La justice du seigneur

About seven years earlier Robert Mitchum essayed the character of a gunfighter/preacher in Five Card Stud. Although that film was far better than The Gun And The Pulpit, this made for television is a cut above average for television film. It also has the unassailable casting of Marjoe Gortner as a false preacher.

As we know Marjoe who was only using his first name when being a child preacher did a documentary exposing the racket that huckster evangelism is. So it's fitting and proper that he play a phony preacher in The Gun And The Pulpit, a gunfighter on the run who exchanges clothes with a dead preacher on the road to escape a posse.

There's plenty of trouble in the town where he takes up the pulpit, the local Ponderosa owner David Huddleston is leaning on everybody with his gunfighters on the payroll. Marjoe's fast draw wins him a lot of admirers most especially Estelle Parsons and her nubile young daughter Pamela Sue Martin. She's the reason he's staying. And there's also Slim Pickens who knows his secret and his real identity, but knows the town needs a savior. {pun intended}.

This western moves real nice with the kind of plot that was standard fare for the front row matinée kids of the 30s and 40s. Marjor is a good western hero, maybe he should have gone into that line of work.

In The Gun And The Pulpit, Marjoe Gortner stars as an outlaw running from a hanging party, who stumbles upon the body of a deceased preacher. Assuming his identity and his assignment, he ends up inciting the townspeople of an oppressed community against villainous big-wig David Huddleston and cleaning up the town of Huddlestons cronies.

The endlessly glib Gortner, who was no doubt cast due to the fact that he was (no joke) a real life fraudulent Pentacostal minister, is charismatic and well cast as the gun-fighting conman and heads a great supporting cast of character actors including Slim Pickens and Pamela Sue Martin.

This has probably the most clever script ever in a seventies TV movie western (by Academy Award nominated screenwriter William Bowers) with excellent tongue-in-cheek humor and wordplay in some fantastic scenes. One of which involves a miracle gunfight and an excellent cameo appearance by Geoffrey Lewis.

Great fun.

It's pretty obvious that the made-for-TV movie "The Gun and the Pulpit" was a television pilot in disguise. It didn't get picked up by any network for a series, and maybe that's for the best. Not that this movie is awful, but I think writers would have soon run out of ideas for this gunfighter- disguised-as-a-preacher character. I think this idea works best as a one- shot, and the movie does a fairly good job at that. Marjoe Gortner is pretty good as the main character, showing a sense of humor as well as a lot of enthusiasm. (Though his resemblance to B movie actor Michael Dudikoff is unintentionally funny.) There are some genuinely funny moments here and there, and the movie unfolds at a brisk clip and never outstays its welcome. This movie isn't hard to find - it's apparently fallen into the public domain, so many video companies are selling it - so keep an eye out for it.

I've seen this movie about 4 times, under various circumstances, including a night in the hospital when I couldn't sleep. I have always liked Marjo Gortner in his limited career, and this movie was a lot of fun. It reminds me of the old TV westerns like "Maverick" in its humour and characterizations. I can't believe it's not had 5 votes yet.

Marjoe Gortner is a guy pretty much forgotten today. Back when he was a young boy, his parents toured the country with him...billing him as the world's youngest preacher! He was preaching sermons and marrying folks when he was 4! Years later, he wrote a book in which he admitted that the healings and other charismatic things he did in God's name was all a lot of hogwash--blowing the lid off this industry. Soon after this, Marjoe starred in a documentary about all this ("Marjoe"). And, because of the film's success, he soon went Hollywood and appeared in a variety of TV shows and movies. But this new life was rather short-lived and he has since faded into obscurity. "The Gun and the Pulpit" is one of those projects he worked on for Hollywood during this period.

When the film begins, Ernest Parson (Gortner) is about to be hung. Whether or not he deserved this, you never know...but he is able to escape and the posse is in hot pursuit. Later, he finds a dead preacher out in the wilderness. He assumes the man's identity and heads to the super-crappy town in Arizona which called this preacher to preach. Since the folks don't know him, he figures, he can at least hide out there a while. But two problems arise--a nasty guy, Ross (David Huddleston) is running roughshod over the town and Ernie does NOT like this at all and one of the locals recognizes him! What's next....especially after the preacher shoots one of Ross' gunman dead right in the middle of a church service!? What follows is much like films like "High Noon" where you have a do-gooder who stands up for what's right...and a craven town which has to be shamed into even considering standing up for themselves.

This is a decent film with a very convoluted Biblical message to say the least! It is entertaining and different--which is nice as most westerns have a certain sameness about them. There are a few clichés (such as the shootout in the town square) but otherwise worth seeing.