Le justicier de l'Arizona

Ben Wyatt , an ageing gunfighter, reluctantly answers a call for help from his old friend Luis Domingo , whose land is threatened by a greedy cattle baron. Arriving at the ranch to find Domingo and his wife dead and their daughter Anisa gone, Ben sets off in search of Anisa and the killers

Return of the gunfighter is Robert Taylor's last western, a genre he loved starring in, and what a way to bow out. A well-plotted, well-paced western with thoughtful performances, especially from Robert Taylor who imbues a gun weary character, who is fed up of killing, but has to do the right thing, and help his late friend's daughter bring her father's killers to justice. Things get a bit more dramatic when it's revealed that Chad Everett, who has feeling for the girl, is the villain's brother. Lyle Bettger is the main villain, but it's John Davis Chandler as Sundance, his hired thug, who steals the scene in the villainy stakes with his snarling face.

The Return of the gunfighter is an excellent western, with some exciting action, and great location. In my eyes, a western tale of the good guys overcoming the bad hombres never gets old. Seen this film many times on the BBC in my teens.

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.

I'm sorry, but I just couldn't get over seeing Chad Everett in this western film. Now I don't think he did a bad job, but seeing this handsome actor who is most closely associated with playing a TV doctor as a gunfighter took me by surprise--as I grew up watching him on "Medical Center".

The film is one of Robert Taylor's last films. As he was older and more haggard, the writers did a good job in dealing with this instead of pretending he still was the man with matinée idol good looks. Here, he plays an aging gunfighter who is sick and tired of the violence--and he actually tried NOT to fight and would back down if possible. I liked this aspect of the film and it kept me watching--as well as my wife, who is NOT a fan of the genre.

However, aside from both Taylor and Everitt doing a god job, the rest of the film is very, very standard. It's the usual big nasty guy with money versus the innocent farmers/ranchers. While I don't give the film super-high marks, it is well acted and interest interesting and a decent late appearance for Taylor.

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.

Robert Taylor aged more strangely than any of the stars. From the beautiful young man that ravished Garbo in "Camille", he emerged from World War 2 ravished himself. I don't know a lot about him, but I suspect his war experiences had a major emotional effect on him that really showed in his face. Not only did he look worn, he also became far more interesting as an actor. Here he is 56, in the last two years of his life, and his craggy face and striking blue eyes portray a world-weariness that carries tragic weight. He is that often seen Western character, the famous gunfighter tired of killing. I believe Clint Eastwood must have based his character in "Unforgiven" on Taylor's performance here. Taylor makes this fairly ordinary Western extraordinary.