Le justicier de l'Arizona

This film begins with a young woman named "Anisa Domingo" (Ana Martin) witnessing the cold-blooded murder of her parents by a ruthless rancher by the name of "Clay Sutton" (Lyle Bettger) and his henchmen. Not knowing what else to do, she seeks help from an old family friend named "Ben Wyatt" (Robert Taylor), who has a reputation for being an extremely fast gunfighter. Given that Anisa's father saved his life during the Mexican Rebellion, Ben feels obligated to help her find those responsible and bring them to justice. The main problem, however, is the fact that the local town marshal, "Will Parker" (Mort Mills), is working for Clay Sutton and doesn't particularly care for Ben Wyatt anyway. Complicating matters even further is the fact that an aspiring gunman named "Lee Sutton" (Chad Everett) has developed an attachment to Anisa, but considering that Clay Sutton is his brother, things may become even more difficult for all concerned. Now, rather than revealing more, I'll just say that, although it had a fairly standard Western feel, this was still an enjoyable movie, largely due to the strong performance by Robert Taylor. Similarly, I also liked the performance of John Davis Chandler as the gunfighter "Sundance" as well. On the other hand, I must admit that I thought Chad Everett was miscast in his role and, along with the rather formulaic plot, I found it difficult to rate this movie any higher than I have. Slightly above average.

Return of the Gunfighter is directed by James Neilson and adapted to screenplay by Robert Buckner from a story by Burt Kennedy. It stars Robert Taylor, Chad Everett, Ana Martín, Mort Mills, Lyle Bettger, John Davis Chandler and Michael Pate. Music is by Hans Salter and the Metrocolor cinematography is by Ellsworth Fredericks.

Aging gunfighter Ben Wyatt (Taylor) receives a request to go aid an old friend who's in trouble. Upon arrival at the family ranch he finds that both his friend and his wife have been killed. Locating the surviving daughter, he teams up with hot headed drifter Lee Sutton (Everett) and sets about avenging the murder of his friend and the girls parents.

By this time Robert Taylor was winding down his career and his life, 1967 would see him depart from the Western genre of film, how splendid to find he doesn't in the slightest disgrace himself here.

His character is weather worn, a gunfighter tired of all the killing, of looking over his shoulder all the time. This proves to be perfect for Taylor, who gives the role a believable sense of pathos, the passing of time and that fate will not leave him alone hangs heavy. Breaking it down it's a straight forward narrative, where the one time bad guy is called on to use his deadly skills for some good, to rid the plains of some nasty sorts. The relationship with the young upstart (Everett the whitest teeth in the west) builds nicely, leading to a finale that attacks the emotions of the major players.

There's a healthy quotient of action, decently staged by the tech crew, the Old Tuscon locations are nicely photographed, while support players impact with credit on the story. It's not all plain sailing, Salter's score is sometimes well in keeping with the era, but at other times it comes off like a Sccoby-Doo piece. Susension of disbelief is of course required, none more so than when Ana Martín goes about the town pretending to be a boy and everyone falls for it - she is simply too pretty to remotely pass as male, and the appearance of Butch and Sundance in the plot is most odd.

Yet it's a lovely Oater this, feeling more like one from the 1950s than the tail end of the 60s. Highly recommended to Taylor fans and fans of traditional Western fare. 8/10

Obviously a former TV product but eventually put on the big screen, as were DUEL and THE KILLERS (1964), because above average stuff. This typical early sixties western seems to belong to those which were some kind of transition between the John Ford and Han Hathaway era ( forties and fifties) and the new age, the Sam Pecinpah's or Monte Hellman's ones), and not like the Andrew McLaglen's films, made in the sixties and early seventies, and still in the fifties atmosphere. So, this very one could be compared to THE LAST CHALLENGE, with also Chad Everett and co starring this time Glenn Ford, also for MGM, another plot showing the end of the old west and old timers, but in a more interesting and bitter, darker way than this one. Here, Chad Everett is somewhere also the lead character's "sidekick ", but I expected more. That's my own opinion folks, that remains a good western, made by a director who, after a goood start - NIGHT PASSAGE - lost his way thru Disney garbage stuff, before resuming with this one.

Apparently Metro Goldwyn Mayer, while giving the movie a theatrical release overseas, sent this western directly to television in North America. It's pretty easy to see why MGM wasn't totally confident that the movie would attract domestic audiences. The script is the main problem. The story is made up of many elements and plot turns you will have seen in countless westerns before; I bet even audiences in 1967 found the story clichéd. Not only that, the script insults the audience by taking more than half of the movie to set everything up; there's no reason why it should have taken so long for this creaky story to define everything. Also, that first half of the movie is pretty dull, with almost no action or anything else that might be considered lively. The second half of the movie is a bit more energetic, but it's too little and too late. Why the present owners of the movie thought it was worth a DVD release through their on demand video line, I cannot say.

Decent 1960s Western with decent performances by most of the supporting cast. Robert Taylor looked 70 instead of 55, but looking back, I assume lung cancer which killed him two years later, was already attacking him. Fitting ending for Mr. Taylor's Western career. Miss Martin was very beautiful and sort of amazed her career really didn't take off internationally.