The Left Handed Gun (1958)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Arthur Penn

Writers:

Leslie Stevens (screenplay)
Gore Vidal (play)

Release Date:

26 September 1958 (France)

Genre:

Biography | Western

Tagline:

This is William Bonney, a juvenile "tough" from the back-alleys of New York... a teenager wanted dead or alive throughout the West. This is the screen's first real story of the strange teen-age desperado known to legend as "Billy the Kid"...

Plot:

After his employer is murdered by rival cattlemen, a troubled and uneducated young cowboy vows revenge on the murderers,

Plot Keywords:

Cowboy | Billy The Kid | Revenge | Cattleman | Murder

Cast

Paul Newman	...	Billy The Kid
Lita Milan	...	Celsa
John Dehner	...	Pat Garrett
Hurd Hatfield	...	Moultrie
James Congdon	...	Charlie Boudre
James Best	...	Tom Folliard
Colin Keith-Johnston	...	Tunstall
John Dierkes	...	McSween
Robert Anderson	...	Hill (as Bob Anderson)
Wally Brown	...	Deputy Moon
Ainslie Pryor	...	Joe Grant
Martin Garralaga	...	Saval
Denver Pyle	...	Ollinger
Paul Smith	...	Smith
Nestor Paiva	...	Pete Maxwell

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Australia:M | USA:Approved (certificate #18709) | UK:PG | West Germany:16 (nf) | Spain:13 | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:14A (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch - 411 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Haroll Productions

Trivia:

First film for producer Fred Coe.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The film is about western outlaw Billy the Kid, who was in fact right-handed.

Quotes:

Billy The Kid: Does that notch...? Does that stand for a man?
Joe Grant: That's what it stands for.
Billy The Kid: You had to put that there so you'd remember?
Joe Grant: That's right.
Billy The Kid: Was he asleep when you shot him?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Gunfighters of the Old West (1992) (V)

The demythologised account of Billy The Kid.

Billy Bonney is taken in by kindly rancher John Tunstall, he starts to learn respect and education, but then Tunstall is cruelly murdered. Bonney having been robbed of the one man he respected, shows his darker side and vows to seek revenge on Tunstall's killers.

This was director Arthur Penn's debut feature film, and all the traits that were to mark his name in future pictures can be found in this very good, and troubling psychological western. Based upon a teleplay by Gore Vidal entitled The Death Of Billy The Kid, Penn ensures that any notion of William Bonney being a hero, are well and truly vanquished with this damming portrayal of the legendary outlaw. That this point is rammed home is down to a quite wonderful performance from Paul Newman as Bonney, boyish ignorance and sadistic tendencies making odd bed fellows as Newman plays it weirdly perfect {the role had been earmarked for James Dean}. Backing Newman up is a fine performance from John Dehner as eventual nemesis of Bonney's, Pat Garrett, nice touches of emotion from both sides of the coin. The rest of the cast do OK and nobody either harms or enhances the picture, this really is about it's director and its leading man, both would go on to greater things, but this is a fine picture that both men can be rightly proud of. 7/10