Day of the Evil Gun (1968)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Jerry Thorpe

Writers:

Charles Marquis Warren (story)
Charles Marquis Warren (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

1 March 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

They had one enemy even more deadly than the Apaches... each other!

Plot Keywords:

Tied Up | Sergeant | Native American | Buzzard | U.S. Cavalry

Cast

Glenn Ford	...	Lorn Warfield
Arthur Kennedy	...	Owen Forbes
Dean Jagger	...	Jimmy Noble
John Anderson	...	Captain Jefferson Addis
Paul Fix	...	Sheriff Kelso
Nico Minardos	...	Jose Luis Gomez de la Tierra y Cordoba DeLeon
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Sergeant Parker (as Dean Stanton)
Pilar Pellicer	...	Lydia Yearby
Parley Baer	...	Willford
Royal Dano	...	Dr. Eli Prather
Ross Elliott	...	Reverend Yearby
Barbara Babcock	...	Angie Warfield
James Griffith	...	Storekeeper - Hazenville
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
R.G. Armstrong	...	(scenes deleted)
Olan Soule	...	Dr. Marsh (Adamsville) (scenes deleted)

Runtime:

95 min | USA:90 min (Turner Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:PG | Norway:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #21633) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Durango, Mexico

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Goofs:

Continuity: When Jose unscrews the butt-plate of Lorn's rifle to get the money out, in the next scene the butt-plate is back in place.

Quotes:

Dr. Eli Prather: You're dying, Richie. Don't fight it, boy, just let it come nice and easy.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in El topo (1970)

VERY grim !

I like Glen FORD and consider this western a minor classic. Pretty unknown and still waiting to be recognized even by movie buffs this little gem has definitely not yet the reputation it deserves.

"Directed with lazy assurance" as the TIME OUT FILM GUIDE correctly writes, by veteran director Jerry Thorpe, and played with laid back gusto by all involved, this western offers a very grim and dark view on the "old west", more influenced by the Italo-western (which was in full bloom in the later 60ies) than the classic US-flick. Gunfighter FORD, aged, bored, tired and with "have-seen-it-all" eyes, comes back home just to find his wife and 2 small daughter carried away by Apaches. Arthur KENNEDY claims his wife was about to marry him and after an incredibly tough fist-fight they team up (unwillingly) to rescue them.

What follows is an odyssey through some very bizarre situations, staged with the aforementioned lazy assurance, situations, which one does not happen to see in many other US-western: everything is dark, depressing, cynical and void of any sympathy. Whereas THE SEARCHERS had some hope underneath, this is more than 10 years later and the characters, scripted by veteran scriptwriter Charles Marquis Warren, are driven by the urge to do what has to be done, but equipped with little hope. FORD plays the "lost character" in an old west with dark cynical humor, one of his best later performances. Kennedy is fine, too, and also very worth mentioning is the character played by Nico Minardos, whom you would more expect to find in any Quentin Tarantino movie than in a B-western from the later 60ies. Great rough music by Jeff Alexander! All in all a very watchable outing, made by experts, each of whom must have had a dozen or more western to his credit at the time, when they teamed up to put DAY OF THE EVIL GUN on celluloid.

Watch out for this and don't miss it, it's very well worth a viewing !