The Quiet Gun

Sheriff Carl Brandon must uphold the law and prevent a lynching when his best friend is accused of murder and immorality by the townsfolk.

It's amazing how the western ingredients featuring a stalwart sheriff, the corrupt clique in the town, the alternative good citizens, gunfights, posses, vigilantes, a lynching can be framed efficiently into an75 minutes film. In addition to this, there is a strong undertone of racism. It's a thoughtful western with strong themes and great acting -Forrest Tucker takes lead with his calm, nonplussed tough style. Jim Davis plays a rancher and Tucker's friend and is dependable as ever. Lee Van Cleef, none surprisingly plays a villain and a fierce one at that, and Hank Worden, always fun to watch, lightens the edgy and serious tone as the deputy of the sheriff. Mara Corday and Kathleen Crowley don't have much screen time but they are just fine. An above average western.

Director William F. Claxton wastes no time in starting "The Quiet Gun," a modern-ish western with lots of story and dramatics and personal conflict, and not so much gun-play.

Excellent performers take a taut story and render it believable and exciting.

As a long-time fan of Forrest Tucker, I believe he has never given a better performance. He is smooth, controlled, even nuanced, and makes us, the audience, completely on the side of his character, Sheriff Carl Brandon.

Jim Davis plays his friend, Ralph Carpenter, who is lured into a ridiculous situation, certainly by Old West standards, but, remember, the city attorney is one of those blue-nosed Easterners, played very well by Lewis Martin (a really interesting name, considering that Jerry and Dean were at about the peak of their team effort).

(I do have to question, though, whether a city attorney would actually have any jurisdiction out in the ranch-lands, but that really isn't important. It's more important to accept the flow of the action, and question the script only afterward.)

Jim Davis, another of my favorites, is not on screen very much, even though he's third billed. But he is a strong presence when he is there.

Hank Worden gets a chance to shine, and he too shows himself to be more than a character: He's a character actor. Great performance by him.

The two women are pivotal to the story, especially the one played so beautifully by Mara Corday, but they are also not on screen much.

Of course we must mention Lee Van Cleef, who had a most fascinating career. His last years saw him as a major TV series star and a very highly paid movie performer, especially of Italian westerns. And he deserved every penny.

There is a relevant lesson in this story: The town council is composed of some rather rascally and self-aggrandizing men, not so foul or corrupt as, for example, the city councils of Los Angeles or Chicago, but enough power-lust is in them to create the conflict that finally results in several deaths.

Sheriff Brandon is savvy enough to know that some laws should not and can not be enforced, but the power-lusters and the busybodies over-rule him, resulting in the tragedies.

Even beyond some superb performances, especially by Forrest Tucker, this story is enough to grab an audience and leave us tense and torn, right until the end.

I highly recommend "The Quiet Gun," available at YouTube in a very good print but, alas, interrupted several times by intrusive -- though brief -- commercials.

`The Quiet Gun' is a rare sleeper in the Western genre. Though certainly not a great film, it is good enough to warrant a look. It is difficult to believe Forrest Tucker didn't have a bigger career than he did, since he shows us some pretty good work here. At the beginning he even delivers a memorable one-liner to the nonsensically aggressive Lee Van Cleef (bullying Hank Worden – named Sampson here, but playing Mose nonetheless) when Lee tells him to mind his own business. Casually revealing his badge, Tucker retorts `It is my business.' And so sets the tone for the remainder of the film.

Tucker, as Sheriff Carl Brandon, is being pressured by the local powers-that-be to `do something' about a rancher (Jim Davis as Ralph Carpenter) allegedly living with an Indian woman (Mara Corday as Irene). Personally dead set against any notion of taking any action, and advising others to mind their own business as well, Brandon must strike his own way as the story progresses. His biggest foes, it turns out, are the officials of the town – one has criminal intentions, the others invoke hatred and the public will as mandates to fan the flames of what might have been a non-event otherwise.

Director William F. Claxton certainly made his mark in subsequent years on the small screen. Most notably he directed many episodes of `Bonanza' but also had a hand in `The Rifleman', `Yancy Derringer', `Gunsmoke' and `High Chaparral'. His diversity is illustrated by having made one `Route 66' and four `Twilight Zone' episodes as well. But most definitely his horror opus `The Night of the Lepus' lives on in memory, now having not terrorized three generations of unsuspecting viewers. A nice one line review is attributed to Shane Burridge on Rotten Tomatoes (`A failure on every level').

There is an underlying grim note to the proceedings in `The Quiet Gun'. Tucker hardly ever smiles, Lee Van Cleef smiles but no one feels comforted for it and the outcomes of several situations are unpredictably harsh. But there are enough plot developments of humorless persuasion, including a courtroom scene near the end, to cast the story in somber tones. But no preaching is ever heard; Claxton prefers to tell the tale and let you make your own conclusions, which is high art in Westerns of the Fifties.

Rating: 3 Stars.

"The Quiet Gun" is surprisingly harsh in its depiction of the average folk of an average western town. Average -- in this case -- translates to racist, violent and none-to-bright. Sheriff Carl Brandon has to stand up to assorted black hats (including the ubiquitous Lee Van Cleef) as well as the dunder-headed locals. Forrest Tucker is good as Brandon and Hank Worden adds his usual stumbling, bumbling hijinks as Samson, the town moron with a heart of gold. A lot of westerns would have let the townsfolk redeem themselves heroically at the end, but this movie sticks to its guns. In the final scene Brandon stands alone to face the villains. "The Quiet Gun" is a nasty little tale with the courage of its convictions.

Far from simple minded, this film raises some moral questions in an intelligent way. Actually, fairly relevant for today. Oh, and there's a bit of unobtrusive humor, as well. The plot makes sense. The film moves along at a good pace and is neither too long or too short.

Nicely acted in an understated way - particularly Forrest Tucker (far removed from his later "F-Troop" days). Old stand-by Hank Worden plays his usual eccentric character. The ominous Lee Van Cleef is also present. Definitely worth 80 minutes of your time.