Le Sentier de la vengeance

I came across this film by chance on the Encore Westerns Channel and despite its low budget and occasional slow pace, I found this to be an entertaining movie based on relationships: good, bad, strained, and warped. The black & white photography (a budgetary necessity, no doubt) and the blowing wind added to the atmosphere. Trench and Amigo are among the most bullet deserving villains around. Like a lot of the lower budget Western films of mid and late fifties, it much resembles the television Westerns of the time and might have been better off as an hour long episode.

And banned in Finland and Sweden? I suppose it would have passed if Sam and Tanana had been skinny dipping in Lake Tahoe.

After a band of Sioux led by a sadistic white man (Aaron Saxon) wipe out a family at a stagecoach way station, the son (Mark Stevens) vows vengeance and goes after the man, not knowing that his pardner (John Lupton) knows the killer well. The lovely Maureen Hinger (aka Jana Davi) is on hand as Indian squaw, Tanana.

"Gun Fever" (1958) is a B&W B-Western directed & co-written by star Mark Stevens. Despite the low budget and lack of color, this obscure lil' Western exceeded my expectations. Whilst the story involves the hackneyed Bob Steele plot (young man seeks to avenge the murder of his loved ones), the execution is artistic with strong acting by the principles. For instance, Stevens (a Dean Martin lookalike) is a gaunt and powerful presence; Lupton too, just taller.

The movie is dark and brooding with brief flashes of warmth, like a B-Western version of "Apocalypse Now" 21 years before it debuted. Don't look for any comedy or goofiness; it's realistic but generally grim with wind-swept landscapes and rolling tumbleweeds. A critic described "Gun Fever" as being "far from a good movie, but it's interesting." It's a shame Stevens didn't go on to greater success, but at least he had a respectable career in film & TV and we can continue to appreciate his contributions.

The Amer-Indians are played by Caucasians, which was par for the course at the time since there weren't many Native American actors roaming the streets of Hollywood. Just pretend they look more 'Indian' than they do. Regardless, the actors' depiction of Natives is respectable and not laughable.

The film runs 1 hour, 23 minutes. I can't find information on where it was shot, but obviously it was one of several movie ranches in the Hollywood area.

GRADE: B-/B (6.5/10).

Gun Fever is a good example of the sort of very low budget western that was once a Hollywood staple from late in the era when going to the movies for many Americans meant going to see a western. By the time the picture came out (1958) television, with its literally dozens of western series had largely replaced movies as the primary source of filmed westerns except at the A and very high budget level.

Cheap as it is, this movie shows some directorial flair and, aside from Larry Storch's terrible performance as a Mexican, it's not badly acted. As to the story, it's scarcely worth mentioning except to say that it falls into the category of what can best be described as the revenge western. Directed by and starring Mark Stevens, ex-second tier leading man, now third tier and fading fast, it moves quickly and, depending on the point of view, either benefits or is hampered by the use of wind machines, as this is one windy movie.

If the reason for this is mentioned in the film at some point I must have missed it. Maybe there are parts of the west that experience windy seasons, just as there are rainy seasons, dry seasons and so forth. Gun Fever takes place where it appears to be windy season all the time. This enabled Stevens and his crew to disguise, as best they could, the movie's cheapness. I think it works even as I admit that it's a gimmick.

The notion that just being outdoors is or can be dangerous in and of itself is nicely driven home in the movie even as it doesn't appear to be its theme, such as it has one. It's never comfortable for the characters in the picture to be outside for any length of time due to all the blowing dirt, sand and leaves. I wouldn't go so far to say that isolation is a theme in the film but rather a consequence of the way it was made. This is a movie to experience, not ponder.

Yes it's low budget but deserves watching for it's gritty, no nonsense and uncompromising violence, especially when compared to other westerns of this period.

Mark Stevens and John Lupton play a pair looking for a white renegade who is stirring up the Sioux. Stevens and Lupton each have their own reasons and own agenda for being on this ques.

This is a truly dull western and frankly the only time it comes to life is when Larry Storch gives a performance drawn from those old Frito Bandito commercials. I haven't heard that lousy an accent since Humphrey Bogart in Virginia City.

Few saw this because much better westerns were done on television at this time.