Hostile Guns (1967)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

R.G. Springsteen

Writers:

Steve Fisher (screenplay)
James Edward Grant (story)

Release Date:

July 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

He fought on the most dangerous trail a man ever dared to ride!

Cast

George Montgomery	...	Sheriff Gid McCool
Yvonne De Carlo	...	Laura Mannon
Tab Hunter	...	Mike Reno
Brian Donlevy	...	Marshal Willett
John Russell	...	Aaron Pleasant
Leo Gordon	...	Hank Pleasant
Robert Emhardt	...	R. C. Crawford
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez	...	Angel Dominguez (as Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez)
James Craig	...	Ned Cooper
Richard Arlen	...	Sheriff Travis
Emile Meyer	...	Uncle Joe Reno
Don 'Red' Barry	...	Ed Johnson (as Donald Barry)
Fuzzy Knight	...	Buck, Reno Cowboy
William Fawcett	...	Ollie Jensen
Joe Brown	...	Bunco - Alfie's Pa

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:16 | USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park - 10700 W. Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California, USA

Company:

A.C. Lyles Productions

Halfway Decent

The first half of this Western isn't bad at all. The dialogue is crisp, the situations believable, and it efficiently establishes all the central conflicts and relationships. But around the halfway point, things go terribly wrong. It's as if the filmmakers let their sons and daughters take over and complete the picture. Action scenes are poorly staged, characterizations become muddled and repetitious, plots and subplots get unsatisfyingly resolved in a strangely rushed, banal fashion. And the previously sharp dialogue gives way to howlers like "Mike, this could be your last chance to grow up!"

Interesting mish-mash of a cast however. I had often wondered who George Montgomery was, having seen his name listed for so many films, and while this was evidently made towards the end of his career, he's certainly a classicly square-jawed, masculine lead in the Clark Gable mold. Tab Hunter is okay as the rowdy young hotshot deputized by Sheriff Montgomery for a dangerous prisoner transport, and there are faint (very faint) echoes of the Wayne/Clift relationship in "Red River". Yvonne DeCarlo, though aging, is still believably fetching as the woman prisoner who drives a wedge between the two men.

I guess I should have known there was something fishy about this movie early on, judging by the God-awful stunt doubling done for Tab Hunter in his first fight scenes. The double, quite clearly and amusingly, doesn't look a thing like him.