Feu sans sommation

'The Quick Gun' never exerts itself, but it's still a western that (only just) held my interest from start-to-finish.

The premise is watchable enough, which is fortunate as the acting, dialogue and fight scenes aren't great. All of the acting is on the wooden side, with the exception of Ted de Corsia who is pretty good as Spangler. The cast are all likeable, though don't quite give top performances in my opinion.

Dialogue-wise it's boring, there's quite a few moments with blocks of speaking. The combat isn't pleasing on the eye either, given its slow nature. The music and camera work is OK, I guess.

If you want to sit back and chill with a western that doesn't take much effort, then this is one for you. It's fine to watch, if underwhelming overall.

This is the third time this story by Steve Fisher has been done. The first time was "Top Gun" starring Sterling Hayden done in 1955 in black and white, and then done again as "Noose for a Gunman" in 1960 starring Jim Davis, who later became Jock Ewing on "Dallas" (Ted DeCorsia even played the same role as in "The Quick Gun" with John Dehner taking the main villain role in "Top Gun"). All three are good if you like the old fashion type westerns, which I do. They were simple, your kids and grandkids could watch them, and they always had a good ending. Need more of them today. To me, Audie Murphy will always be a hero on the battlefield (The most decorated soldier in WWII including the medal of honor)and on the screen.

This western from the Audie Murphy's second part of career is really lame, not precisely boring, but so tedious, predictable, despite a Ted De Corsia's presence, in a role that reminded me a bit some Dan Duryea's characters. The villain who seemed to be at first sight the hero's good pal. But it's watchable for Audie Murphy's fans. Forget NO NAME ON THE BULLET, in terms of Murph's characters, here, you feel that any Rory Calhoun, Dale Robertson or George Montgomery would have also done the job the same. The early sixties are recognizable if you watch closely enough the production design and story telling. This seems to evoke the AC Lyles' productions, involving old timers only. But strangely never Audie Murphy by the way. Very Strange that I just realize it now, when writing this review, that Audie Murphy never played in an AC Lyle's productions. With directors such as Lesley Selander, RG Springsteen, William Claxton....

It's your standard bad guy vs. good bad guy western. Clint Cooper returns to the town that ran him off and reluctantly agrees to stay and fight the coming horde of thieves. Though this is a very predictable plot, it doesn't feature the huge leaps that are common in some westerns from the era.

Watching this movie 41 years after it's release and judging it by today's standards isn't really fair. It is from a simpler time in history and as a result seems naive to us.

Today you would never see scenes that are supposed to occur at night happening in obvious sunlight. The melo-drama is passe. Everyone knows that gunshots are messy, except in old westerns. Having said all of that, fans of the genre and Audie Murphey will no doubt enjoy this film.

I also enjoyed watching James Best before his Dukes of Hazard days. While I am not one who thinks that his performances as Sheriff of Hazard County are un-noteworthy, this role really opened my eyes to his versatility and talent as an actor.

Love everything Audie Murphy does even with the character name changes from 1955 Top Gun but the plot was spot on and the over acting in this film was entertaining. Seems like a lot of remakes were being done then, must have been a lack of good film writers and slim pickens for Mr. Murphy to choose from but I liked the filmed nonetheless.