Forty Guns (1957)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writer:

Samuel Fuller (written by)

Release Date:

September 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Plot:

An authoritarian rancher, Barbara Stanwyck, who rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns...

Plot Keywords:

Arizona | Rancher | Gunfight | Murder | Funeral

Cast

Barbara Stanwyck	...	Jessica Drummond
Barry Sullivan	...	Griff Bonnell
Dean Jagger	...	Sheriff Ned Logan
John Ericson	...	Brockie Drummond
Gene Barry	...	Wes Bonnell
Robert Dix	...	Chico Bonnell
Jidge Carroll	...	Barney Cashman
Paul Dubov	...	Judge Macy
Gerald Milton	...	Shotgun Spanger
Ziva Rodann	...	Rio
Hank Worden	...	Marshal John Chisum
Neyle Morrow	...	Wiley
Chuck Roberson	...	Howard Swain
Chuck Hayward	...	Charlie Savage
Sandra Wirth	...	Chico's Girlfriend

Also Known As:

Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns (Australia)
Woman with a Whip (USA) (original script title)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Germany:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #18646) | Australia:PG | France:U (2002 re-release)

Company:

Globe Enterprises

Trivia:

Condemned in the US because of its brutal handling of the narrative, but praised in Europe for its stylistic vigor.

Quotes:

Griff Bonnell: [on being offered her foreman's job] Why me?
Jessica Drummond: I need a strong man to carry out my orders.
Griff Bonnell: And a weak man to take them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in À bout de souffle (1960)

Soundtrack:

God Has His Arms Around Me

It's a must see for the Western fans and cult movies lovers

Jessicca Drummond(Barbara Stanwick) is an untameable owner who rules over a small city in Arizona county.The cattle queen is supported by a little army constituted by forty gunfighters.Her power will be modified with arriving the Bonnell brothers(Barry Sullivan,Gene Evans and Dix),one of them(Sullivan) is proclaimed sheriff and his vision from law and justice differs quite of Jessica Drummond and her brother(John Erikson),a young gunman eager to take up a life of crime.

It's a magnificent Western plenty of violence,hate,gunplay,impossible love story...in a word :emotion,besides contains effective action sequences as the raid on the small town. Of course there are ritual shoot out between gunfighters confronting each other in a quick-draw duel in the accepted Western movie fashion,but this time with no observing the honourable ¨Code of the west¨the showdown isn't the usual but is developed of strangest manner and no habitual rules as is seen in the initial and final feud. The film has exciting and captivating images as when appears Barbara Stanwick riding in her white stallion and with his forty henchmen worn in black and in column(as Alibaba and the forty thieves from thousand and one nights book) and the appearing of dead on the showcase with the caption:murdered by Bonell brothers and shot in back.Besides a sensational black and white cinematography by Joseph Biroc.The film gets excellent edition by Gene Fowler,he is a famed editor and occasionally director of Western and Sci-Fi(I married a monster from outer space,I was a teenage wolf).Samuel Fuller direction is inspired,he directed another three especial Western(Run of the arrow, Baron the Arizona,I shot Jesse James),this is the best,he realized a thrilling and fascinating Western converted nowadays in an essential cult movie.