Western Movie Review Monday - The Gunfighter (1950)
CowboySpirit.TV - This week for our Movie Review Monday, we have a great review on "The Gunfighter" starring Gregory Peck. User Classicsoncall on IMDB.com writes:
Like "High Noon", the film delivers a slowly mounting tension, not as ominous as that of Gary Cooper's classic, owing perhaps to the ease with which Ringo disarmed the three brothers on the way to Cayenne. Nevertheless, there's a sense of unease that pervades throughout, as minor sub plots intervene to focus on the gunfighter as well as the man. Ringo's relationship with Marshal Strett (Millard Mitchell) is particularly compelling, as the former outlaws discuss their lives, Ringo lamenting the road not taken. Curiously, this was the second movie within a week I've seen in which the main character, at thirty five years old, felt over the hill and feeling life had passed him by. (The other - Warren William's title character in 1939's "The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt").
Interestingly, the movie offers it's share of humorous asides; I got a kick out of Ringo's request to Mac (Karl Malden) to get his saloon helper un-astonished. The others usually came at the expense of the punks Ringo is forced to throw down with, as when one of the barber shop crowd asked Eddie (Richard Jaeckel) if he could have his saddle if things didn't go well. Then there's Hunt Bromley (Skip Homeier) - "Well he was never much fun to have around anyway". There's also the reaction to the marshal's declaration that Ringo's son Jimmy was partial to Wyatt Earp. The best though had to be the women's citizen committee getting to meet Mr. Ringo, just a well crafted scene bringing out the nuance and dichotomy of Peck's character
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