Il mercenario della morte

I first saw this movie one Friday night/morning in the 80's while staying in a cheap Midwestern motel room. It was the late late show on a small local UHF channel. After a few minutes I knew why it was small local UHF channel affordable. It was perfectly dreadful even for an early Roger Corman effort. Which is saying something in and of itself. I was also struck by the thought of perhaps how desperate John Ireland's, an actor already with solid accomplishments (My Darling Clementine, Red River, All the King's Men), finances must have been in 1956 to appear in this disaster.

Years later it popped up again without warning on the late great MST3K television show where it received a proper and hilarious skewing. Of course, Corman had served up inning after inning of softballs for the boys to drive out of the park, but they still managed to find gems I missed the first time. Two that had me in tears were the room/hallway scene, "come out," and the "authentic" old west saloon chorus girls.

The original version of the Gunslinger should be mercifully forgotten. The MST3K version should not be missed! Somehow I think even Roger Corman is laughing too.

Roger Corman, alternately lionized as a visionary filmmaker limited by low budgets and tight production schedules, and berated as an overrated producer of shoddy cliche-ridden movies, tries his hand at a Western. Here he seems to be trying to make a brooding adult Western of the Anthony Mann type, but as good as John Ireland is, he just ain't no James Stewart. The bargain basement production values don't help (it's obvious that this movie was made very quickly on a shoestring budget), and the overall look and feel of the film is oppressively gloomy. (Apparently this was due in part to bad weather during filming.)

On the plus side, this movie does have Beverly Garland (r-r-r-owrr!) and Alison Hayes (va-va-va-voom!). These two will help distract the viewer's attention from the sight of Bruno Vesota waddling about and looking shifty.

An average Western on the hands of hard-boiled director Roger Corman and a tough-as-leather cast as well as mostly female , headed by Beverly Garland , John Ireland and Allison Hayes , that's all the plot that's needed to make one rip-roaring Western flick . After her hubby (William Schallert) is gunned down , Rose Hood (Beverly Garland) takes his place temporarily as marshal of a small Western town , Oracle , and she fights for peace and tranquility . She takes his badge and sets out in personal revenge to find the murderers , and as soon as she meets the outlaws to kill and bury them at Boot Hill cemetery . Meanwhile, the nasty Erica Page (Alison Hayes) , the gorgeous saloon owner , along with her moronic underling , Jake Hayes (Jonathan Haze), are busy buying up local properties because of the railroad is going to make an Oracle depot stop . Soon after , villain Erica hires a quick-draw gunfighter called Cane Miro (John Ireland) to come kill Rose . But the unscrupulous hired hand Miro falls in love for Rose and brings back a double-crossing and start to confront among themselves . At the end there appears the famous sheriff Sam Bass.

This is a middling Western with crossfire , fights , thrills , shotdown , pursuits , go riding , but some boring and slow-moving . Unique Western with little action , excessive talking and a surprising ending . It has some good shots but lots of dull spots . It's made in low budget ; however , being well played by acceptable actors as John Ireland , Beverly Garland and Allyson Hayes . Passable support cast , including ordinary players from Corman factory as Dick Miller , William Schallert and Jonathan Haze who acted in ¨Little shop of horrors¨ and many others Corman products . The secondary actors , technicians (cameraman Fred West , musician Ronald Stein) and writer (Charles B. Griffith who wrote various Corman's scripts and also directed) will repeat with Roger in subsequent films .

The motion picture was regularly made by Roger Corman and shot in seven days. During the 50s-60s Roger Corman directed 3 Westerns as ¨The Oklahoma Woman ¨ , ¨Apache Woman¨ and ¨Five guns West ¨ , but his specialty were terror films , Edgar Alan Poe saga , and monsters movies . As Corman realized all kinds of genres as Mobster movie : ¨Bloody mama¨ , ¨St. Valentine's massacre¨, ¨I Mobster¨, ¨Machine Gun Kelly¨ ; and especially known the Edgar Alan Poe renditions : ¨Fall of the haunted house¨ , ¨Tales of terror¨ , ¨Raven¨, ¨Terror¨, ¨Pit and Pendulum¨, ¨Tomb of Ligeia¨, ¨Masque of the red death¨, ¨Premature burial¨; Juvenile movies : ¨Carnival rock¨, ¨Rock all night¨ , ¨Sorority girl¨, ¨Teenage doll¨ ; Monster movie : ¨Attack the crab monsters¨ , ¨It conquered the world¨, ¨ Beast with a million eyes¨ , ¨Viking women and great serpent ¨ , ¨Swamp women¨, ¨Wasp woman¨ ; Sci-Fi : ¨Gasss¨, ¨The man with X-ray eyes¨, ¨Last woman on earth¨ ; Horror : ¨The Undead¨, ¨Tower of London¨, ¨Haunted palace¨, ¨Frankestein unbound¨ ; and Motorcycle films : ¨Wild Angels¨, ¨The Trip¨. Although Corman also produced several films as ¨ Night of the blood beast ¨ , ¨ Attack of the giant leeches¨ and several others . ¨Gunslinger¨ rating : Mediocre : 4.5/10 , only for Roger Corman aficionados .

I'll admit that I don't expect much from a Roger Corman film. Generally, I expect a lot of walking and bad scripts. Yet in this case, I am pleasantly surprised.

The Gunslinger is a story of a woman (played by the spunky Beverly Garland) who takes over as sheriff after her husband is brutally murdered. Ms. Garland is a pretty good shot herself, killing one of the murderers the next day at her husband's funeral. Her first task is to shut down the local bar that is violating the town curfew. The bar's owner is trying to buy land in anticipation of being bought out by the (hoped-for) railroad. However, Ms. Garland is a thorn in her plans, and the bar matron hires a man to kill Ms. Garland.

Because of Ms. Garland's plays her role honestly and realistically, there is absolutely no temptation to go to Suzanne Somers "She's the Sheriff" jokes. With the exception of a couple of faux pas (the apartment door that opens OUT from the inside, jeep tracks, and the two horsemen waiting on screen for their cue to ride around a corner), the movie becomes quite passable as movie fare. However, Corman could not resist padding his film with horse riding scenes, much like he does walking in other films.

Sterno says The Gunslinger is a horse opera worth your time.

Being a big fan of Corman's horror movies I expected from his western a bit more than I got. Well, I was entertained all right. I had almost as many laughs as watching Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles.

See the spectacle of mobile tire tracks on the prairie of the old west. You can kill time by counting them if there happens to be an otherwise boring scene going on. And the horses seem to have gears in them too, considered the fast-forward chases. See also the swinging bar room queens of the traditional wild west saloon doing a number that reminds of a certain fashionable dance from 1920's, here decades before the style was invented. Hope the saloon around them won't crumple.

In the middle of all this mayhem the main actors do a decent job. Ireland, Garland and Hayes are all truly fine. A special praise for them for doing the best they could with the material that seems mostly having been lifted from 'Johnny Guitar', but doesn't quite impress the same way. But there is really nothing wrong with a laughable western like this. Just like a really bad old horror movie, it might fail one way but succeeds to give joy anyway. That is one of the reasons Corman's work appeals to me and that is why I dare to recommend you to experience this movie if you get the chance.