Une balle vous attend

A very interesting, intimate film that takes place entirely on a farm in a remote wilderness, which surely kept production budget considerations modest. The opening of the film was a bit weird, starting with a seascape shoreline and then various evidence traces of a plane crash, and a conflict, that eventually leads to (FINALLY!) two men fighting it out in the rugged terrain, one of which escapes the other.

All of it is smothered by an overbearing and highly detailed Dmitri Tiomkin score that fills the soundtrack like thick-pile, wall-to-wall carpeting. I found myself feeling very sorry for the music copyists who had to copy out all those notes from the VERY busy and restless hand of expatriate Russian Mr. Tiomkin.

The two conflicting men meet a young woman alone in a remote farm, and romance, however improbable, eventually ensues. As well as a delicate balancing act of three-way conflict.

As it happens, Los Angeles where I live is currently being inundated by heavy rains, so the picture with all it's stormy weather was a perfect match for an evening at home. The film is a solid blend of outdoor landscape and indoor drama.

The ending seems very contrived and doesn't quite make sense, but at least it appears to be a happy one. But it is likely the worst aspect of this film. Nevertheless, "A Bullet is Waiting" definitely held my interest and the acting was quite good. Good title!

A airplane crash leaves Lawman Sheriff Munson (Stephan McNally) and Prisoner Ed Stone (Rory Calhoun) stranded on a Sheep Ranch in the modern (1954) West. Between escape attempts ED makes a play for the beautiful Cally Canham (Jean Simmons) who is holding down the ranch for her Father David (Brian Aherne). MUNSON has a personal grudge against ED, but FATHER David arrives at the close too sort things out and you expect ED and CALLY will eventually get together, nuff said.

Good scenery and interesting casting are the most worthwhile features of this film. Calhoun and McNally seem quite at home in the West, but Aherne and Simmons would seem too be by intellect and temperament more suited for a drawing room. Jean does fill out her 'jeans' quite well and is as sexy in those as any more feminine costume. She would exhibit the same assets in THE BIG COUNTRY (1958). The film is worth watching just for her.

A rich Utah landowner (Stephen McNalley) deputizes himself in order to bring back to justice the person (Rory Calhoun) who killed his brother. Was it murder or self defense? The viewer thinks all along that McNalley is a real lawman until we find out who he really is, which changes the dynamics a bit. The plane they're traveling in crashes somewhere on the central California coast and Calhoun manages to get away, though there really is no place to escape to in the isolated setting, especially since it's beginning to rain and all the passes get washed out. Along shows up the daughter (Jean Simmons) of a sheep rancher (Brian Ahearn)and her dog (Lassie?). McNalley and Calhoun both try to convince her of who is right, though she falls for Calhoun, leaving a hobbling McNalley alone in his efforts to return to Utah with Calhoun. The background story of Utah and the rich family against the rebel was at least somewhat more interesting than the story in this movie where Simmons eventually falls for Calhoun, mostly because he puts the make on her, and she, in spite of her intellectual abilities, can't resist the sexual attraction. The return of her father from a week long trip into the nearest town sets up a decent enough ending. The film needed more freedom of sexual expression, or moreso, another script in order to bring off the pent up feelings felt by Simmons, as she's been kept away from all outside contact because she lives with her philosopher father on this out of the way ranch. It (this movie) mostly verges on being fairly bad, but has some inexplicable qualities that compel one to keep on watching and hoping.

With that title one would expect either a western, a p.i./cop dark streets noir,or a war drama. Well it's in the West on a sheep ranch and Rory Calhoun is the protagonist. Jean Simmons is there to provide the standard romantic figure but is way too sophisticated to be believed as a outland waif. Stephen McNally like his contemporary Charles McGraw just looks of villainy so its surprising when he carries a badge while Mr. Ahearne like his screen daughter just looks out of place. So one gets a character study instead of a shootalot as the title implies. The actors do the script,the director sees his slide continuing,and the viewer wonders why the title wasn't used by Randolph Scott for one of his Ranown epics.

A lawman and a fugitive, fight it out in the countryside with the lawman being overcome by an injured ankle, allowing the fugitive to get the upper hand. The lawman is Stephen McNally, an actor whose face was usually reserved for playing villains and the fugitive, Rory Calhoun who has been one of my favourites since I was a boy. A 6ft 3inch giant of a man, Calhoun was ideally suited for playing heroes as he was extremely good looking also and here he's supposed to be the bad guy. But is he?

The two come across a young woman living alone in a cabin, Jean Simmons, looking more beautiful than I ever remember before. She takes them in under an element of duress but slowly starts to become attracted to Calhoun and vice versa, in fact they have great chemistry and the sexual tension is palpable.

McNally is constantly trying to regain the upper hand and it eventually comes to a head but not before we are treated to a surprisingly well crafted scene of dialogue about philosophy that seems out of place in a pseudo western like this but I thought it raised the level above the usual melodrama.

Directed by John Farrow with a nice score by Dimitri Tiomkin, the film is beautifully shot in technicolour and the acting, joined at the end by Brian Aherne as Jean's father, is rather good. It shows Calhoun in a different light to his westerns and actually allows a showcase to display a wider acting range than usual for him.

An interesting lost movie I found only on YouTube with a gorgeous print copy so I'm rating it an 8 out of 10. Jean Simmons at her most stunning is worth seeing alone.