THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE: Blu-ray (MGM, 1956) Warner Archive

Without Glenn Ford’s psychologically complex turn as shell-shook shopkeeper, George Temple (nee George Kelby), director, Russell Rouse’s The Fastest Gun Alive (1956) would have little to recommend it. Ford’s incredibly nuanced, sweat-soaked sensitivity, imbued with a mighty streak of compassion, reigns over this B&W production, skillfully photographed by George J. Folsey. If only the screenplay, co-authored by Rouse and Frank D. Gilroy, and based on ‘The Last Notch’ – a teleplay from The United States Steel Hour, was not a woeful cacophony of such little sound and mostly inner fury, the picture might have had something more important to say about a man’s honor, inextricably linked to his potential to murder his fellow man, simply to chest-thump his own ego. There is some excellent support here, and some depressing misfires. Chief among this latter sect is leading lady, Jeanne Crain – as George’s nagging wife, Dora – sexless, yet with child, and constantly chiding her hubby’s need to prove himself. 

In Jeanne Crain we have the exemplar of an impressively mounted campaign to make a cute kid into a bona fide star. Despite the best efforts of 2oth Century-Fox mogul, Darryl F. Zanuck, it never quite came off. At age 19, Crain had a sizable hit for her alma mater with Home in Indiana (1944) a bauble more noteworthy for its Technicolor cinematography. For the next few years, Zanuck pushed Crain into some of Fox’s most high-profile movies, including 1945’s State Fair for which her limited singing range of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s memorable ballad, It Might As Well Be Spring, had to be dubbed by Louanne Hogan. Zanuck’s heavy-handed PR, top-billing Crain as ‘the good girl’ stuck to her Teflon-coated screen reputation, but flew in the face of her behind-the-scenes ‘party girl’ status in Hollywood.

At her best, Crain was able to convey that faux coquettish quality Zanuck found appealing in pics like Centennial Summer (1946) and Margie (1946). She was less convincing in dramas like A Letter to Three Wives and Pinky (both made and released in 1949), despite earning an Oscar nod for the latter. But by 1954, the love affair between Crain and Fox was over thanks to dwindling box office receipts. She freelanced thereafter, but in a spate of undistinguished pics, The Fastest Gun Alive among them, in roles where, increasingly, she faded into the background. In her later years, Crain remained tethered to hubby, Paul Brinkman whom she attempted to divorce just as The Fastest Gun Alive was going into production, citing ‘spousal abuse,’ though nevertheless with whom she later reconciled and managed to sire seven children. For most of their remaining years, the couple lived in separate homes, curiously however, to die only two months apart from each other in 2003.

For all intent and purposes, The Fastest Gun Alive really is a one trick pony and a one-man show. That honor belongs to its star, Glenn Ford, who proves he is up to the heavy lifting. In a town like Cross Creek that discounts George Kelby as nothing better than the local milquetoast, such restitution must be paid. At least in this movie, this moment is brilliantly revealed when George, after having listened to an endlessly regurgitated tale of marksmanship put forth by crotchety Kevin McGovern (J. M. Kerrigan) – the town windbag who, each time he regales the men with Vin’ Harold’s (Broderick Crawford) brutal assassination of Clint Fallon (Walter Coy) cannot help but grotesquely embellish its particulars, decides to show his peers, including pompous businessman, Harvey Maxwell (Allyn Joslyn) who fancies himself as something of a cowboy, what real competency with a gun looks like. George shoots a perfect hole into two silver dollars cast into the sky, and then, blows away the beer mug dropped from Harvey’s grip. This is a terrifically suspenseful scene, capped off by Ford’s cold-blooded approach to debunking the men’s cruel emasculation of his ego. A pity the penultimate showdown between George and Vin never attains such exceptional heights of nail-biting suspense.  

John Dehner and Noah Beery Jr., as Vin-goons, Taylor Swope and Dink Wells respectively, provide some excellent backup for their front man, particularly Dehner, who, at his core is not nearly as ruthless or corrupt as his boss. That clouding of his moral turpitude will eventually lead to his and Wells being lynched by a posse from the neighboring town of Yellowfork. The rest of the cast is selected from some top-notch talent who have little opportunity to establish themselves, and yet, are so instantly recognizable, they nevertheless strike indelible impressions with limited scenes and dialogue. Great actors like Rhys Williams (as Brian Tibbs), Virginia Gregg (as his wife, Rose), Leif Erickson (as noble, Lou Glover) and 10-yr.-old Christopher Olsen as the Tibbs’ uncannily introspective son, Bobby.  As a child star, Olsen is pretty much rounding out his appeal in The Fastest Gun Alive. He would retire from the entertainment biz in 1960 after appearing in some top-flight film fare like The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and The Tarnished Angels (1957).  

We first meet George Kelby on a lonely stretch of desolate road, on route to his modest home in the small town of Cross Creek. A shopkeeper now, George has had to spend most of his life on the run, thanks to his proficiency with a gun. His father, whom we never meet, was a noble man and sheriff who taught George all he needed to know about becoming the fastest gun alive. Too bad, there is always someone faster, as George Sr. inevitably found out – gunned down in the line of duty as his son looked on, unable to avenge his father’s murder. Ever since, George Jr. has been waking up with nightmares and spending most of his waking hours in a sweat-soaked malaise of fear that his day too will come in a bloody showdown with other slingers out to prove their prowess with a pistol. George tries to imbue some of this shadowy wisdom on young Bobby who, as yet, is unaware of the real consequences of gunplay and lionizes the reputation of those men who have chosen it as their profession.

George’s wife, Dora is constantly browbeating her husband to acquiesce to ‘the quiet life’ and forget about his nightmares. But to no avail. George is stricken with a chronic desire to prove himself, if only in ‘carnie-like’ displays of his grave skill with a gun, like plugging silver dollars cast into the air, or dislodging drinks from a drunkard’s grip with a single, clean shot. The town, alas, mistakes George’s mastery as the real McCoy. Thus, when news of Vin Harrold’s latest assassination of Fallon reaches their ears, each in town believes there is nothing to fear. George Kelby Jr. will protect them. Alas, as the posse from the neighboring town drives Vin and his cohorts further along to Cross Creek, George begins to suffer some hellish deliberations about what the future has in store for him and Dora. Great with child, Dora is eager George surrender himself to being a docile husband, father and shopkeeper.

At a local barn dance, Dora pleads with George to set aside the past and live with her in the present. George, alas, remains haunted. Meanwhile, Vin, Dink and Taylor arrive while the rest of the town, including George and Dora are at church. Curiously, the ever-vigilante Tibbs have allowed Bobby to wander off and become locked in the saloon kitty-corner the church. There, Bobby is confronted by Vin, Taylor and Dink. Eventually, Vin manages to squeeze from the boy the knowledge there is a faster gun alive than his own in this town. Hence, when Brian comes looking for his son, he is accosted by Vin and his brood. Vin orders Taylor to address the townsfolk inside the church, promising to burn Cross Creek to the ground if the man who claims to be the fastest gun alive does not come out to prove himself for all to see. George initially refuses. Indeed, pressed into an impossible situation, George confesses to the town the notches on the gun belt he wears with pride belonged to the kills of his late father – not him. He has never drawn his pistol on a man. Lou offers to exit the church in George’s stead and confront Vin. Knowing Lou will die for his bravery, George releases him from this commitment and takes his place in the showdown.

In what must be one of the shortest and least prepossessing climaxes in cinema western history, George and Vin discharge their firearms at roughly the same time leaving Dora tear-stained. A short while later, the posse, led by Yellowfork’s Sheriff Bill Toledo (Paul Birch) arrive in Cross Creek with the bodies of Taylor and Dink slung over the backs of their horses, only to bear witness to a double funeral. It appears George and Vin gunned each other down in the street. Toledo inquires as to George Kelby, the name on the second makeshift tombstone, to which Lou reiterates George was the fastest gun alive. When Toledo presses on as to why the fastest should have also died, Lou confides, “He wanted it that way.” However, as the posse departs and the town disbands from the burial site, the camera pans to George – still very much alive – and seemingly cured of his life-long nightmare. He and Dora link arms to return to their home – a rosier future set ahead of them now…perhaps.

The Fastest Gun Alive is primarily a psychological western. That’s okay…to a point. But its premise, of an honest man driven to near breakdown by a tortured past he had little responsibility in shaping, is anemic, except in spurts. Glenn Ford’s miraculous turn as George Kelby drives what little impetus the narrative contains. But it takes far too long for the real story to get off the ground. During this interminable interim we get Russ Tamblyn in an entertaining ‘dance’, showing off his tumbler’s acrobatics to their best advantage. It is a great moment, but one thoroughly out of place in this otherwise darkly-driven, inner tug-o-war between George’s ego and morality. Broderick Crawford’s boorish bravura all but eclipses the subtler finesse in John Dehner’s more captivatingly creepy performance. Dehner’s Taylor Swope is the more beguilingly reprobate here. Despite George J. Folsey’s exquisite cinematography, The Fastest Gun Alive lacks the dusty grit of the old west to truly make it come alive. The town – comprised of free-standing sets we have all seen one-too-many-times in westerns of this period – is too perfectly realized, too pristine to be believed. Finally, André Previn’s underscore is much too sophisticated for a ‘little’ B-budgeted western. It towers over the show in a way that does not necessarily support the action, or ‘reaction’ going on in front of the camera.

The Fastest Gun Alive arrives on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive (WAC) and typical of their commitment to the classics it is a reference quality affair with absolutely nothing to complain about. Sourced from a 4K scan off an original negative, the B&W image exhibits all the subtle refinements expected, with exceptionally nuanced gray scale and exquisite contrast. Fine details abound. The uber-sheen in Folsey’s cinematography comes to the forefront here and Walter Plunkett’s costuming really sparkles with renewed crispness. The 2.0 mono DTS, sourced from a magnetic print master, is likewise a fantastic remastering effort. Previn’s score is emboldened and dialogue sounds solid with well-integrated SFX and background ambiance. Extras are confined to two Cinemascope Tom & Jerry shorts, barely totaling 12-mins. and an original theatrical trailer looking worse for the wear. Bottom line: The Fastest Gun Alive is a B-grade western drama, elevated somewhat by Glenn Ford’s introspective performance. It ought to have been a better movie, though. The Blu-ray is as perfect as 1080p gets. Judge and buy accordingly.

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

1