My Gun Is Quick

A private detective (Robert Blay) helps a prostitute being assaulted, and notices that she is wearing a unique ring. She is later found murdered and there is no trace of the ring, which turns out to be part of a cache of jewelry stolen by the Nazis during World War II.

This is apparently what a B-movie film noir looks like. No actors whose names mean anything to me (including star Robert Blay). Made by United Artists, and then acquired by MGM. Now probably sort of in limbo from the financial mess of MGM...

But you know what? Low budget or not, lack of star power or not, this is a pretty good story with a cool detective, some ladies of the night, shady characters...

Spillane's Hammer Books Sold Like Hot-Cakes in the Cold-War Making Mickey one of the Best-Selling Authors of All-Time.

A Reality-Check also makes Clear that the Author is Never on Any Best Writer Lists. Truth is that Spillane was a Blistering Commodity that Tapped a Nerve. Returning Vets (Mickey was a Marine), and Macho Types of All Stripes Loved the Noble Savagery.

But Spillane was and Never Will be Considered a "Great" Writer Despite His Highly-Impressive Numbers. Is McDonalds Considered "Great" Dining.

The One Film that had the Backing and Will to put Hammer on the Screen with a Production Worth the Popularity of the Character was "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955).

Director Robert Aldridge's Seminal Film-Noir, some Consider a Masterpiece.

This B-Movie is like all the Other Hammer Movies...Low on Everything Including Talent and a Desire to Not Risk much on the Successor to the 30's and 40's Pulp Icon's.

So the Salivating Public was Short-Changed and the Hammer Legacy on the Screen has been Relegated, mostly, to an Anemic Artistic Wasteland of Missed Opportunities and Creative Indifference.

All of the Movies in the Hey-Day Suffered and Blend Together with such a Degree of Sameness from the Actors to the Style or Lack Thereof, to the Story and the Soundtrack, that in Retrospect it's Difficult to Distinguish Among the Product Offered.

In my Gun is Quick,The Maltese Falcon flies again but not too high. Dolls and dead bodies litter the landscape in this Mickey Spillane story featuring a pair of rookie directors and a cast consisting of minor TV second stringers that nevertheless rises above its drawbacks on more than one occasion.

Mike Hammer (Robert Bray) comes to the aid of a stripper in a hash house when he clocks a thug about to rough her up. Down on her luck she does sport an impressive rock on her finger, one that is part of a priceless set stolen by Nazis during the war. When the girl is murdered Hammer is determined to find her killer. He is also hired by a retired Army colonel to locate all the jewels, promising him a huge payday.

Busy ducking punches and bullets from flunkies while fending off passes from dames the disheveled and surly Bray's cynical deadpan economically conveys Hammer's take on the cesspool society he moves through with few words. His take on everyone is suspicious and for good reason. Hammer's character calls for little stretching and the limited and terse Bray gives Quick a healthy pace by keeping it short and sweet. The rest of the cast is flat (save for Donald Randolph's inspired Colonel) with the mugs supplying perfunctory menace, the babes intense uncontrollable desire for Mike. Considering the personnel My Gun is Quick is a decent Spillane rendering. It may not approach Kiss Me Deadly but it does retain it's pulp sensibility most prominently explored in the hang dog visage of Bray that at times transcends the classic world weary expressions of Mitchum and Bogart.

This is a very gritty low-budget Mickey Spillane film. Yet, despite having a no-name cast and every reason to believe it would stink, the film was very good and deserves to be seen. Robert Bray (who?!) plays Hammer--and plays him directly--without being handsome or bigger than life. This Mike Hammer was very human and very believable.

The film begins with an exhausted Mike coming into a greasy spoon for a bite. There he meets a young lady who had dreams of making it big in Hollywood but who is forced to survive through prostitution. Despite this hard life, Mike feels sorry for her and after a brief talk, gives her money to take a train back home to her family in the Midwest. Later, he learns that she's dead--the supposed victim of a hit and run. Hammer knows better--and spends the rest of the film tracking down her killers. Oddly, this case turns out to be related to an old jewel robbery. How can they be connected and how can Mike avoid getting his brains beaten out....yet again.

As I said above, this film is pretty good despite the budget. The story is excellent and the entire production works well because it seems pretty realistic and tough. A very good but relatively forgotten example of film noir that's worth seeing.

Unfortunately, Bray's bland version of iconic Mike Hammer can't hold together an over-extended 90-minutes. I might have responded differently had the actor evinced more than one emotionless expression and ditched that perfect wardrobe right out of Gentleman's Quarterly. Then too, there's that meandering screenplay whose threads come and go-- but crucially fail to weave anything like good suspense.

Now, I'm no fan of the Cold War's "a slug in the commie gut" Mickey Spillane, but the movie as a whole fails to project his particular brand of blue-collar gusto. And that's despite the many half-clad babes that parade in and out. Also, looks to me like the screenplay goes awkwardly out of its way to emphasize Hammer's principled core. That's probably to reassure 50's audiences that this is not Spillane's ethically challenged version. In that sense, the movie's a somewhat revisionist working of the decade's favorite PI.

Still the movie manages a few positives, especially Jan Chaney's beautifully shaded performance as a forlorn hooker named Red. It's one of the more subtly soulful turns I've seen. Note too how that same opening scene registers Hammer immediately as a tough guy but with heart. Then there's a good traveling look at LA's notorious freeways, which must have been an early morning shoot before the system-wide jam starts. Note too,the big glimpse of 50's upscale decor. No wonder this Hammer only parades around in fine suits. And I liked that imaginative junkyard set-up that proves even recyclables can be a menace.

What the movie really needs however is a strong touch of style. I'm just sorry proved stylists like those of of Kiss Me Deadly (1955) didn't have a hand in this pedestrian production. As things stand, the programmer remains an appropriately obscure entry in an otherwise durable franchise.