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When John Gant , a softy-spoken, baby-faced Audie Murphy , rides into Lordsburg, the town's folk become paranoid as each leading citizen has enemies seeking revenge , only none of the citizens know who the intented victim is . As the notorious hired gun whose arrival in town means a mission to kill , but who ?. While a honest doctor : Charles Drake , and a humble sheriff : Willis Bouchey , hope to halt potential bloodshed , but is neighbour's guilty secrets suggest no shortage of possible targets . Meantime , they wait for him to make his move, and John Gant behaves easily . But there are inhabitants capable of using the services of a professional killer for personal vendetta. The strangest killer who ever stalked the West ! Everyone in Town Had a Guilty Secret That Marked Him for Death! Twenty-four "victims" had died before his lightning draw...until he came to the quiet town that had marked him for death! Everyone has enemies, and maybe Gant is in town for them. ... AUDIE...in the most unusual role of his exciting career!

Entertaining B-picture model , including action , thrills , fights , shoot'em up and packing some surprises . An intriguing , twisted story about a professional killer who arrives in a little town , then paranoia starts taking over and although no one knows who he is there to murder , they are all worried . Given the escalating paranoia , you might assume a McCarthyte parable about corruption lurking the community , yet the clever storyline points provocatively at establishment wrong doing. And including a stirring final stand-off that results to be thrilling , charged and riveting with the hired killer taking off surprising contenders using a hammer , too . The story is interesting and mysterious , a strong confrontation with a intrigue behind , including an enjoyable deneoument with twists and turns . An agreeable and slight tale well written by Gene L. Coon , and very interesting , containing some cliches , though paced in fits and starts , at times . Audie Murphy gives a pretty good acting as the cool, cultured gunman , this is undoubtedly Murphy's strongest showing on the saddle , too . Audie is well accompanied by a good support cast such as : Charles Drake , R.G. Armstrong , Joan Evans, Virginia Grey, Warren Stevens , Willis Bouchey , Edgar Stehli , Karl Swenson , Simon Scott , Whit Bissell , Jerry Paris , among others

Being colorfully photographed in Spectacular Technicolor by Harold Lipstein . As well as moving and thrilling musical score by Herman Stein and Irving Gertz though uncredited .This well-edited , compact motion picture was nicely produced by Howard Christie for Universal Pictures and compellingly directed by Jack Arnold in his best foray into the Western genre . Although he is indelibly associated with classy Sci-Fi , this is the fourth and finest effort in his 50s Westerns. Unfortunately , Arnold's final film of genuine worth before a further two decades of TV series , episodes and other minor assgnments . He reigns supreme as one of the greatest filmmakers of 50s science , achieving an important cult popularity with classics as ¨The Incredible Shrinking Man¨, "The Creature from the Black Lagoon," and its follow-up titled "Revenge of the Creature" that was a nice sequel . "Tarantula" was likewise a lot of amusement . This "The Incredible Shrinking Man" attained his greatest enduring cult popularity , it's a thought-provoking and impressive classic that's lost none of its power throughout the years . Arnold's final two genre entries were the interesting "Monster on the Campus" and the outlandish "The Space Children¨ . Rating : 7/10 . Decent and acceptable Western . Well catching for Western buffs .

Movies like No Name on the Bullet uncover the depth of talent in Hollywood. The roles are filled almost exclusively by familiar faces with unfamiliar names - R. G. Armstrong, Willis Bouchey, Edgar Stehli - with the result that one can concentrate on the story characters rather than being distracted by "star presence".

Without a top-heavy cast, the story itself also gains focus, and I think the story of No Name on the Bullet is fascinating. What happens when a notorious contract killer rides into town and...does absolutely nothing?

The one star of the movie, Audie Murphy, plays the gunman. I love Murphy, one of Hollywood's misspent talents. Does this also apply to the the character actors I refer to above? Not really.

Character players, though quite talented, rarely attain stardom - Edward G. Robinson, Claire Trevor and Claude Rains are notable exceptions - not through neglect or misuse but by some limitation of range or persona. Audie Murphy's talent was misspent because, though obvious, it was never developed, either by studios, who, myopically, only wanted to exploit his war hero status as a box office draw, or directors who, in Murphy's career, were usually "line directors," good for getting a movie in the can on time and on budget rather than for getting great performances out their players.

Which brings me to director Jack Arnold, who does a journeyman's job, but who I believe is the cause for what another reviewer wrongheadedly calls Murphy's shortcomings. Stilted lines and studied movement are the results of "hands-off" direction. This is OK for the character parts, where skilled players in simple roles don't need much direction, but not for lead roles. Watching Murphy I'm reminded of another sadly underdeveloped star, Alan Ladd, whose talents always shone under a great director, but who didn't get those directors consistently enough, in my opinion, to fulfill his promise. Coincidentally, both Murphy and Ladd died prematurely. Perhaps not coincidentally, both had drinking problems. I wonder if they might have been experiencing similar frustrations.

Since No Name on the Bullet contains complex secondary parts, it's fortunate, that the players cast for these parts are outstanding, so the characters are interesting. Unfortunately, the budget constraints force the runtime of the film to be far too short. The result is a number of unresolved character studies. I want to know more about the blacksmith, the ex-flame and the judge - and more about the gunfighter. I'd also like to see more denouement. The main plot ends too abruptly, as if the producers were saying, "That's all we can afford to give you, Folks." That said, I wouldn't call the ending dumb, again as the wrongheaded reviewer cited above asserts, just shortchanged.

Returning to my opening thesis, that watching a cast of talented character players carry a movie is a special treat, I highly recommend this little gem of a Western.

Audie Murphy had finally gotten a role where he could show his dark side. Picking up bits from Dan Duryea and Barry Sullivan's affable bad guys in previous films he had made with them, his John Gant is a smooth professional killer, an arbiter of fate, who in this film at least,seems to kill only those who truly deserve it. Cat calm and just as ruthless,he's afar cry from the baby face "Man gotta do what a man got to do" types he played in other Universal westerns. His real life prowess as the Hero lessened the suspense of those films, in this it brings a much needed tension; who can stop him? If he had played the good doctor and Charles Drake was the gunslinger everyone would know the resolution before the fadeout. Here, in a dark reversal of "Shane"'s ending, the fast gun rides out of the picture,his job completed,the hypocrisy and failings of the "good people" exposed,and the frontier is a little more civilized. This film,along with "The Red Badge of Courage,and the original "The Unforgiven" are the roles that showed that Mr. Murphy could've been a contender as an actual actor.

I'm not normally a big Audie Murphy Western fan, but the overall concept of the story is really interesting. A hired assassin comes to town, and everyone is worried. Who is he there to kill? Of course, the obvious bad guys are worried, and you wonder who he really is there to kill.

There is a lot of philosophy about Justice, ethics, the rights of one over the many.

Audie Murphy is not perfect in the role (he is known for playing good guys, he is short, and he has the face of a 16 year old) but he does a pretty convincing job.

Overall, a really interesting western, and probably my favorite Audie Murphy flick.

In No Name on the Bulllet, Audie Murphy got to star in one of the most unusual and best westerns in his career when he was cast in this off beat tale of a hired killer. As John Gant, Audie reverses type and becomes a coldblooded, yet very philosophical hired killer.

His modus operandi is simple. He gets hired by someone to do someone else in and he goes to wherever his target is, baits him into a fight and then shoots him dead. It's pretty well known in the west that's how he operates.

So Murphy arrives in a particular town, everyone knows he's there to see that someone dies. The town grows crazy with panic and speculation as to who his target might be.

It's a nice original concept for a western and the credit has to go to scriptwriter Gene L. Coon who all Star Trek fans remember as the writer on the original series.

Some of the townspeople are blacksmith R.G. Armstrong, doctor Charles Drake, banker Whit Bissell, mine owner Karl Swenson, judge Edgar Stehli, bartender Charles Watts, and store clerk Warren Stevens. Just who has Audie come to dispatch.

All of these players fill out the roles of the panic stricken townspeople very well indeed. But it is Murphy's film and one of the best westerns ever done and I believe his personal best.