Gunslinger (USA, 1956) 83 min color DIR-PROD: Roger Corman. SCR: Charles B. Griffith, Mark Hanna. MUSIC: Ronald Stein. DOP: Frederick E. West. CAST: John Ireland, Beverly Garland, Allison Hayes, Jonathan Haze, Bruno VeSota, Dick Miller, William Schallert. (American Releasing Corporation)
A very fun low-budget western for its female dynamic and great dialogue, Gunslinger is basically a heavy-breathing love triangle in cowboy hats. Beverly Garland, Roger Corman’s common 1950s leading lady and sometime girlfriend, once again plays a tough girl who can hold her own in a man’s man’s man’s world. (Check out her 50s TV program, Decoy, as the original Police Woman, predating Angie Dickinson’s show by 20 years.) She is well cast as Rose Hood, the widow of the recently murdered marshal, who straps on a six-shooter and tin star to bring law and order back to this dustbowl town. There is also a great role for Allison Hayes as Erica, the saloon owner who wants the law out of the way so she can get her gloved hands on a lucrative land deal. She is so fun to watch, making the most of her role with a lot of sass. After the two women duke it out (in a laughable fight scene that won’t make you forget the Joan Crawford-Mercedes McCambridge cat fight in Johnny Guitar) Erica realizes she’s met her match, and hires the services of gunslinger Cane Miro (John Ireland) to bump off the new marshal. Trouble is, he ends up having a fling with the woman he’s supposed to shoot in a few days! John Ireland, who often brought respectability to his low budget film roles, is simply awesome as the black-clad gunfighter. This threesome has a great time delivering Chuck Griffith’s dialogue. (“I won’t make you a bad woman if you don’t make me a good man” / “Why don’t you get out of those pants, marshal?”)
Corman fans will also enjoy spotting actors from his stock company: Dick Miller shows up long enough to deliver a letter, Bruno VeSota shows up long enough to get shot, and Jonathan Haze has his most substantial role before his classic Seymour Krelboin in Little Shop of Horrors. He plays the bartender who’s stuck on his boss Erica (who can blame him?), and is basically a bumbling little boy trying to be a man while trying to suck up to her. He even utters the prophetic line “I didn’t meeeeeeen it!”, soon to be re-used for all immortality in Little Shop (no surprise, also written by Griffith).
Originally published in The Roger Corman Scrapbook.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.