"Flashing Guns" in spite of it's promising title, is a bit of a yawner. It lacks colorful bad guys the likes of Charlie King or Dick Curtis and doesn't have a single fist fight unusual for a series western). There is no boy/girl relationship and stars Johnny Mack Brown and Raymond Hatton do not play hero/sidekick.
Hatton plays a rancher Amos Shelby who is about to lose his seedy looking ranch to crooked banker Ainsworth. He sends his son Freddie (Riley Hill) to town to inform Ainsworth that his father's note will be paid on time. But it seems that Freddie has a gambling debt. Saloon owner Longdon (Douglas Evens) arranges to have Freddie's sister Ann (Jan Bryant) robbed of the cash she is bringing from an out of town bank to pay of her father's debt.
But just at that very moment Johnny Mack (Brown) comes along to help the young girl. Meanwhile, Freddie is lured into a poker game by gambler Ripley (believe it or not) where he loses the rest of his father's money. Johnny arrives to help and recovers the money.
It seems that high grade silver has been discovered on Shelby's land. Ainsworth has Longdon forge Shelby's signature on Shelby's note showing the due date as having passed. The rest of the movie has Johnny trying to save the ranch and straighten Freddie out. There are a couple of "flashing gun" battles that follow until the criminals are brought to justice and everybody lives happily ever after.
Again, I found the villains to be a dull bunch. Competent western veterans Edmund Cobb (the sheriff) and Steve Clark (Cannon) who are in the cast, would have made more formidable bad guys. And Norman Jolley who plays Mike Foley Johnny's pal doesn't even have a line. And how about Brown's character's name....Johnny Mack.....Really?
Hatton plays a rancher Amos Shelby who is about to lose his seedy looking ranch to crooked banker Ainsworth. He sends his son Freddie (Riley Hill) to town to inform Ainsworth that his father's note will be paid on time. But it seems that Freddie has a gambling debt. Saloon owner Longdon (Douglas Evens) arranges to have Freddie's sister Ann (Jan Bryant) robbed of the cash she is bringing from an out of town bank to pay of her father's debt.
But just at that very moment Johnny Mack (Brown) comes along to help the young girl. Meanwhile, Freddie is lured into a poker game by gambler Ripley (believe it or not) where he loses the rest of his father's money. Johnny arrives to help and recovers the money.
It seems that high grade silver has been discovered on Shelby's land. Ainsworth has Longdon forge Shelby's signature on Shelby's note showing the due date as having passed. The rest of the movie has Johnny trying to save the ranch and straighten Freddie out. There are a couple of "flashing gun" battles that follow until the criminals are brought to justice and everybody lives happily ever after.
Again, I found the villains to be a dull bunch. Competent western veterans Edmund Cobb (the sheriff) and Steve Clark (Cannon) who are in the cast, would have made more formidable bad guys. And Norman Jolley who plays Mike Foley Johnny's pal doesn't even have a line. And how about Brown's character's name....Johnny Mack.....Really?