The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Feels like Saturday morning at the movies. We want a hero; and Glenn Ford will do just fine. George Temple (Ford) is a former gunslinger, who is more than ready to put those days in his past. His reputation is discovered and he and his faithful wife, Dora (Jeanne Crain), seek another small town to call home. Temple becomes a shopkeeper, but when he gets drunk and shows off his skill with a gun, a tough guy (Broderick Crawford) would like to take him on.A good B&W western from MGM; gun smoke and trail dust in the air. No doubt about mild mannered Ford being the star. The cast also features: Russ Tamblyn, Leif Erickson, Noah Berry Jr., Allyn Joslyn, Virginia Gregg and John Doucette.

The story of the ex-gunfighter trying to put his past behind and go straight has been done more than few times in the western genre. (It's also been done to death in contemporary stories about retired hit men/mafiosi/mercenaries). The two greatest versions of this story among westerns are George Stevens' 1953 "Shane" and Clint Eastwood's 1992 "Unforgiven." Both those films depicted former gunmen truly traumatized by their violent pasts. Alan Ladd's "Shane" is a sad man doomed to a life as a lonely outcast and Clint Eastwood's "Bill Munny" knows that damnation and hellfire is what awaits him in the afterlife.But then you have "The Fastest Gun Alive's" "George Temple" (Glenn Ford). Like Munny and Shane, George is an ex-gunfighter trying to walk away from his past. His reason for doing so is to please his uberbabe-of-a-wife, "Dora" (Jeanne Crain). Escaping the past, the couple own and operate a dry goods store in a podunk town where everyone views George as a teetotaling milksop. However, unlike Shane and Munny, George has no real regrets as to killing or any fear of eternal condemnation. In fact, he's practically chomping at the bit to brag about his skills and past.What sets George over the top, though, is professional jealousy. You see another gunfighter, "Vinnie Harold" (Broderick Crawford), recently shot down a perceived rival in a nearby town in order to lay claim to the title: "fastest gun," and the people in George's town just can't stop talking about it. George's jealousy over hearing people marveling at Harold's feat makes him snap. So, he reveals his past. And that's where this film lost me: George's braggadocio and bullying while revealing himself to be A-Number-One-Gunfighter made him come across as a complete jerk. He's no Shane forced back into his profession to save a friend or Bill Munny killing again to save his family from financial ruin. Instead, George's just a braggart. Yeah, Harold comes hunting for him and threatens the town, but that would have never happened if George hadn't had such a big mouth and a bigger head. After the "reveal" scene, I really couldn't stand him or this movie anymore.Also, the ridiculous depiction of gunfighting being some sort of "sport" that requires six hours of practice a day turned what appeared to be as serious film into a kiddie matinée B-pic. As Bill Munny puts it near the end of "Unforgiven" that his being a successful gunman was nothing more than luck and an ability to kill without conscious. (Another reviewer mentioned Don Siegel's 1975 "The Shootist" which had John Wayne's character making the same point that being "willing" to kill was far more important than being the best shot or the fastest draw.) George Temple, on the other hand, would say, "practice makes perfect." Yeah, right.

Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford had already co-starred in Convicted and Human Desire. For their third and final pairing in The Fastest Gun Alive, MGM gave them a whole flock of familiar character faces in support who are too numerous to mention. The two play a pair of men of whom destiny put on a collision course. Broderick Crawford is a swaggering psychotic gunfighter who kills frequently to preserve his reputation as The Fastest Gun Alive. As the film opens he picks a fight with another fast gun, Walter Coy, and outdraws him with lightning speed. A later bank robbery by Crawford and his two sidekicks Noah Beery, Jr., and John Dehner puts a posse on their trail. To get fresh horses they stop off in a small town that doesn't even have a sheriff. It's also where Glenn Ford and wife Jeanne Crain operate the general store.Unknown to everyone else the mild mannered Ford is also a fast gun, taught by his father who was a legendary sheriff. But Ford is a man with issues, different than Crawford's, but the issues that both these men have are what drives this film to a conclusion. When Crawford hears about Ford being a fast gun he feels compelled to see if it is true.Glenn Ford did a series of excellent westerns in the Fifties and his career was heading toward its apex. He and Crawford are just wonderful in their contrasting characters. The editing in The Fastest Gun Alive is particularly noteworthy, especially in a church scene similar to the one in High Noon where all those familiar movie faces get to etch some good characterizations with only a few lines.The Fastest Gun Alive is an absolute must for Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford fans.

The Fastest Gun Alive is directed by Russell Rouse and is adapted by Rouse and Frank D. Gilroy from a Gilroy story titled The Last Notch. It stars Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford, Russ Tamblyn, Allyn Joslyn, Leif Erickson, John Dehner and Noah Beery Junior. A black and white production out of MGM, it's photographed by George J. Folsey and features music by André Previn. The town of Cross Creek is home to a very mild man named George Temple (Ford), there he runs the local store and lives in peaceful harmony with his wife Dora (Crain). Then one day the town hears news of how outlaw Vinnie Harold (Crawford) has gunned down Clint Fallon, the once thought of fastest gunman alive. It's not long before the talk of other fast guns dominates discussion, with George becoming increasingly agitated at how the town people view him as meek and mild. With his pride hurt, George sets about dispelling some myths about fast gunmen and his own current persona. With that comes trouble, big trouble for everyone in Cross Creek when Vinnie Harold rolls into town.By the time of The Fastest Gun Alive's release, the psychological Western was in full flow. Anthony Mann had blazed the trail with his genre defining run of Western's that he made with James Stewart, the last of which would be in 1955 with The Man From Laramie. From there the torch would be picked up with some aplomb by the pairing of Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott, who began with Seven Men From Now in this same year as The Fastest Gun Alive. Away from those genre legends, many directors were turning their hands to more adult/serious Western's, some successful, some not so and some which have been forgotten, rightly or wrongly, for various reasons, when the subject of psychological Western's arises. Probably on account of it's lower tier director, The Fastest Gun Alive is the latter.The title actually doesn't help the film, it immediately conjures up images of a man creating death with his whippy pistols. Suffice to say it isn't that sort of film, and those that have previously been lured in by the title, have no doubt felt a little short changed. Rouse's movie is more concerned with mood and the psychology of the principal players in Gilroy's story. Both Ford and Crawford's characters are driven by motives, that although different, inevitably means a collision is unavoidable. But the story isn't just about these two men, it takes time to involve loved ones and the people of the town, all are involved and as it turns out, all are key elements as to why the film is a character driven little gem. While what action there is is competently handled by the director, notably the finale that also comes with an unbearable precursor of tension.What problems there are in the picture are thankfully only minor. Crawford is just a touch too much one note, but such is his hulking frame he looks the part of a brutish bully and he gets away with it. Tamblyn is seriously out of place, almost as much as his dance number is! It's skillful and delightful: if only it were in the right movie. For it shifts the tone of the film downwards and you have to wonder who made the ridiculous decision to include it in the film. But away from those issues it's all good. Crain looks stunning and plays emotive worry with ease, while Dehner does a nice line in shifty side-kick. But it's Ford who takes the honours, either playing it as a tortured soul who's emotionally conflicted, or as a man who is genuinely scared, Ford convinces and draws the audience into the unfolding drama.Forget any notion of a stereotype suggested by the film's title and enjoy the atypical way in which the movie deals with its characters. This is a good un, very much so. 8/10