Frontier Gun

Son of a famous marshal (John Agar) takes on the job of ridding the town of a power crazed gunman. The inhabitants are too frightened to support him and his father is killed when he lends a helping hand. In the showdown the towns-people back him and he kills the thug.

Starts out as a standard town taming story and transitions into an interesting tale, mainly due to the marshal having an injury which slows his gun from leaving his holster. A dangerous thing considering he's going against a sadistic self-proclaimed town boss ( well played by Robert Strauss) who quick on the draw. This alone hooks you in to its lean, well told story. It's quite enjoyable with a solid performance by John Agar and some good shootouts. I was quite surprised, I thought this would be very average with cookie cutter characters.

I had never heard of Director Paul Landres but I see from the IMDB bio notes that he directed VAMPIRE (1957) and other horror flicks, in addition to TV work.

FRONTIER GUN is not exactly a film that I will remember for long, or even one that I hope to re-watch. Its middling B&W cinematography starts off overly dark and pasty, but at least male lead John Agar as Sheriff Crayle and Barton MacLane as his father Simon Crayle, a famous lawman and fast gun, stay your eye, as does Bob Strauss as convincing top baddy Yubo.

Creepy feelings swing in when we learn from Crayle Sr that his son the sheriff has a hand problem that prevents him engaging in shootouts, so poor Agar is looking for a transfer to Boot Hill if he carries on wearing the tin star... but he's too much of a man to give it up, plus he wants to show Daddy Simon that he does not need his nose wiped.

Thankfully, beautiful Joyce Meadows takes a fancy to the new sheriff. Problem is, that ogre Yubo is really out to snuff out Crayle Jr, who has ordered him outta town, and he is mean enough to deceive Simon and shoot him dead - so now the fan is blowing it in all directions!

Just as thankfully, the cliché-riddled script suddenly takes an unexpected twist: unlike the cowardly populace in HIGH NOON, the residents of Honcho attend a church service armed up to their teeth and they tell their wives to buzz off, throw caution to the wind and march to the sheriff's aid, forcing evil Yubo into a one-on-one duel with Crayle Jr.

Thus the nice handicapped fella gets his nice supportive gal, off into a dark and pasty B&W sunset. THE END 6/10.