The Return of the Gungfighter

[mrsl]

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So bored today and tonight with ALL of TV programming - it's all repeats for me, that I'm finally watching some of the things I've been taping the last few weeks.

I was pretty pleased today with The Return of the Gunfighter. It was another of those westerns with Robert Taylor in the starring role that I thought I would not care for, but again I was delighted. As in most of the 'old gunfighter' movies, he wants to retire his gun, but keeps running into hot shots who call him out. Circumstances lead him to an old friend's house in Texas, just over the border from Mexico, but he gets there too late because the friend and his wife have already been murdered by the big land owner. All that's left is their young daughter, and thank goodness the writer threw Chad Everett in there as the love interest, instead of Grandpa Bob. Not that Grandpa Bob doesn't look good to this particular Grandma, but he wouldn't to my 26 yr old grand daughter! There are actually three stories going on at the same time; he's chasing the guys that killed his friends, a posse is looking for Chad for a shootout in another town, and Chad's brothers men are looking for Chad. Naturally it all gets ironed out in the end, but it's not such a bad western for 1967, done by a big studio, other than Mann or Boetticher.

This is the difference between this type of western and one done by Mann or Boetticher. There are a lot of back stories that are never explained. Somehow those two guys manage to fill in the blanks and answer the questions on the characters so you feel more akin to them. Their process only takes a few minutes, but the studio directors never seemed to learn that lesson, of making the audience care about the characters.

So. . . . once again, I recommend for a boring, or rainy afternoon to fill in some time.
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[ken123]

Thank you for the tip.