No Name on the Bullet

One of Audie Murphy's two best Westerns, along with "Duel at Silver Creek." Audie departs from his usual role as a Good Guy, to play a part that is more bad than good, but has admirable qualities as well (honesty & responsibility chief among them). He underplays this role, which is one of the reasons that the movie works so well. It has little action for a B Western, but the action comes in a surprisingly violent sequence. The plot avoids many of the usual Western clichés, instead providing thought provoking dialog. Why do the TV channels repeatedly show Audie's mediocre movies & avoid showing his best? I rate it 8/10.

"No Name On the Bullet" marks a role reversal for star Audie Murphy. Normally the soft spoken hero, this time out he is a cold blooded hired killer with little or no redeeming qualities.

John Gant (Murphy) a hired killer, rides into town one day and is soon recognized by the towns people. His modus operandi has preceded him. It seems that he rides into a town, checks into a hotel and then just sits around for days taking stock of the situation and sizing up his next victim, who is known only to him. He then goads his victim into a fight and shoots him down in self defence.

With Gant's arrival several townsfolk begin to get nervous, each believing that they are his intended victim. It seems many of the good citizens have skeletons in their respective closets. Is it the respected town doctor, Luke Canfield (Charles Drake), his father Asa the blacksmith (R. G. Armstrong), gambler Reeger (Simon Scott), "respected businessmen" Stricker (Karl Swenson) and Pierce (Whit Bissell), miner Ben Chafee (John Alderson) or Lou Fraden (Warren Stevens), who has run off with another man's wife (Virginia Grey)?

Well, each begins to think that the other is trying to have him/her killed and they begin to fight among themselves. Only the sheriff (Willis Bouchey) has the courage to stand up to Gant, but Gant shoots his gun hand in a showdown. Through it all Dr. Canfield along with his fiance Anne Benson (Joan Evans) and her terminally ill and crippled father, retired Judge Benson (Edgar Stehlt) try to make sense of it all. Canfield comes to earn Gant's respect for his courage in trying to prevent any violence. The suspense builds, some die until we learn that Gant's victim is........

Normally when you watch an Audie Murphy western, you would expect him to abandon his intended victim and ride away. Not so here. The cold and calculated manner in which he goads his victim into a fight leaves no question that Gant is all bad. Murphy pulls it off. He was gradually becoming a better actor with each film. His performance as Gant is downright chilling. He would follow that up with another good performance in "Unforgiven" a big budget western with Burt Lancaster and Audrey Hepburn the following year.

Universal always populated the Murphy westerns with a cast of seasoned veterans. This film is no exception. Drake appeared in many of Murphy's films on both sides of the law. He gets to be the hero in this one. Stevens as the gutless wife stealer stands out as does Grey as his distraught wife who sees that she has made a big mistake. The ever reliable Bouchey is excellent as the sheriff who is powerless to stop Gant. Stehlt is good as the terminally ill judge and Evans makes an attractive heroine. In fact, there's not a single weakness in the entire cast. Sharp eyed western lovers will spot Bob Steele (mostly from the back) in the card playing sequence.

Great stuff.

Audie Murphy (as John Gant) plays it real smooth here. He manipulates the whole town 'leading citizens' into thinking which one is the one he's after (that he's been hired to kill), and leaves them all feeling quite guilty over their past misdeeds. So guilty that the town banker commits suicide, and a couple of others start shooting one another without Gant ever having to lift a finger.

This is one of the few times you'll see Murphy play a bad guy, although quite different from the unhinged character you'd later see him play in John Huston's THE UNFORGIVEN (1960). Nothing he did acting-wise, ever topped that one.

Universal has released the widescreen Technicolor DVD of this and it's the best way to see it. No speckling and only a couple of brief frame blemishes. Sound is excellent, although the only extra is a trailer.

Now if Universal will only see fit to release the following excellent Audiepix westerns on DVD, I'd be a happy man:

SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN (1960) w. Barry Sullivan; RIDE CLEAR OF DIABLO (1954) w. Dan Duryea; HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (1960) w. Steven McNally; and RIDE A CROOKED TRAIL (1958) w. Walter Matthau

So if you all liked NO NAME ON THE BULLET, then I bet you'll probably like the four I listed up above. They're all solid oaters.

7 out of 10

What this taut, tense and very-well-acted psychological western drama lacks in subtlety, it makes up in voltage, I suggest. The director, Jack Arnold, is noted for his making something engrossing out of low-grade horror material ("Creature From the Black Lagoon"); here he has first-rate supporting actors, a good setting and an interesting story to work with. The script was supplied with story by Howard Amacker and screenplay by Gene L. Coon. Con, later a contributor to "Star trek" followed a pattern in his writing; he introduced a false premise on the part of the central character and then let him find out his mistake as the action progressed; such a premise can lead to "discovery' that take the viewer along, or to a script where a false set of values are imposed onto existing materials. Here the formula work rather well, as most viewers of the film have noted. In this plot line, the ethical central character is a doctor, played by Charles Drake. To his town there comes a man called Gant. he is recognized as a famous hired gun; his pattern is to goad a man into drawing on him, outdraw him legally, then having done his job, to ride away and collect his "bounty' on a desired death. The man who recognizes him, and many others, begin to fear as the quiet, soft-spoken Gant waits and says nothing about his target, that the gunman is after them. The town's sheriff tells the townsmen he cannot go after Gant, since the man's neither wanted nor doing anything wrong. The Doctor befriends Gant, underplayed with some skill by Audie Murphy, who calls him "the only other honest man in town"; Gant expresses his admiration to the Doctor's girl, sultry Joan Evans, as well. But the tension undermines the shell of appearance and the questionable courage of several in town. the town's banker, Whitner Bissell, after a mine and worried the cheated owner has hired Gant, takes a gun, and failing in nerve tower's shoot Gant kills himself. Warren Stevens, who took Gant's wife Virginia Grey away, nerves himself up even though he is a coward to face Gant, then runs away, taking Grey with him, as he always does. The rancher cheated of the mine, John Alderson, fears the banker has hired Gant to finish his theft and organizes a vigilante group. Gant faces them down, outdraws brave Sheriff Willis Bouchey, and goes back to his vigil. Others in town including Dutch, played by Simon Scott and the banker's partner Karl Swenson now begin worrying also; only the blacksmith, the Doctor's father R.G. Springsteen and the town character, Hank Patterson, and the storekeeper Russ bender remained unaffected. At last Gant zeroes in on his man, a retired Judge, Evans' father Edgar Stehli; his method is simple. Evans' visits him in his room to ask him to leave; he tears her blouse, and takes the piece of cloth to the Judge. The Judge is outraged, and despite the fact he is dying and crippled, tries to shoot Gant. The gunman evades him, and leaves him alive. As he departs, he is met by the blacksmith and Drake; thinking he has killed the Judge, Drake throws a weapon at his arm, crippling him. Gant accepts his fate, and rides off, leaving the town wondering who is the honest man, and who is the killer. The film's features cinematography by Harold Lipstein,costumes by the great Bill Thomas, music by Herman Stein, art direction by legendary Alexander Golitzen and Robert Emmett Smith, sets by Theodore Driscoll and Russel A Gausman and makeup by Bud Westmore. This is a powerful and meaningful film that almost works perfectly. Drake and Scott, Bissell and Grey and Stevens are particularly fine; Evans is beautiful and effective as the Doctor's girl, and Springsteen is powerful as his father, as are excellent actors Bouchey and Bissell. As the Judge Stehli is intelligent and moving as always. This is a film that has been a pattern for many psychological westerns to follow, including the Clint Eastwood "man with no name" series. Not to be missed.

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.