The Fastest Gun Alive *** (1956, Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford) – Classic Movie Review 10,557

The Fastest Gun Alive belongs to Cross Creek storekeeper George Temple (Glenn Ford), who, although he wants to hand up his holster, has to prove his gun speed again and again after three bank robbers stop off to change horses in his frontier town, until the final showdown with big Vinnie Harold (Broderick Crawford).

Director Russell Rouse’s 1956 The Fastest Gun Alive is just a low-budget routine Western, thinly based on Frank D Gilroy’s TV play The Last Notch, but it caught on with the 50s public. Its unexpected success started MGM off on a series of hit Westerns.

The good characters are the best things about this Western drama, and they are well played by a tasty cast, and have strong dialogue to chew over, though the film is let down by being low on action voltage and frontier verisimilitude.

Also in the cast are Jeanne Crain, Russ Tamblyn, Allyn Joslyn, Leif Erickson, John Dehner, Noah Beery Jr, J M Kerrigan, Rhys Williams, Virginia Gregg, Chubby Johnson, John Doucette, William ‘Bill’ Phillips, Christopher Olsen and Paul Birch.

The screenplay is by Frank D Gilroy and Russell Rouse.

George J Folsey films in black and white.

It was filmed at Red Rock Canyon State Park, Highway 14, Cantil, California.

Frank D Gilroy, award-winning screenwriter and playwright, died aged 89 in September 2015.

Crawford and Ford liked to drink together every night after filming and, though sober on set, could barely remember the previous evening.

Ford spent many hours training to draw a revolver, and trained with his own son in his garden. The son judges that the result was excellent.

Russ Tamblyn’s choreography was cut from the film at Ford’s insistence, but restored after the premiere audience noticed the choreography in the credits.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,557

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