The Hired Gun

Ellen Beldon is about to be hanged in Texas for the cold-blooded murder of her husband. Her uncle's ranch foreman, Judd Farrow, masquerading as a priest busts her out of jail and escorts Ellen to a safe hideout at her uncle's ranch in New Mexico. Her uncle has enough influence to block extradition of Ellen back to Texas.

Her father-in-law, Mace Beldon, determined to avenge the killing of his son, hires gunman Gil McCord for $5,000 to track down Ellen and bring her back to Texas. Gil hires on as a cowhand and then kidnaps Ellen and they head back to Texas. On the way Ellen explains to Gil what really happened.

You don't see many women in westerns sentenced to be hanged, which is a fresh angle in this fast-moving, well-acted western that has some fine cinematography and great locations. It's well made, suspenseful and fairly engaging. In tone and story it reminds me of the Scott-Boeticher western. Calhoun in particular is quite cold and determined to earn his dollars - well, at first. Predictably, he falls for the cute Anne Francis. Her character is quite a strong one. Maybe this film would've benefited from a longer running time so Calhoun's relationship with Francis could've been more developed and his belief in her innocence more gradual.

I was amazed to see here a Ray Nazarro's film made in LBX and released - not produced, release - by Metro Goldwyn Mayer. I did not believe it. It is a truly interesting plot, very unusual, surprising, where Ann Francis's role steals the film. The directing is above average for a director such a Ray Nazarro, some kind of Lesley Selander prolific western maker. Nazzaro gave his best film during the fifties, his second part of career, after a long while for B westerns starring Charles Starrett. So, yes, this western is very worth the watch, it proves once more than B - 75 or 80 minutes - movies can from time to time good surprises. But if you replace Ann Francis by a man wrongly accused of murder, it would have been forgettable in the second after watching, as a drop of water, on a hot plate, that would evaporate.

The 1950s were to movie westerns what the 40s was to film noir so it's always kinda shocking to see an oater made at this time be so friggin ordinary as this offering from Ray Nazarro. Although maybe not so shocking when you consider the fact that Budd Boetticher, one of the era's best western directors, called Nazarro the "ten day picture guy". And of those ten I would guess that half a day, at most, was spent on the screenplay/story since previous IMDB reviewers have written of its stunning predictability and unoriginality. I do, however, disagree with the previous reviewer who called it "beyond mediocre". Indeed, it is the very quintessence of average. Or, in other words, a solid C.

Badly made western featuring Calhoun as a gunfighter paid $5000 to go find an escaped murderer-- who happens to be Anne Francis. He does so, and of course, everyone is trying to stop him. Terrible performances, terrible script, lack luster direction, wall to wall music-- all in all, a really bad movie. And it's only about 72 minutes long. Made back in the days when westerns ruled on the TV screens, it was shot widescreen, with only one or two well shot scenes, the rest of the time, it looked like they did one take and moved on. Classic scenes even included four Indians who were obviously white guys in grease paint. Good for a laugh, that's about it. TCM shows this once in a while-- a real hoot.

The Hired Gun opens with a camera shot through the noose that is scheduled to go around the pretty neck of Ellen Beldon (Anne Francis), the first woman ever to face hanging in Texas. When she's rescued by Judd Farrow (Chuck Connors) and taken back to her family's ranch in New Mexico, the Texans hire Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to bring her back in order to carry out the sentence. The heavy backdrop of a potential hanging, especially of a woman, gives the film some dramatic weight, as does the trip back to Texas, after McCord has recaptured Ellen. The film could have been a lot more interesting if on the way back to Texas it had exploited some of the underlying lust between them. Instead it plays it safe with a few action scenes where a group of Indians attack and McCord kills them, thus putting the film in jeopardy of being a Saturday afternoon flick for the kiddy matinees. Considering the cast, which includes a good part for Vince Edwards as well as Chuck Conners, and the overall noir look due to the b & w cinematography, the film had the story ingredients and talent to be a minor masterpiece.