La veuve et le tueur

The 1950s were to movie westerns what the 40s was to film noir so it's always kinda shocking to see an oater made at this time be so friggin ordinary as this offering from Ray Nazarro. Although maybe not so shocking when you consider the fact that Budd Boetticher, one of the era's best western directors, called Nazarro the "ten day picture guy". And of those ten I would guess that half a day, at most, was spent on the screenplay/story since previous IMDB reviewers have written of its stunning predictability and unoriginality. I do, however, disagree with the previous reviewer who called it "beyond mediocre". Indeed, it is the very quintessence of average. Or, in other words, a solid C.

Ellen Beldon is about to be hanged in Texas for the cold-blooded murder of her husband. Her uncle's ranch foreman, Judd Farrow, masquerading as a priest busts her out of jail and escorts Ellen to a safe hideout at her uncle's ranch in New Mexico. Her uncle has enough influence to block extradition of Ellen back to Texas.

Her father-in-law, Mace Beldon, determined to avenge the killing of his son, hires gunman Gil McCord for $5,000 to track down Ellen and bring her back to Texas. Gil hires on as a cowhand and then kidnaps Ellen and they head back to Texas. On the way Ellen explains to Gil what really happened.

You don't see many women in westerns sentenced to be hanged, which is a fresh angle in this fast-moving, well-acted western that has some fine cinematography and great locations. It's well made, suspenseful and fairly engaging. In tone and story it reminds me of the Scott-Boeticher western. Calhoun in particular is quite cold and determined to earn his dollars - well, at first. Predictably, he falls for the cute Anne Francis. Her character is quite a strong one. Maybe this film would've benefited from a longer running time so Calhoun's relationship with Francis could've been more developed and his belief in her innocence more gradual.

A very short western,clocking at hardly 70 min,but a fast moving one,well acted and with a screenplay which can appeal to ladies ,which is not obvious a far as this genre is concerned ;the background may be the wild west ,but the plot is sometimes close to detective story ,a whodunit (although you would have guessed who the culprit is in the first minutes!) ' Annee Francis portrays a young widow,falsely accused of her husband 's murder and sentenced to death (rare in westerns for a girl!);as her uncle helps her to escape (with Chuck "rifleman" Connors dressed up as a priest),the ruthless in-laws......well check the title .

Rory Calhoun is efficient as the hired gun ;he also produced this entertaining movie,which seems to suffer for its small budget :the last quarter seems botched,but the rest is pretty well done.

The Hired Gun opens with a camera shot through the noose that is scheduled to go around the pretty neck of Ellen Beldon (Anne Francis), the first woman ever to face hanging in Texas. When she's rescued by Judd Farrow (Chuck Connors) and taken back to her family's ranch in New Mexico, the Texans hire Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to bring her back in order to carry out the sentence. The heavy backdrop of a potential hanging, especially of a woman, gives the film some dramatic weight, as does the trip back to Texas, after McCord has recaptured Ellen. The film could have been a lot more interesting if on the way back to Texas it had exploited some of the underlying lust between them. Instead it plays it safe with a few action scenes where a group of Indians attack and McCord kills them, thus putting the film in jeopardy of being a Saturday afternoon flick for the kiddy matinees. Considering the cast, which includes a good part for Vince Edwards as well as Chuck Conners, and the overall noir look due to the b & w cinematography, the film had the story ingredients and talent to be a minor masterpiece.

Anne Francis is about to hung for the murder of her husband, the son of the local Ponderosa owner John Litel. But her uncle sends Chuck Connors to rescue her and he does, taking her across the Texas state line to New Mexico territory where he, Robert Burton is the local Ponderosa owner. And due to Burton's influence, New Mexico will not honor extradition. What to do, but hire out for The Hired Gun.

In this case it's Rory Calhoun who gets hired for $5000.00 dollars to deliver Francis back to Texas for the sentence to be carried out. He's even deputized to make what is kidnapping have some trapping of legality.

Of course with their time on the trail Calhoun and Francis start getting acquainted. I don't think I have to go any further.

The Hired Gun was almost like watching two different films. A plot line where Francis is being given some unwanted attentions by her rescuer Connors is left dangling. Quite frankly I can't blame Connors for expecting some kind of manifestation of that gratitude. Then when Calhoun and Francis cross the state line, it's like a whole new movie started. I think some writing might have changed midpoint in the film or it was to be a whole bigger type of western when originally conceived.

With stuff like The Hired Gun which Calhoun also produced not being that well received, no wonder Rory Calhoun opted for a TV and he would star in his own television series, The Texan very shortly.