Bataille sans merci

"Gun Fury" is a 1953 Western Starring Rock Hudson and Donna Reed as a couple traveling to California in the Southwest. After their stagecoach is held-up and Ben Warren (Hudson) left for dead, he is eventually able to go after the outlaws who have his fiancé.

Shot mostly outside in the Sedona, Arizona, region, this is a very picturesque Western. While the film begins slow it morphs into a chase movie with loads of Western action. The cast is great with Hudson in his prime and Leo Gordon as the ex-gang member, Jess, whom Ben starts to befriend. But it's Phil Carey who shines as the villainous Frank Slayton, an embittered ex-Confederate Southern "gentleman" who's still at war.

The antagonism between Slayton and Jess is interesting in that Jess feels Slayton goes too far in his outlaw activities and increasingly objects. Although Slayton doesn't put up with it, it's clear that he regards Jess as a partner - a partner he's willing to slay in a heartbeat if necessary.

Carey comes across as a malevolent version of Charlton Heston. His character is interesting: He justifies his crimes on the grounds that he's still at war even if the Civil War ended years ago. He wants Jennifer (Reed) because she's a genuine Southern Belle who reminds him of his former world, a world the war has forever destroyed.

Despite all these good things, there are some glaring script problems. Warren is said to be dead by one of the outlaws after the stagecoach heist, but later gets up and no injury is mentioned the rest of the movie (although he momentarily touches his head when he wakes and looks for blood on his hand, implying that he was perhaps head-grazed by a bullet). The worst plot issue is the problematic swap deal at the end.

If you can overlook such defects, however, "Gun Fury" is a worthwhile 50's Western for the many positive points noted above.

The film is short and sweet at only 83 minutes.

GRADE: B.

"I'm sick of violence and force," says Ben Warren, the rich young rancher who is taking his fiancee Jennifer to California for their wedding. Like most Americans of his generation, he served in the Civil War and was disgusted by the slaughter. Now he is devoted to working his big spread and marrying his beautiful girl (played by Donna Reed).

Unfortunately, the barren South West is not remote enough from recent history. Men have crossed the Rockies to escape from the bitterness back East, but they have carried their violence westwards with them.

The film is the story of a stagecoach holdup which turns into an abduction, then a manhunt. Ben Warren (Rock Hudson) sets off after the bad guys who kidnapped his bride-to-be, and pursues them across the Arizona desert.

A standard horse opera, "Gun Fury" contains no more than the average complement of guns and precious little fury. There are absurdities in the storyline, like the holdup with fake cavalry escort, and the ease with which the 'good guys' recover from seemingly mortal harm (Ben is shot dead, apparently, but then gets up and carries on as if nothing happened, and Jess is almost dead from sunstroke but quickly rallies and rides after Slayton). The trade of Jennifer for Jess is silly, not least because Jess would never want to rejoin Slayton's gang.

One directorial quirk exhibited by Raoul Walsh is the way in which any character who throws something (knife, rock, pottery) has a victim's-point-of-view cutaway inserted. The viewer is, for an instant, seemingly the target of the missile. The purpose of this oddity is to exploit the 3-D format in which the film was originally shot.

The only other talking point is the presence of Lee Marvin and Neville Brand as bad guys in Slayton's gang.

Verdict - workmanlike western, but nothing special

A rancher and a reformed outlaw pursue a band of kidnappers through the Arizona desert in a good western that never received its just due. Most of Rock Hudson's early films were westerns and he essays the role of a determined cowboy in fine style as he and Leo Gordon search for an outlaw band for very different reasons. The picture is strictly a pursuit and revenge western with colorful characters and scenery making an ordinary plot tense and exciting. Phil Carey and Donna Reed are major players here but are supported by great character actors such as Lee Marvin and Neville Brand. Carey is at his best as a glib but vain outlaw leader who covets betrothed Donna Reed for himself. Pat Hogan is good in his familiar role as an Indian and Roberta Haynes is tough and fiery as a spurned border mistress.

Gun Fury marked the first loan out film that Rock Hudson did after he became a star at Universal. Rock did this one for Columbia just as his star was rising fast with the movie going public.

The film has the look and feel of a Randolph Scott western, it's just the kind of story that Scott was in fact doing at Columbia with Budd Boetticher. I would not be surprised if this wasn't something Scott might have had in mind for himself. Of course there would have been changes made as Scott was a much older man than the youthful Rock Hudson.

Donna Reed is Hudson's fiancé who is on a stagecoach west to meet her man. On the stage also is notorious outlaw Philip Carey traveling incognito because he plans to meet up with his gang and rob the stage later.

Carey is best known as the boss of those exuberant Texas Rangers in Laredo, but here he's a bad man, rotten through and through. He also decided to take Donna Reed as well because he's tired of the woman he has now, Roberta Haynes.

Carey thinks he's killed Hudson, but Hudson's quite alive and on his trail with a former Carey outlaw member Leo Gordon along with him.

Gun Fury shows how much the western grew up in the Fifties. This kind of story involving kidnapping and sexual abuse was definitely not for the Saturday matinée kiddie trade. Though Hudson and Reed are good, it's Philip Carey who really dominates the film.

He's got quite a collection of noted screen bad guys in his crew. Besides Leo Gordon, Neville Brand and Lee Marvin are also around.

Can't tell you how it ends, but Hudson and Gordon pick up an Indian along the way who proves to be of great assistance.

Beautiful looking western in dazzling Technicolor is otherwise an ordinary affair but does have Rock Hudson and Donna Reed both on the cusp of bigger things. Donna made From Here to Eternity the same year as this and although it didn't really enhance her movie fortunes it raised her fame level easing her transition to TV fame as the perfect homemaker. Rock would break out of the B's the next year with Magnificent Obsession that turned him into box office gold for years. This film does have a good pace and a hissable villain in Phil Carey plus an early peek at Lee Marvin. For western fans or admirers of the stars this should be an enjoyable view.