Terreur dans la vallée

In 1886, the gunman and gambler Tom Early (Stewart Granger) returns to his homeland to settle down but he is rejected by the crippled grocer Sam Winscott (Jacques Aubuchon) and also by his community. He rides to his farm, where he finds that his wife Alice has recently died and his resented son Tom Early Jr. (Steve Rowland), who does not accept the use of guns, is working alone. On the next morning, Tom rides to the town to buy supplies and sees Sam humiliating his employee Jo (Rhonda Fleming). Further, the cattle lord Grimsell (James Gregory) arrives in town with two gunfighters, Gunn (Arch Johnson) and Blondie, and tells to the Preacher (Chill Wills) that he will cross 20,000 head of cattle through their lands and their town. The Preacher tells that the lands belong to the locals but Grimsell is not interested in their rights. When Blondie sees Tom Early, he draws his gun trying to kill Tom, but he shoots first in self-defense and kills the gunman. Further, he invites Jo to work in his farm for his son and him. While the Preach wants to send an emissary to Laramie to bring documents and the law to his town, Grimsell summons more than thirty gunfighters to work for him. When the emissary is murdered by Gunn, the naive Preacher organizes a posse to unsuccessfully fight against Grimsell. The farmers are ambushed and attacked and the survivors return to the town. But Tom Early decides to provoke an stampeding and fight against Grimsell.

"Gun Glory" is an underrated western visibly inspired in the masterpiece "Shane" of four years before. I do not agree with most of the unfair IMDb reviews and I really liked this film. Stewart Granger is perfect in the role of a dangerous man that decides to settle down and is rejected most of the population including his estranged son. I am a big fan of the sweet and lovely red-haired actress Rhonda Fleming and once again she has a great performance. The twenty-five year old Steve Rowland is miscast in the role of Tom Early Jr. that is supposed to be younger. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil):"Arma de um Bravo" ("Weapon of a Brave")

The story of peace-loving farmers and townspeople fighting for land, water, law and order, and the respect and ultimate subjugation of the long entrenched cattle interests and their hired guns had been worked over better in earlier (Shane) and probably later films as well. There's some good action scenes and the general layout of the story, excluding a disappointing ending, is well executed. Law and order and religion have established roots in the town, but the old order of cattle drives, cowboys, and gunslingers is still around as well. The clash of the two occurs in a nicely staged ambush scene where the townsmen ride right into a trap. Granger, an ex-gunfighter, plays the guy who is shunned by the very townspeople who need his expertise with a gun.

Highly watchable Western about confrontation between cattlemen and homesteaders . This Western is a superior outing because it displays emotion , shoot'em up , brawls , intrigue , riding pursuits and many other things . It deals with Tom Early (Stewart Granger) , a gunfighter and card player returns home after thee years to find the town would rather not have him . In his farm Tom finds his surly son Tom Early Jr. (Steve Rowland , director's son) who lives alone . As the cattlemen led by Grimsell (James Gregory) threaten to destroy it by stampeding cattle through the farmlands . Early regains the town's respect when he stops a murderer from invading the town with his cattle herd . At the grocery Tom meets Sam , the shopkeeper grocer (Jacques Aubuchon), who humiliates his labourer Jo (gorgeous Rhonda Fleming) . As Tom is fighting to stifle the conflicts between homesteaders and cattlemen who hire gunfighters . In the meantime , it is developed a loving triangle between the daddy Tom , his son and a good girl (Rhonda Fleming) . At the end , Tom has to face various professional killers alone , after being abandoned to his fate by the gutless townspeople who disagrees with taking up weapons .

The movie gets Western action , shootouts , a love story , thrills and results to be quite entertaining . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians , production values and pleasing results . It's an exciting western with breathtaking gunfight between the brave protagonist Stewart Granger against the heartless James Gregory and his nasty hoodlums ; in addition , a stirring ending fight into a narrow pass , including explosion and a spectacular stampede . This movie is a lot of fun to watch . It's an acceptable story with a touch of peculiarity , some great characters , and an amazing music score . Here filmmaker Roy Rowland delivers a decently-paced film , however he could be counted on to deliver solid "B" pictures which, at MGM , were often better than most other studios' "A" pictures . Interesting as well as moving screenplay by William Ludwig and uncredited Ben Maddow , being based on novel: "Man of the West" by the prestigious Philip Yordan . The picture is a tale of justice , redemption and about a particular relationship between a gunslinger father and a grumpy son . The basic plot is typical classic Western fare , but what makes this movie stand out is its style . Nice acting by Stewart Granger as the relentless Pistolero turned farmer , he is the ultimate hero figure , his sheer presence overwhelming . This ¨Gun glory¨ seems to be one the most exciting of his long career . Although Granger was tops at Britain's box office during the Forties , he was taken by Hollywood and a whole group of Westerns and other posse of adventures , action movies to turn Stewart into an international star . Support cast is pretty well , such as Chill Wills as Preacher , James Gregory , Jacques Aubuchon and the young Steve Rowland who usually plays films directed by his father , Roy Rowland . Colorful cinematography in glamorous Technicolor , showing splendidly the spectacular outdoors . Adequate musical score by Jeff Alexander , including a wonderful theme song , being sung by the notorious actor Burl Ives .

The motion picture was well directed by Roy Rowland . Roy sharpened his directing chops at MGM with a series of shorts starting in the 1930s, then moved up to features in 1943 . Roy spent quite a bit of time at the studio, from 1943-51 and again from 1954-58 ; he had the good fortune to marry the niece of Louis B. Mayer and was the father of actor Steve Rowland . While not one of the studio's top-rank directors , he was a good professional who had a considerable success . Most were B-movies, but he occasionally handled such A-graders . His greatest hit was , of course , the fantasy movie titled The 5000 fingers of Dr T (1953) . Rowland made an action picture for independent release based on a Mickey Spillane "Mike Hammer" novel starring Spillane himself (Girl hunters (1963)) . He specialized in a variety of genres, including musicals : ¡Viva Las Vegas! (1956) The seven hills of Rome (57) , Two weeks with love (50) and dramas : Our wines have tender grapes 45 with Edward G Robinson (1945). He was also responsible for the tough, fast-paced Rogue Cop (1954), one of the few MGM films that could be considered "film noir" . Roy was a Western expert , as the last film he made at MGM was this "B" western with Stewart Granger, Gun Glory (1957) ; besides , he filmed Outriders with Joel McCrea , Bugles in the afternoon with Ray Milland and Many rivers to cross with Robert Taylor ; after which and then he traveled to Europe for a string of Spanish/Italian-made westerns such as Los Pistoleros De Casa Grande and Ley Del Forastero . His final film as director was a somewhat cheesy pirate movie (he was uncredited ; his Italian co-director Sergio Bergonzelli got sole credit) called El Tigre De Los 7 Mares and its sequel : Tormenta Sobre el Pacífico (1966) . He was associate producer on Nathan Juran's Spain-shot Western : Al Infierno, gringo (1969), after which he retired .

After leaving his wife and son to begin a quest for fame and fortune a gunman by the name of "Tom Early" (Stewart Granger) finally returns home to discover that his son no longer respects him and his wife has passed away and been buried. Although he tells his son that he wants to change his ways when he rides into town he has to shoot and kill another man in self-defense which convinces everyone that he is still the same. Additionally, when he hires a pretty, young woman named "Jo" (Rhonda Fleming) to help out at his ranch it creates gossip and even more trouble among the townspeople as well. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a decent western movie by and large. It had a decent cast and both Stewart Granger and Rhonda Fleming performed in their usual professional manner. Likewise, Rhonda Fleming was also quite attractive. Having said that I must admit that the plot was rather predictable and some of the scenes could have used a bit more passion or excitement in some parts. Even so I suppose it was enjoyable enough for the time spent and I rate it as about average.

Stewart Granger as gunfighter Tom Early rides back into his home town tired of life on the trail. He'd like to settle down with his wife and kid. A lot like Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter. But his wife is dead and his kid is sullen and resentful.

There's a cattle baron played by James Gregory who's looking to drive a herd through the valley where Granger's and other ranches are. If he needs to Granger is more than willing to lend his gun in defense of the valley like Alan Ladd. But the others want to try it peaceful.

Granger and his kid played by Steve Rowland also have Rhonda Fleming living with them now as a housekeeper. Another reviewer likened that to Rachel and the Stranger, but in that one Loretta Young was forced by convention to marry Bill Holden.

So we've got parts of three previous films and I probably could think of more. Yet it's three good films and while this one isn't great, it's enjoyable.

One theme that was thrown in there for reasons I don't understand. At one point Steve Rowland, feeling his teenage oats, tries to take advantage of Rhonda Fleming. She stops his advances and there's no more made of it. I'm not sure why that was included in the film, since there was no confrontation with the father over Fleming.

Two other key roles are Arch Johnson as Gregory's hired gun who's on his own mission against Granger. And Chill Wills plays the town preacher. The town is too small to have any kind of organized governing body, so the preacher is the unofficial town political as well as moral leader. Theocracy in the old west.

Chill Wills also sings in this film. During a scene at his unfinished church he leads the congregation in When the Roll is Called Up Yonder. Chill Wills was a singer in fact before he became a character actor. His screen debut was in Bing Crosby's first Anything Goes as part of the Avalon Boys Trio.

Not a great western, but a mix of a few films to create a good afternoon's entertainment.