Gun Fury (1953)

Director:

Raoul Walsh

Writers:

Irving Wallace (screenplay) &
Roy Huggins (screenplay) ...
(more)

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 dead 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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alma Beltran	...	Second Mexican Girl (uncredited)
Don Carlos	...	Vincente (uncredited)
John L. Cason	...	Westy (uncredited)
Charlita	...	Francesca (uncredited)
John Dierkes	...	Sheepherder (uncredited)
Frank Fenton	...	Chuck, First Poker Player (uncredited)
Robert Griffin	...	Sheriff of Salt Wells (uncredited)
Carl Harbaugh	...	The Barber (uncredited)
Jim Hayward	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Pat Hogan	...	Johash (uncredited)
Ethan Laidlaw	...	Saloon Extra (uncredited)
Christey Marlo	...	Elena (uncredited)
Bob Morgan	...	Lieutenant Wherry (uncredited)
Post Park	...	Billy Whiskers (uncredited)
Maudie Prickett	...	Mrs. Rogers (uncredited)
Jim Reeves	...	Old Man (uncredited)
Henry Rowland	...	Second Poker Player (uncredited)
Drake Smith	...	Florida Man (uncredited)
Rosa Turich	...	Mexican Waitress (uncredited)
Mel Welles	...	Pete Barratto (uncredited)
Dan White	...	Sheepman (uncredited)

Directed by
Raoul Walsh

Writing credits
Irving Wallace		(screenplay) &
Roy Huggins		(screenplay)
Kathleen B. Granger		(novel "Ten Against Caesar") &
George Granger		(novel "Ten Against Caesar") &
Robert A. Granger		(novel "Ten Against Caesar")

Produced by
Lewis J. Rachmil	....	producer

Original Music by
Mischa Bakaleinikoff		(uncredited)
Arthur Morton		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Lester White		(director of photography) (as Lester H. White)

Film Editing by
James Sweeney
Jerome Thoms

Art Direction by
Ross Bellah

Set Decoration by
James Crowe

Makeup Department
Dotha Hippe	....	hair stylist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Corrick	....	assistant director

Sound Department
J.S. Westmoreland	....	sound engineer (as Josh Westmoreland)

Stunts
Robert Bradshaw	....	stunts (uncredited)
John L. Cason	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Morgan	....	stunts (uncredited)
Post Park	....	stunts (uncredited)
Al Wyatt Sr.	....	stunts (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Francis Cugat	....	color consultant: Technicolor

Music Department
Mischa Bakaleinikoff	....	musical director
George Duning	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Irving Gertz	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Fred Karger	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Paul Sawtell	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)
Marlin Skiles	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
Fritz Ford	....	stand-in (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation (presents)

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures Corporation (1953) (UK) (theatrical)
• Columbia Film Aktiebolag (1953) (Sweden) (theatrical)
• Consorzio Cinematografico (1953) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures of Argentina (1953) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures Proprietary (1953) (Australia) (theatrical)
• Europa Film (1954) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Columbia Film-Verleih (1956) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1994) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

UK:U (passed with cuts) | USA:Approved (MPAA rating: certificate #16584) | West Germany:12 (f) (cut version) | West Germany:16 (nf) (original rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Netherlands:12 (DVD rating) (2006) | Netherlands:14 (edited version) (1954) | Netherlands:18 (original rating) (1954) | UK:U (tv rating) | UK:U (video rating) (1997) | Finland:(Banned) (1954) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Coffee Pot Rock, West Sedona, Arizona, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Rock Hudson suffered an attack of appendicitis on the last day of filming.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Holiday (2006)

BULLETS ARE DEMOCRATIC. THEY DON'T ONLY KILL BADMEN

This originally-filmed 3-D pot boiler features a darkly gorgeous Donna Reed partnering an equally handsome Rock Hudson- the latter displaying the macho charisma he hid behind for most of his career. But the thing is, he's good -and so's Donna. They play an engaged couple about to settle in California at the end of the Civil War. Rock has the odd good line 'Bullets are democratic- they don't only kill badmen' -no doubt an orphan from scriptwriter Kathleen George's novel TEN AGAINST CEASAR on which movie was based and a concept which would have found an echo in post-Korean and WWII veteran audiences.

Ex-Confederate Army cronies' embitterment and discontent is the excuse for stagecoach robbery, murder and kidnapping. Ben Warren [Hudson] is left for dead and his fiancé Jennifer Ballard [Reed] snatched under the unlikely pretext that gang leader Frank Slayton [Phil Carey] fancies her. The later elemental suggestion of suppressed carnality is best left as it was -suppressed. Donna Reed, despite torn blouse -is Rock's girl, and she remains so. Doesn't the Phil Carey know how things in Westerns work out? The plot of George's novel, TEN AGAINST CAESAR has been uncomplicated to a degree where an orangutan, given five seconds and a paintbrush, could have written the subsequence and denouement.

But credibility is not what this movie is all about.

It's about how parted Rock and Donna are re-united and triumph over -albeit manufactured -adversity ; it's about searing Arizona desert; the magnificence of 1950 Technicolor Western-making, and perhaps most of all about the making of desolation beautiful. I remember its flat screen release as a kid, was dying to see it but couldn't afford the admission. Had I seen it then I know how I would have reacted - I would have considered it good value and left the cinema, six-gun at the ready, seeking a showdown.