The Hired Gun

Ellen Beldon (Anne Francis) is in a Texas jail waiting to be hung for murdering her husband. Her uncle's ranch foreman Judd Farrow (Chuck Connors) breaks her out. Her father-in-law hires gunman Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to bring her back from New Mexico when the Texas authority drags its feet. Some believe her claims of innocence.

There is no real debate that Ellen is innocent. Anne Francis plays it so hard like a damsel in distress. Everything is play by hitting the nail right on the head. There isn't any surprises to be had in this straight forward western B-movie. It would work better in a darker road trip with the two characters. This is not that.

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.

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.

Anne Francis is about to hung for the murder of her husband, the son of the local Ponderosa owner John Litel. But her uncle sends Chuck Connors to rescue her and he does, taking her across the Texas state line to New Mexico territory where he, Robert Burton is the local Ponderosa owner. And due to Burton's influence, New Mexico will not honor extradition. What to do, but hire out for The Hired Gun.

In this case it's Rory Calhoun who gets hired for $5000.00 dollars to deliver Francis back to Texas for the sentence to be carried out. He's even deputized to make what is kidnapping have some trapping of legality.

Of course with their time on the trail Calhoun and Francis start getting acquainted. I don't think I have to go any further.

The Hired Gun was almost like watching two different films. A plot line where Francis is being given some unwanted attentions by her rescuer Connors is left dangling. Quite frankly I can't blame Connors for expecting some kind of manifestation of that gratitude. Then when Calhoun and Francis cross the state line, it's like a whole new movie started. I think some writing might have changed midpoint in the film or it was to be a whole bigger type of western when originally conceived.

With stuff like The Hired Gun which Calhoun also produced not being that well received, no wonder Rory Calhoun opted for a TV and he would star in his own television series, The Texan very shortly.

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.