A Lei dos Brutos

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 .

Beverly Garland is the only reason I gave this a good rating. She acts very well and is very pleasing to watch.

Other than that, typical Roger Corman production. Lots of mediocre actors, lack of continuity, lots of women displaying themselves, making out, and humorous scenes when not meant to be humorous. I love Bev's stoic reaction in the beginning. Plus, the whiny barkeep guy was so kooky and annoying. He got his just desserts. Interesting situation: boy meets girl, boy was hired to kill girl, boy falls for girl, girl falls for boy, boy and girl get into shootout.

We do have fun.

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.

Two tough women, one good one bad, dominate "Gunslinger", a nice B western, early work by Roger Corman. In spite of being so patently low-budgeted and made in a rush, the movie have several things to its credit. First of all, a considerable originality for the 1950s. The woman marshal Rose (Beverly Garland) is an uncommon character in western movies, all the more her outstanding guts and toughness. The early scene, when she shoots dead the killer during her husband's funeral service, is a shocker which, in some sense, sets the gutsy standard of the film. Personally, I never saw such an unexpected scene elsewhere. Fine stuff. Rose's counterpart is the cruel Erica (Allison Hayes), always ready to murder anyone interfering with her dirty schemes. She is uncommonly bad for a female character. These two beautiful mortal enemies are related in a love triangle with the gunslinger Cane Myro (John Ireland). I like this character, entangled in a Greek-tragedy-like strait of being hired to kill the woman he loves. John Ireland, slouching along with his dark suit, cold eyes, sad fixed grin, cynical sense of humor, is perfect for the role. In my opinion he makes a first-rate job, even too good for an unpretentious B-movie. The romantic scenes with Myro and Rose have an intensity which makes a fine contrast with the merely carnal interchange between Erica and the gunslinger. A remarkable sexy aura permeates a number of scenes, mainly thanks to three sensational saloon-girls. Even the final general killing, though far-fetched, has the merit to be non-standard. The tough, dry dialogue is praise-worthy, Garland and Hayes act adequately, and there is some good camera work (rarely, to be honest). Several sub-plots give a fast pace to the narration. It is almost impossible to get bored. After all, that's the main purpose of a B-movie, isn't it?

Unfortunately, sometimes "Gunslinger" is non-standard for goofiness, as well. An early take is so mistaken that I even suspect to be a director's deliberate choice. We see the pony-express starting from a stage-post, in theory some ten days far from Oracle, the village where the action takes place. Few seconds later he rides close to a big tree, under which we see the funeral service of the murdered marshal, in Oracle! And we have many takes of rushing horses, patently in "fast-motion". What's the point of such useless stupidity? Two potentially exciting scenes, namely the fist-fight between Rose and Erica and the attempt of the three saloon-girls to lynch Rose, are marred by a very poor editing. We find several faults in the cut of the movie, as well.

Anyway, I go back to my main point. The two pretty tough girls are exciting, the romance is pleasant, the flick is entertaining and presents some interest for a study of B-movies.

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.