur Kennedy can drive the family away). Oh, and the Indians were conveniently burying their dead at the time, so Glen and Arthur would have less interference! Even with all this, the Indians should have recouped and caught up to the wagon in the badlands far from a white settlement. The only thing missing from this derring-do is for Glen to have flicked a cigarette behind him to start a sagebrush fire to thwart the pursuing Indians!

It is not credited as such but this is essentially a retread of The Searchers ,and the two movies share a common plot -the hunt for relatives stolen by Indians Glenn Ford plays a noted gunman trying to turn his back on his former violent profession and who joins his neighbour ,Arthur Kennedy ,in the hunt for Kennedy's wife and two children who have been taken by Apaches.Complicating the matter is the fact that both men are in love with the woman in question. They are helped in their quest by a demented Indian trader -played by Dean Jagger in a way that seems to be a conscious tip of the hat to Hank Worden's performance in a similar role in The Searchers .The mission proves a fraught one -they are tortured by bandits ,encounter renegades and endure Indian raids en route to finding the people they seek

The men undergo personality changes as the trek unfolds ,with the previously peaceable Kennedy displaying a new found relish for the killing fields and events build to a personal confrontation between the two men Performances are superlative ,the script by Charles Marquis Warren and Eric Bercovi is pointed and candid .Jerry Thorpe directs capably if somewhat anonymously

This was designed for TV but wisely was given a cinema release .I urge all western lovers to see it

Glenn Ford... way after "Gilda", his best work from 1946m in my opinion. Day of the Evil Gun, with Arthur Kennedy. Ford and Kennedy are Warfield and Forbes. We learn right off that it's 1869, right after the civil war, but there's a strange connection between them; Forbes was engaged to Angie (Barbara Babcock) when Warfield was already thought to be dead. Warfield goes looking for his wife and family, and has dangerous adventures along the way. meets up with a greedy amurrican, who had dirty dealings with the apache indians, as well as the apaches themselves. and even an army outfit that isn't what it seems. Ford could play anything, so of course he's great in this one too. it's pretty good suspense. they get caught up in another showdown that doesn't really concern them, but now it does. Directed by Jerry Thorpe. didn't win any oscars, but directed and produced a good number of things. its pretty good, if you like the westerns.

Since the first time that l'd watched this picture in early 80' l found it a real classic western on a low budge, but strong enough to put it in a high ground, Ford and Kennedy are fantastic in great shape if consider their ages, deserve a look in the river's fight sequence, Dean Jagger's role of an insany man is outrageous fine, the desert's scene when Nico Minardos come out is another unforgetable scene and quite unique in this genre, the desert landscape became another wall to be overcame, without forget Anderson & Stanton soldier's renegades on the desert's border town, the official release stop a long waiting for this charismatic picture!!

Resume:

First watch: 1981 / How many: 6 / Source: TV-Cable TV -DVD / Rating: 8.

Decent Vietnam era, dystopian western. It is evident that director Jerry Thorpe has studied his Leone and Peckinpah and, as a result, guides us at a nice, crisp pace through a southwestern hellscape of cholera, slain settlers, cavalry deserters turned crooks, devious merchants and, since the co scenarist is veteran anti Native American bigot Charles Marquis Warren, lots and lots of nameless, faceless, savage, murderous Apaches.

In addition to good direction there is, at times, strikingly beautiful cinematography which ironically contrasts with the brutal proceedings and thus adds to them, as well as good performances from a cornucopia of some of your favorite western character actors, all doing good work. In no particular order they are: Harry Dean Stanton (minus the Harry), John Anderson, Royal Dano, Dean Jagger, Parley Baer and Paul Fix. And I absolutely love the tension and conflict throughout between co stars Arthur Kennedy, nicely handling film's most ambiguous role, and Glenn Ford, effectively underplaying it.

Criticisms beyond the film's antedeluvian attitude for 1968 toward indians include a not very satisfying last fifteen minutes with a too easy rescue of the women captives and Mr. Deus Ex Machina disguised as a storekeeper. B minus.