G. Waggner made a good action movie, authentically exciting and zestful; Grapewin is the courageous oldster who at a certain moment cooks gingerbread, Dorothy Hart is embarrassing.
The action scenes are very good: the chase, Brazos' fight with the wicked deputy, Brazos questioning the deputy, the shootouts.
Scott himself has a silly expression in the few flirt scenes.
Scott, Tucker, Kemper were a team that H. J. Brown used for westerns. Scott has often been upstaged by his coworkers.
Grapewin and Withers are dependable; Cabot, the bard, looks unnervingly effective.
Dorothy Hart is awful, worse than J. Miles. The other sister is only banal.
G. Waggner was certainly craftier than G. Douglas. This regular western is better made than 'The Nevadan', with which it has some things in common: the team (Scott, Tucker who is better here than in the later movie, Kemper), the rebelling daughter, a similar plot about despotism; the rustling also defines an entire sub-genre. Tucker was better in this earlier outing, because his role is much simpler, a stock character, where the look was enough. (But the later movie has Dorothy Malone, and a quirkier role for Kemper. Yet again, while the henchmen from 'The Nevadan' have been remarked, and their roles are better written, here the foreman and the corrupt deputy give dependable performances; 'Gunfighters' is less ambitious, but better in its class.)
I should mention also the risqué dialog of the odd scene when the gunfighter, wishing to take back the bullet, mistakes the mean sister for the good one, and a zany dialog begins, about gift, keeping it, etc., in fact the whole story isn't very moralistic, with the gunfighter flirting with both sisters (the evening at the old convent), being at ease with both of them; anyway, this playful scene is one of the best humorous moments of this genre, the unpretentious westerns as reshaped after the war and at the zenith of colors. The double _entendre of the talk, with the gunman asking about the hidden bullet, etc., makes a funny scene, with a piquant and entirely adult undertone and very unlike the rest of the movie; so, this one scene of adult fun, straight from the archetype (mistaken identity, licentious double _entendre). This kind of comedy, if deepened, would of allowed for a wholly different script.
The action scenes are very good: the chase, Brazos' fight with the wicked deputy, Brazos questioning the deputy, the shootouts.
Scott himself has a silly expression in the few flirt scenes.
Scott, Tucker, Kemper were a team that H. J. Brown used for westerns. Scott has often been upstaged by his coworkers.
Grapewin and Withers are dependable; Cabot, the bard, looks unnervingly effective.
Dorothy Hart is awful, worse than J. Miles. The other sister is only banal.
G. Waggner was certainly craftier than G. Douglas. This regular western is better made than 'The Nevadan', with which it has some things in common: the team (Scott, Tucker who is better here than in the later movie, Kemper), the rebelling daughter, a similar plot about despotism; the rustling also defines an entire sub-genre. Tucker was better in this earlier outing, because his role is much simpler, a stock character, where the look was enough. (But the later movie has Dorothy Malone, and a quirkier role for Kemper. Yet again, while the henchmen from 'The Nevadan' have been remarked, and their roles are better written, here the foreman and the corrupt deputy give dependable performances; 'Gunfighters' is less ambitious, but better in its class.)
I should mention also the risqué dialog of the odd scene when the gunfighter, wishing to take back the bullet, mistakes the mean sister for the good one, and a zany dialog begins, about gift, keeping it, etc., in fact the whole story isn't very moralistic, with the gunfighter flirting with both sisters (the evening at the old convent), being at ease with both of them; anyway, this playful scene is one of the best humorous moments of this genre, the unpretentious westerns as reshaped after the war and at the zenith of colors. The double _entendre of the talk, with the gunman asking about the hidden bullet, etc., makes a funny scene, with a piquant and entirely adult undertone and very unlike the rest of the movie; so, this one scene of adult fun, straight from the archetype (mistaken identity, licentious double _entendre). This kind of comedy, if deepened, would of allowed for a wholly different script.