La parole est au colt

One of Audie Murphy's last westerns. It's the usual assembly-line job most of whose more spectacular moments are stock footage but it's all perfectly competent, well-acted and in Joan Staley has a robust leading lady who can convincingly ride a horse. (The women in westerns tend to be either schoolteachers or saloon girls; Miss Staley is the latter, and she's plainly ridden more than just horses in the past.)

There's a murderous outlaw named Drago played by Morgan Woodward who keeps committing all kinds of crime in the state of Colorado and then running back to the New Mexico territory where the local sheriffs can't catch him.

That's not going to stop Audie Murphy, sheriff of Lodgepole, Colorado. Woodward's robbed a train that was carrying funds for the bank and because he's got the town nest egg, a lot of businesses will fold.

Murphy puts together a posse to go after Woodward and it's some posse, with just about everybody in it working off their own agenda. There is no way Murphy should have accomplished his mission in this film.

Which is of course why Gunpoint, though entertaining, is highly unrealistic. Still a nice cast of western veterans give Murphy some good support. Particular to note are Warren Stevens as the saloon owner and Edgar Buchanan as a leader of a family of equally bad rawhiders whose camp the posse stumbles across.

Gunpoint has a lot of action and a great cast that make up for a highly unrealistic story.

Director Earl Bellamy built a TV career, and it shows: GUNPOINT looks and sounds like a low budget TV flick - which by 1966 was still lower than a film budget - with very poor lighting that reveals electricity- rather than sun-made shadows, among other technical shortcomings. Bellamy is not shy to use archive footage to show a spectacular horse stampede down a mountain.

Although he does not extract memorable performances from the cast, Audie Murphy shows his usual steadiness, hiding the skeletons in his cupboard - he had robbed a bank but the judge gave him a chance - until lovely Joan Staley turns up as the local saloon singer and love interest to saloon owner Warren Stevens, who plays hot and cold throughout, seemingly loyal to Audie one moment and not so the next.

It is always a privilege to watch character actor Edgar Buchanan, pity that he has less than 90 seconds on screen as head of a camp of mean rawhiders who doubt Audie's status as sheriff and posse leader. Denver Pyle is also quite good as the two-faced deputy sheriff who feels so disrespected by Audie that he drops a boulder on him... thankfully, Audie's sharp reflexes have him jump to safety and his trail scout get squashed.

Bellamy and screenwriter Willingham throw everything into the script, even marauding Indians, so it is a relief to see Audie and Staley (nothing stale about her shape!) walk off into the sunset.

Watchable time killer. 6/10.

My last Audie Murphy western. Yes readers, I've now seen every one that he made as well as a few non-oaters. Needless to say I have a real fondness for the actor, much as I have for Rory Calhoun and Randolph Scott. They were the heroes of my childhood back when they were on top and Gunpoint doesn't entirely disappoint although when it starts it looks like a budget TV western episode. When we get past the inside scenes and into wide open country it improves considerably. There follows a chase by Murphy and a ramshackle posse of villain Morgan Woodward who has stolen a saddlebag of cash from the town and Murphy is determined to catch him come hell or high water or in this case, high mountains. The chase scenes up the mountain are surprisingly well filmed and authentic. Adding to the fun are an able cast, Warren Stevens as a flashy saloon owner, The beautiful Joan Staley as his girlfriend and to add complications, previous love of old Audie, aging bumbling gang leader they come across, Edgar Buchanan and half wit Royal Dano so some familiar faces. Not a great Murphy western but OK and worth watching.

I couldn't get past the opening of this movie. I understand that most Westerns, except Hondo, have their ridiculous parts. Guns being shot out of the hands of the bad guys by someone shooting from the hip is especially annoying. This movie took the Gold however in the first few minutes when a rider on horseback threw knives at the occupants of the locomotive's cab, killing them. At that point I said we are done here. I am almost positive that the knives were shown striking them in the front even though the rider was approaching from the rear. I find that when things start out bad in a movie that they don't usually get better.