Shoot Out (1971)

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Will James (novel)
Marguerite Roberts (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 August 1971 (Sweden)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Three fast guns against one determined man!

Plot:

Clay Lomax, a bank robber, gets out of jail after an 8 year sentence. He is looking after Sam Foley...

Plot Keywords:

Horse | Family In Danger | Bathing Scene | Gunslinger | Apple Shot From Head

Cast

Gregory Peck	...	Clay Lomax
Patricia Quinn	...	Juliana Farrell (as Pat Quinn)
Robert F. Lyons	...	Bobby Jay Jones
Susan Tyrrell	...	Alma
Jeff Corey	...	Trooper
James Gregory	...	Sam Foley
Rita Gam	...	Emma
Dawn Lyn	...	Decky
Pepe Serna	...	Pepe
John Davis Chandler	...	Skeeter (as John Chandler)
Paul Fix	...	Brakeman
Arthur Hunnicutt	...	Homer Page
Nicolas Beauvy	...	Dutch Farrell

Also Known As:

Shootout (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:16 (f) | UK:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:GP

Filming Locations:

Cerrillos, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Quotes:

[first lines]
Bobby Jay: I'm Bobby Jay Jones.
Sam Foley: Shut the door and take off you hat.

Movie Connections:

Version of Lone Cowboy (1933)

You Can't Get Good Help

Shoot Out for all intents and purposes was the last film that Henry Hathaway directed. He did do one more, but from what I'm able to gather very few ever saw it. It's also not a great western for Gregory Peck who in his day has given us classics like The Gunfighter, The Big Country, and The Bravados.

Gregory Peck plays a man just out of prison who's looking for his partner from a bank robbery who shot him and took all the loot. Peck's got an understandable mission. But he's also been saddled with another situation. Some wild oats he sowed in the person of little Dawn Lyn arrived by train, a present from her late mother.

In the meantime ex-partner James Gregory is now a prosperous rancher, but he can't get any decent help. He hires three punks, Robert F. Lyons, John Davis Chandler, and Pepe Serna to locate Peck and merely keep him informed of his movements. These three are not only punks, but extremely dim bulbs. I can hardly believe Gregory can't do better than these.

How Peck deals with both situations is the balance of the film. A lot of the plot scenario has not been well thought out in Shoot Out. The cast struggles, but their hearts are clearly not in it.

Best in the cast is Susan Tyrell who plays a prostitute who takes up with the three punks. She's a 19th century version of a Valley Girl and she pays big time for her stupidity and very bad taste in men.

Definitely not one of the better films for Henry Hathaway and Gregory Peck. And to think two years earlier, Hathaway and screenwriter Marguerite Roberts were responsible for True Grit.