The Legend of the Golden Gun

It's been a helluva long time since I saw this movie so details are a bit hazy, what I do remember is that at the time, I thought it was great!

There's a scene where a guy on horseback is being chased by some other guys on horseback and he comes to a huge ravine, not one to stand and get slaughtered by the marauding followers, he just jumps off the edge of the cliff (still on horseback mind you) and makes his escape. I remember thinking 'What about the poor horse?!'

I think at the end he saves the damsel in distress by jumping across a pit and snatching her from her position hanging over the pit, or something like that. Anyway, I would love to see it again if only to re-live a childhood memory...

Pretty sure it was not filmed in Kansas. Several Kansas towns are mentioned.

"The Legend of the Golden Gun" looks to me to be a failed pilot for a television series.

The medium to low production standards support this as well as the flat and wooden dialogue that is readily apparent; the cliched storyline; and last but not least, the lackluster acting.

But, please, don't get me wrong...I admit, the movie had the potential to be something more...unfortunately, the producers, writers and director tried to do so much with so little.

And do get me started with the (now) cheesy late seventies/early eighties soundtrack...ugh!

My two cents for y'all!

On the positive side however, they did manage to get a great supporting cast together...including (in order of utmost importance):

1) Hal Holbrook - the old master

2) R.G. Armstrong - small, but tight performance

3) Keir Dullea - in his most hilarious role yet

4) Robert Davi - as the sinister and foreboding villian, William Quantrill

If this is the movie I think it is, it is about a cowboy who is given a golden 7-shooter (vs the standard 6 shooters) by his mentor. He is given the wisdom "always save the 7th shot for evil!".

At once point he is tested by a saloon girl and former acquaintance of his mentor and she throws a playing card in the air (7 of hearts?) and he shoots six of the seven hearts on the card and when he is asked why he didn't shoot the seventh, it's the "always save the 7th shot for evil!". When I was a kid this was a great movie, if I saw it now it might have been uber cheesy.

It's been decades since I've seen this movie, so I'm real fuzzy on it, but I'd love to find a copy of it someplace.

This 'movie' seems to me as being a pilot for a TV series. It sets up the situation and defines the characters with a little Star Wars and a little Lone Ranger mixed together. Hal Holbrook as J.R. Swackhammer (or is it Yoda?) teaches our hero how to shoot bottles in the air while blind folded (John, feel your instincts)! It conveniently kills off Holbrook's character as he is the only actor of any substance. Jeff Osterhage as John Golden (Luke or maybe the Lone Ranger) has a side kick riding a painted horse. Sound familiar? I was waiting for it to turn into a Blazing Saddles style farce but all this was played as a straight story and never did. It apparently wasn't popular enough and was never made it to a series. This is all guess work but that's the way I see it.

I saw this show on Encore Westerns in April 2011, so it's still around.