Top Gun

What a shame that a really competent director like Andre de Toth who specialized in slippery, shifting alliances didn't get hold of this concept first. He could have helped bring out the real potential, especially with the interesting character played by William Bishop. As the movie stands, it's pretty much of a mess (as asserted by reviewer Chipe). The main problems are with the direction, cheap budget, and poor script. The strength lies in an excellent cast and an interesting general concept-- characters pulled in different directions by conflicting forces. What was needed was someone with vision enough to pull together the positive elements by reworking the script into some kind of coherent whole, instead of the sprawling, awkward mess that it is, (try to figure out the motivations and interplay if you can). Also, a bigger budget could have matched up contrasting location and studio shots, and gotten the locations out of the all-too-obvious LA outskirts. The real shame lies in a waste of an excellent cast-- Hayden, Taylor (before his teeth were capped), Dehner, Reeves, along with James Millican and William Bishop shortly before their untimely deaths. Few films illustrate the importance of an auteur-with-vision more than this lowly obscure Western, which, in the right hands, could have been so much more.

Western fans who like their stories brisk and to the point, should find enough reason to like this mildly interesting western with STERLING HAYDEN as a gunslinger who returns to his hometown after a prison stay and runs into trouble again when he finds corruption rampant and the town's citizens all have him wrongly responsible for a series of murders.

KAREN BOOTH is the love interest and she gets to play a crucial role toward the climax when she saves Hayden from a gunman's bullet. WILLIAM BISHOP is a corrupt landowner who had something to do with the death of Hayden's mom and becomes his staunch adversary throughout the plot.

The opening credits fail to mention ROD TAYLOR who plays a town bully interested in provoking Hayden into a gunfight. He makes a convincing braggart with hardly a trace of his Austrlian accent showing. But the real villain of the piece is JOHN DEHNER as the head of an outlaw gang that Sterling Hayden tries to warn the villagers about.

It's a decent enough western with a theme similar to HIGH NOON in that the town's sheriff has trouble rounding up a posse to take care of the invading outlaws.

Summing up: All of the principal players do a decent enough job but it's more or less a standard western with some conniving characters getting their comeuppance in time for Hayden and Booth to ride off into the sunset.

Thanks to Sterling Hayden, this Ray Nazarro movie is above average for a B western, but again, as I have said many times before in my reviews, no surprise here. It is tense, taut, gritty, and saved by Sterling Hayden's performance, never wooden, never lame, only the eternal Sterling Hayden, as we love him so much. Yes, a good western from a Lesley Selander like western director. It also looks like a Sidney Salkow film in the directing and overall atmosphere. After all, the latest also directed Sterling Hayden in westerns: IRON SHERIFF, GOLDEN HAWK - though not western. So don't miss it please. It is really worth.

For a B Western, Top Gun provides top entertainment and makes a more-than-adequate contribution to its genre.

The initial conflict uses the basic premise of the Western: lone male figure, having been subjected to privation and now alone and searching for spiritual peace, finds the ultimate show-down when confronted with evil, which he tries to set right -- despite the all-powerful forces of law and nature which try to stop him. The situation -- that a top gunman is revisiting his home town to warn the citizens of a raid by the very gang he used to belong to -- is set up quickly and convincingly, even uniquely -- in a graveyard. The ensemble cast of veteran actors works well to create the tension necessary to convey a well-crafted and believable script. Sterling Hayden exudes gravitas, if not exactly charm, and his masculine presence is undeniable, nearly coming off the screen, as it does in all his films. The sets are well-constructed, and the camera work is consistent and well-planned, if not exactly subtle. The script even provides a few memorable one-liners, as when John Dehner (the heavy) gleefully tells Sterling Hayden, "Rick, you ole catamount, may you live until I kill you."

For Western fans, a gem; for Sterling Hayden fans, a treat (as the camera lingers on both his lumbering body and his rugged face for much of the film); and for cinephiles, a well-worth it adventure.

I have no idea how he did it, but whatever film he was in Sterling Hayden added quality to it. He does so here in what could have been a mediocre film, but he gently rises it above that category, along with Karin Booth who is his love interest. The story is simple; a ruthless gang want to take over the town ( the very poor sets did not make it worthwhile, but then I do not think a lot of money was given to this film ) and Sterling Hayden makes sure that justice is done. There is a good subplot concerning his dead mother which is woven into this 70 odd minutes, and disliked as a ' top gun ' Hayden is, despite his bravery, not welcomed at first into returning to the town. This is where his mother's death is cleverly added on to the suspense. I like the film. It is in many ways well directed, but still falls heavily into the B-category of Western, due to the sets and a few stereotyped minor roles, poorly acted. But worth seeing for Sterling's magic at not ' acting ' at all, and yet giving a performance that stands alongside his other, better films. A final mention again for Karin Booth whose performance was, in my opinion, excellent.