Forty Guns (1957)

Showdown in Arizona between the Bonnell brothers, U.S.Marshals, and Jessica Drummond, the iron-fist rancher who controls the territory.

Director:

Samuel Fuller

Writer:

Samuel Fuller

Stars:

Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Jessica Drummond
Barry Sullivan	...	Griff Bonell
Dean Jagger	...	Sheriff Ned Logan
John Ericson	...	Brockie Drummond
Gene Barry	...	Wes Bonell
Robert Dix	...	Chico Bonell
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
Sandy Wirth	...	Chico's Girlfriend (as Sandra Wirth)

Storyline

An authoritarian rancher, Barbara Stanwyck, who rules an Arizona county with her private posse of hired guns. When a new marshall arrives to set things straight, the cattle queen finds herself falling, brutally for the avowedly non-violent lawman. Both have itchy-fingered brothers, a female gunmaker enters the picture, and things go desperately wrong.

---

Plot Keywords:

tombstone arizona | arizona territory | arizona | u.s. marshal | human shield | 

---

Taglines:

The Taming of the Arizona Territory !

---

Genres:

Romance | Western

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

September 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

Woman with a Whip

Filming Locations:

Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$300,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox, Globe Enterprises

Technical Specs

Runtime:

80 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although the on-screen credit for Eve Brent reads "and introducing", actually she had already appeared in several earlier films as Jean Ann Lewis.

---

Goofs

When the gunsmith is fitting Wes for a new rifle, she had him holding the stock from a model 1898 Mauser which would not have been invented for another 20 years. Then Wes also picks up a Winchester barreled action and looks through it to see the lady gunsmith, which is not possible due to there being no straight line of sight through the action.

---

Quotes

Wes Bonnell: I never kissed a gunsmith before.
Louvenia Spanger: Any recoil?

---

Connections

Referenced in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Classics from the Vault: Changing Sex Roles (2011)

---

Soundtracks

God Has His Arms Around Me
by Victor Young and Harold Adamson
Sung by Jidge Carroll

User Reviews

High quality western

Sam Fuller actually made a good number of westerns in his early career, and thanks to DVD we are finally able to see these at home just in these past few years. I can't say how long I was looking for "Baron of Arizona." Pleased to say that this one is just as ambitious and fulfilling as the other two that I've seen, "Baron" and "I Shot Jesse James." Barbara Stanwyck is welcome in ANY western film as far as I'm concerned, and Barry Sullivan's "long walk" is the most stylish you'll ever see. Dean Jagger provides his usual characterization of a conflicted and compromised noble man.

Fuller centers the film around a few key scenes, specific confrontations that define the rest of the action surrounding them. His sense of style in terms of the characters and their interactions with their surroundings is impressive. For instance the scene with the man who's supposed to trick Griff into an ambush -- we really get to know that character and sense his fear just in a short time. I love how he and his actors make use of accidents and physical limitations of the sets. For instance there's a bit where Sullivan is running towards the action and a tumbleweed comes across his path, and he leaps across it in a really stylish way. In some circumstances that could have become a ruined take, but Fuller obviously has his actor so much into the spirit of the scene that he basically reacts in character. You can sense Fuller's ability to focus his actors that way hanging over both the action and dialog scenes.

I'd have to see the film again to really say much about its theme or its subject, but it seems to be in the classic mold of westerns about the end of the "Old West." Stanwyck and Sullivan represent different types of iconic western presence that will depart from the world forever with that ending.

The conclusion of the film is a bit underwhelming, but other than that I really have no complaints about this film. It's fine western entertainment from the closing days of the western about the closing days of the west.