Gun Fight

It is a western produced by Robert Kent and directed by Edward L Cahn the director who shot faster than his shadow.... It is bland, totally forgettable and worthless, and only destined to rare westerns diggers. I got it thirty years ago among a big batch of VHS from Boyd Magers' Video West Albuquerque NM, when he was still in business. So, this is not a pure garbage stuff but in this kind of grade B..Z movies, I have seen worse, yes, but also better. I will always regret the Edward L cahn from the thirties and his awesome LAW AND ORDER, starring Wally Huston. I will never understand how he lost all ambition and - or - such talent. This will remain a mystery.

In this minor Western that plays like an oater from decades past, James Brown ("Targets") plays Wayne Santley, a man who's recently mustered out of military service. He hooks up with a *lovely* saloon singer named Nora Blaine (Joan Staley, "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken"). His intention is to go to work as a rancher alongside his brother Brad (Gregg Palmer, "From Hell It Came"), not knowing that Brad has never changed his lawless ways. Wayne believes that blood runs thicker than water, and doesn't intend to turn his brother in, but friction begins between the siblings anyway.

"Gun Fight" is a fairly moralistic, routine B level example of its genre, that does show evidence of its low budget, but its story and performances are reasonably entertaining. Certainly they're entertaining enough to make up for the overall forgettable quality to the whole thing. It features themes of family ties and redemption, with Brad commendably not portrayed in a one-dimensional manner. Music, photography, and atmosphere are adequate, even if the cheap interior sets don't blend well with the beautiful stock shots utilized throughout. There's action, violence, some sex appeal (such as that saloon girl outfit worn by Ms. Staley), gunfire, and the kind of pacing that usually helped B level movies. As directed by Edward L. Cahn, a low budget movie director better known for sci-fi / horror pictures such as "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" and "Invisible Invaders", it goes through its paces with some efficiency.

Brown (a white character actor who is not to be confused with the Godfather of Soul) and Palmer are good as the brothers. (It's funny hearing Palmer address Brown as "kid" when in fact the latter was about seven years OLDER.) A decent supporting cast includes some fairly familiar faces: Ron Soble ("True Grit" '69, "The Beast Within") as an unhandsome villain, Charles Cooper ("Blind Fury") as a sleazy, self-serving gambler, Ken Mayer ('Space Patrol', "Little Big Man") as a jovial fur trapper, Walter Coy ("The Searchers", "Zombie") as the Sheriff, and matronly character actress Kate Murtagh ("Doctor Detroit", "Switchblade Sisters") as a cowboys' wife.

The movie does offer a decent amount of fun for 69 amiable minutes.

Six out of 10.

I'm guessing that B picture director Edward L. Cahn who was of the grind them out school of film making was stuck for a plot and in Gunfight he just remade a film he did five years earlier called Gun Brothers with Buster Crabbe. I can't believe there was such a demand for a remake.

James Brown late of the Rin Tin Tin show plays a soldier fresh out of the army and looking for his brother who says he has a cattle ranch and he wants to go 50/50 with him. But Gregg Palmer is the leader of a notorious and murderous outlaw band who hold up the stagecoach carrying Brown and pretty Joan Staley going to work in the local saloon that they're headed for.

In a short time Brown discovers what Palmer does for a living and the rest of the film is a conflict between the brothers each can't quite trust the other. But blood does prove thicker than water.

Staley sings a pretty song and that's the highlight of Gun Fight. In fact though there's a lot of gun play there's no real gunfight in the sense of two guys just reaching for the weapons and shooting it out face to face.

Gun Fight is definitely made on the cheap and the kind of thing you routinely saw on shows like Gunsmoke.

Okay Western.made on a minuscule budget with a no-name cast. Actually the script is better developed than expected with a few surprising twists and turns, though you may need a score card to keep up. Palmer and Brown make convincing brothers with lots of the right chemistry, while plug-ugly Ron Soble looks the bad guy part, but has problems in the acting department. Joan Staley is lively as Brown's girl even though she suffers from a severe case of blonde hair. I wish the producers had earmarked more money for some of the sets, especially in the last half. Blending those cheap exteriors with actual location shots is clumsy, at best. Nonetheless, there's plenty of action and intrigue along with a spirited cast, as the brothers try to overcome their differences and settle into a regular family life. All in all, it's one of the better small budgeters made during that period when Westerns were all over both the little screen and the big one.

Gun Fight doesn't exactly have great production values. Nor does it have a well known cast. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any of these actors in anything else (if I have their roles were inconsequential). It doesn't boast a great script, or great direction, either. So what does it have?

Well, it's got a fairly good story (nothing especially original or outstanding, but a good, solid storyline) and a cast that is honestly doing their best to give good performances. It also has a short running time (69 minutes), so it doesn't drag at any point.

Ultimately, Gun Fight is an anachronism in filmmaking circa 1960 (when it was filmed). It plays out more like a Western from 1941 than 1961 (when it was released). The style of storytelling (the direction, acting, dialogue, and plotting) is a much closer match to what Hollywood was putting out in the early 40's than in the early 60's, so it was already outdated when it was released. And yet, there is an earnestness about the movie that makes it hard to completely dislike or dismiss. No one will ever confuse Gun Fight with the great Westerns of the pre-Spaghetti Western era, but it isn't quite as bad as many people make it out to be.

Gun Fight is mildly diverting and somewhat entertaining for fans of the genre who are looking for something new that they haven't seen before. It isn't far removed from the kind of Western that a Poverty Row studio might have made in the 40's, and maybe that's part of it's charm. With the right expectations Gun Fight can deliver an entertaining one hour and nine minutes. With the right expectations...