Gunfighters of Abilene

I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's watching reruns of Crabbe's "Captain Gallant" T.V. series, and the great "Flash Gordon" and "Buck Rodgers" movie serials. I was expecting to see another movie with Crabbe as an affable and cool action hero.

The only surprise here is how little action there is and how serious Crabbe takes the role. He is still a likable hero, but there is little humor and the dull plot gives him little to work with. A gunman rides into Abilene looking for his estranged brother. He finds that his brother is wanted for a robbery of $64,000 dollars. (Was this a reference to the television show "the $64,000 Question?). As he tries to find out what happened to his brother, the unfriendly townspeople keep telling him to leave and threatening him and assaulting him. He keeps saying that his brother is innocent and he won't back down.

There were probably 20 half-hour Western television series on television in 1959-1960 when this movie was made. This plays like an average episode of a television series stretched out to a little over an hour.

Crabbe was only 52 years old at the time this was filmed and still looks quite handsome. However, a stuntman is obviously doing the few action scenes like falling off a horse, running, and jumping through a window. I'm wondering if 30 years of action movies had taken a toll on his body.

It is sad that this was Crabbe's last film as an action hero. It is hard to understand why he did not get any major staring roles for the last 25 years of his life. This was the opposite of John Wayne who thrived in hit after hit the last 25 years of his life. Crabbe was, in my opinion, a better action-hero actor than Wayne.

I wanted to give this movie 6 1/2 stars, but the rating meter doesn't have that option. I enjoyed it enough to keep me interested until the end. Not the best, but it's worth an hour and seven minutes of your time. I had to laugh when I saw some telephone poles in the background. My favorite part were the scenes with Eugenia Paul (playing Raquel) in them. She was a great actress and a beautiful woman. This movie teaches a good lesson, your sins will catch up with you sooner or later no matter how powerful you think you are. Enjoy!