Five Guns to Tombstone

This movie is a word for word remake of a 1953 movie called "The Gun Belt". Unfortunately, unlike wine, this one didn't improve with age...

This black and white film is an exact remake of the 1953 oater, GUN BELT, starring George Montgomery, almost word for word and scene for scene. The main difference is that GUN BELT was in Technicolor. James Brown does a credible job as the protagonist and John Wilder tries hard to duplicate Tab Hunter's performance in his third movie. Character actor Willis Bouchey appeared in both versions.

The story line is so faithful to GUN BELT, it even requires the two main characters, during a fight, to tumble into a pond. Many of the sets are precise duplicates. Frankly, it's difficult to understand what motivated the producers to turn out this mediocre mirror image.

Wow, this is not a very good movie. The story line is really lame. One character shows up in town after a bank holdup in which he was not involved - but one of the robbers said he was, so when he comes to town everyone is ready to hang him immediately based on the say-so of a robber who WAS there robbing the bank. Not very likely. And when Ike Garvey opens the strongboxes full of cash onto an uneven-surface rock, what was he thinking? I could just see the money falling off and all over the place. Worst of all perhaps, I had to feel sorry for the horses - 3/4 of the actors in this film were somewhere between chubby and downright obese. Ike Garvey (again), the main bad guy, was particularly huge - from the back he looked just like his horse. I think his gun belt was full of Tootsie Rolls where there normally would be bullets. Anyhow, I've actually seen worse Westerns, but offhand I can't think which one(s). This movie is really lukewarm; the only actor I liked at all was James Brown, who was the marshal in the movie Gun Street. He plays a pretty good 'perturbed by life' Western character. The rest of 'em can all go to Weight Watchers.

Five Guns to Tombstone is directed by Edward L. Cahn and collectively written by Ricahrd Schayer, Jack De Witt and Arthur Orloff. It stars James Brown, Walter Coy, Robert Karness and Willis Bouchey. Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter share composing duties and Maury Gertsman provides the cinematography.

Not a lot to write home about here, where the plot treads familiar ground as reformed outlaw gets roped into bad ways again, and his brother is involved in the mess that follows. As some Western fans have rightly spotted, this is a remake of Ray Nazarro's Gun Belt from 1953. Itself not a great film, it is however the one to seek out in preference to this offering.

Though made in 1960 this actually feels more like a 1940s Western, where an air of serial sogginess hangs over proceedings. Cahn appears to be one of those jobbing directors who studios turned to to haul a pic in on time. Everything is competently staged, the action etc, and the landscapes pleasing, but excitement is in short supply and the finale doesn't pay off for time invested in viewing. 4/10

I thought that there was something similar when I watched this movie. I was watching the Western Station ,and as I got into the movie,I realized that I had seen the same plot just the week before. After some searching,I realized "Five Guns To Tombstone" was exactly the same as "Gun Belt" that came out in 1953.The plot was exactly the same in each movie.The lead character,Billy,was Billy Ringo in "Gun Belt" and Billy Wade in this movie.George Montgomery and Tab Hunter were uncle and nephew in "Gun Belt" and had the same feelings for each other as the uncle and nephew had in this one. Ike was the bad guy in both and did exactly the same murderous deeds in both movies.The movie ended the same in both movies.Both movies were lousy.The acting was bad in both except "Five Guns To Tombstone" was probably worse only because George Montgomery and Tab Hunter were better actors. Looks like the writers of this movie must have had writers' block and someone said,"Hey.let's remake "Gun Belt".VERY BAD DECISION!!