Gun Fury (1953)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Robert A. Granger (novel) and
Irving Wallace (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

11 November 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Crime | Western

Tagline:

A WOMAN WRONGED...A MAN TO AVENGE HER!...and he rode south to do it!

Plot:

After a stagecoach holdup, Frank Slayton's notorious gang leave Ben Warren for deasd and head off with his fiancée...

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Stagecoach | Bride | Arizona | 1880s

Cast

Rock Hudson	...	Ben Warren
Donna Reed	...	Jennifer Ballard
Philip Carey	...	Frank Slayton (as Phil Carey)
Roberta Haynes	...	Estella Morales
Leo Gordon	...	Tom 'Jess' Burgess
Lee Marvin	...	Blinky
Neville Brand	...	Brazos
Ray Thomas	...	Doc
Bob Herron	...	Curly Jordan (as Robert Herron)
Phil Rawlins	...	Jim Morse
Forrest Lewis	...	Weatherby

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:Approved (certificate #16564) | West Germany:12 (f) (cut version) | West Germany:16 (nf) (original rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:(Banned) (1954) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Coffee Pot Rock, West Sedona, Arizona, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Originally filmed in 3D.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

The West Is Growing Up

Gun Fury marked the first loan out film that Rock Hudson did after he became a star at Universal. Rock did this one for Columbia just as his star was rising fast with the movie going public.

The film has the look and feel of a Randolph Scott western, it's just the kind of story that Scott was in fact doing at Columbia with Budd Boetticher. I would not be surprised if this wasn't something Scott might have had in mind for himself. Of course there would have been changes made as Scott was a much older man than the youthful Rock Hudson.

Donna Reed is Hudson's fiancé who is on a stagecoach west to meet her man. On the stage also is notorious outlaw Philip Carey traveling incognito because he plans to meet up with his gang and rob the stage later.

Carey is best known as the boss of those exuberant Texas Rangers in Laredo, but here he's a bad man, rotten through and through. He also decided to take Donna Reed as well because he's tired of the woman he has now, Roberta Haynes.

Carey thinks he's killed Hudson, but Hudson's quite alive and on his trail with a former Carey outlaw member Leo Gordon along with him.

Gun Fury shows how much the western grew up in the Fifties. This kind of story involving kidnapping and sexual abuse was definitely not for the Saturday matinée kiddie trade. Though Hudson and Reed are good, it's Philip Carey who really dominates the film.

He's got quite a collection of noted screen bad guys in his crew. Besides Leo Gordon, Neville Brand and Lee Marvin are also around.

Can't tell you how it ends, but Hudson and Gordon pick up an Indian along the way who proves to be of great assistance.