The Gunfighter (1950)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

William Bowers (story) and
André De Toth (story) ...

Release Date:

21 August 1950 (Sweden)

Genre:

Western | Drama

Tagline:

RINGO WAS HIS NAME! THE CHALLENGE OF EVERY OUTLAW GUNMAN! THE NOTORIOUS SELF-DEFENSE KILLER! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Notorious gunfighter Jimmy Ringo rides into town to find his true love, who doesn't want to see him. He hasn't come looking for trouble, but trouble finds him around every corner.

Plot Keywords:

Marshal | Saloon | Gunslinger | Father Son Relationship | Hotel

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Jimmy Ringo
Helen Westcott	...	Peggy Walsh
Millard Mitchell	...	Marshal Mark Strett
Jean Parker	...	Molly
Karl Malden	...	Mac
Skip Homeier	...	Hunt Bromley
Anthony Ross	...	Deputy Charlie Norris
Verna Felton	...	Mrs. August Pennyfeather
Ellen Corby	...	Mrs. Devlin
Richard Jaeckel	...	Eddie

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

West Germany:12 | Germany:12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | USA:Approved (PCA #14217)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The studio hated Peck's authentic period mustache. In fact, the head of production at Fox, Spyros P. Skouras was out of town when production began. By the time he got back, so much of the film had been shot, it was too late to order Peck to shave it off and re-shoot. After the film did not do well at the box office, Skouras ran into Peck and he reportedly said that "mustache cost us millions".

Quotes:

Jimmy Ringo: You're Hunt Bromley, ain't ya?
Hunt Bromley: Yeah... you heard of me already?
Jimmy Ringo: Yeah, I heard about you. I heard you're a cheap, no-good bar-room loafer. If I didn't have somethin' else on my mind I'd take them guns away from ya and slap ya cross-eyed.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Conversation with Gregory Peck (1999)

Soundtrack:

Rock of Ages

Guns N' Roses

Meet the western, deglamorized: gunslinging makes you feel guilty, your ex is a prudish school teacher too hung up on your trail of corpses to see you, the town where you've decamped is filled with half-witted bums, puritans, celebrity-gazers and a most unlikely marshal, and somewhere on your trail are three brothers of the dead smart ass who drew on you in the last town. Jesus, do you need a whiskey.

No ordinary genre film, "The Gunfighter" (1950) is both a hugely satisfying entertainment and a conventional studio film with surprising depths. The surprise comes from the nature of the western in the mid-century where, with few exceptions, the black-and-white morality plays are as plain as the gunfire. Not so here, where we get the treat of seeing Gregory Peck play an antihero who has stepped far outside of conventional morality and now wants readmission, even though the bloodstains won't wash out. Welcome to Ambiguiety Gulch.

It's tempting to say that "Gunfighter" looks forward to the spaghetti western, especially in its themes of alienation and social revulsion. Frankly, though, it feels less like a western and more like a film noir. The feeling of claustrophobia is always near, whether in Peck's fear of another violent summons or in subplots involving the closeted desires of various townspeople to kill him (one gritty sequence in a boarding room is more unsettling than anything in Hawks or Ford). Surfaces are untrustworthy, motivations questionable, psychological derangement hovers in the wings, the "law" is both more and less than it appears, and as characters make startling pacts with their bloody pasts you can almost sense the triumphalism of the post-war years turning to anxiety and dread.