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
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