Reviews & Ratings for
Top Gun More at IMDbPro »

6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Sterling Hayden in brisk, low-budget western..., 14 May 2007

Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.

Western fans who like their stories brisk and to the point, should find enough reason to like this mildly interesting western with STERLING HAYDEN as a gunslinger who returns to his hometown after a prison stay and runs into trouble again when he finds corruption rampant and the town's citizens all have him wrongly responsible for a series of murders.

KAREN BOOTH is the love interest and she gets to play a crucial role toward the climax when she saves Hayden from a gunman's bullet. WILLIAM BISHOP is a corrupt landowner who had something to do with the death of Hayden's mom and becomes his staunch adversary throughout the plot.

The opening credits fail to mention ROD TAYLOR who plays a town bully interested in provoking Hayden into a gunfight. He makes a convincing braggart with hardly a trace of his Austrlian accent showing. But the real villain of the piece is JOHN DEHNER as the head of an outlaw gang that Sterling Hayden tries to warn the villagers about.

It's a decent enough western with a theme similar to HIGH NOON in that the town's sheriff has trouble rounding up a posse to take care of the invading outlaws.

Summing up: All of the principal players do a decent enough job but it's more or less a standard western with some conniving characters getting their comeuppance in time for Hayden and Booth to ride off into the sunset.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Good movie, predictable, hokey, 7 January 2010

Author: sowestluv from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I liked Top Gun. It held my interest. Predictable plot, decent character development and story line. It is pretty similar to High Noon in that the town people appear weak and scared to stand up to a villain. This movie has some quality actors who really did not get a chance to share all of their talents. Also some of the actors did not receive credit for their roles. Denver Pyle was a good looking man in his younger days. John Dehner, Rod Taylor are outstanding in their roles. Sterling Hayden did the best that he could with poor material. It is hard to imagine him as a gunslinger. Laura, played by Karen Booth, was a nauseating character. She seemed flattered that two men may have been fighting over her. Ugh. Finally, How can people travel without luggage? Especially women.

3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Ever so slightly above average oater, 3 May 2006

Author: John Seal from Oakland CA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A first rate cast lends this brisk 73 minute western a bit more weight than it perhaps deserves, but the story is engaging enough. The always reliable Sterling Hayden is fine as Rick Martin, a cowpoke with a troubled past who returns to his home town just in time to save it from the marauding gang of villain Tom Quentin (John Dehner, who is excellent). Most of the townsfolk are a cowardly lot, with only a handful of manly men (including James Milligan and Regis Toomey) willing to strap on their holster and defend the old homestead. Even worse, conniving landowner Canby Judd (William Bishop) has his beady eyes set on winning the hand of Martin's old flame Laura (Karen Booth). Add in some surprisingly adept cinematography from Lester White, and the end result is a very enjoyable second feature.

10 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
awful western, surprisingly bad in all aspects, 16 April 2006

Author: chipe from Brooklyn NY

An awful western. The trite screenplay and minimal sets are especially bad. That it has a top notch cast makes it particularly laughable, and the acting was surprisingly poor; maybe the cast members were sickened by the embarrassing script and direction. Big disappointment as I am a big Westerns fan.

To give one example of how lame the movie is, I mention this laughable "gem:" the hero (Hayden) tries to gain the confidence of the leader of the outlaws (Dehner) by offering to tell him where $50,000 in money is hidden in the town they just shot-up. Dehner seriously replies: we're so bad there is no town we can go to spend it! Hayden then has to tell him of a wide open town. Good grief!

Karin Booth shined though. Very beautiful woman.

I'm surprised that the TV Guide and MSN movie web sites gave it relatively high ratings (2-1/2 of 4 stars; and 3 of 5 stars). I wonder if they really saw the movie they reviewed. (The MSN site incorrectly said that the Booth character was married to the main bad guy. Not so, just engaged.)

3 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
This movie is just plain poor, 5 July 2009

Author: rooster_davis from United States

I'm a big fan of Westerns but this one.... whew, what a stinker! I think what turned me off almost right off the bat was the inane dialog. I think I could have written better dialog than this when I was in eighth grade. And the poor actors! Given this terrible dialog, none of them came across looking anything but ridiculous. Really, I'm not kidding. Some of this is little better than what you'd get in an Ed Wood film.

The biggest tragedy is Sterling Hayden. He was probably THE "big" star in this movie which if you called it a B-Western, you'd be lavishing praise upon it. This is what should be called a B-minus Western perhaps. Pity Sterling Hayden, who appeared at other times along with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Frank Sinatra, and other major talents. For him to appear in a vehicle this poor must have been something he tried to downplay for the rest of his life.

One annoying thing about this movie is all the men look like they haven't shaved in a week and their faces are all greasy. I know in the old West guys weren't always well groomed but to a man this is a movie that makes you want to just go 'EWWWW!' Really, this is a crummy Western. Denver Pyle also had to live this one down, especially after appearances in so many great Westerns. Bad, bad movie.

4 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Unrealized Potential, 17 May 2007

Author: dougdoepke from Claremont, USA

What a shame that a really competent director like Andre de Toth who specialized in slippery, shifting alliances didn't get hold of this concept first. He could have helped bring out the real potential, especially with the interesting character played by William Bishop. As the movie stands, it's pretty much of a mess (as asserted by reviewer Chipe). The main problems are with the direction, cheap budget, and poor script. The strength lies in an excellent cast and an interesting general concept-- characters pulled in different directions by conflicting forces. What was needed was someone with vision enough to pull together the positive elements by reworking the script into some kind of coherent whole, instead of the sprawling, awkward mess that it is, (try to figure out the motivations and interplay if you can). Also, a bigger budget could have matched up contrasting location and studio shots, and gotten the locations out of the all-too-obvious LA outskirts. The real shame lies in a waste of an excellent cast-- Hayden, Taylor (before his teeth were capped), Dehner, Reeves, along with James Millican and William Bishop shortly before their untimely deaths. Few films illustrate the importance of an auteur-with-vision more than this lowly obscure Western, which, in the right hands, could have been so much more.

9 out of 35 people found the following review useful:
The 25 Year Old Rod Taylor, 3 November 2003
Author: Single-Black-Male from London, England

Having acted alongside Bette Davis and Joan Collins in 'The Virgin Queen' the previous year, the 25 year old Rod Taylor progressed from extra work to small acting roles in films like this one. Although he was born in Australia, you didn't notice his Australian accent.

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