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Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 10:41 am
by stuart.uk
Spoiler
Like another obscure western I discovered Gun For A Coward, Gunman's Walk is pretty good. It stars Van Heflin as a ruthless cattle-baron, who's built up a reputation as a fast draw over the yrs. He tried to pass on his skills to his two sons Tab Hunter and James Darren. Hunter was also a fast draw, but wild and out of control. Darren used to be fast when young, but in his 20s was only as good as he needed to be.
Heflin is also a racist, who objects to Darren's relationship with a half-breed Indian girl, whose brother was killed in a stupid prank by Hunter, forcing him of a cliff while trying to rope a mare. Heflin is a flawed man, who'll do almost anything to keep Hunter out of jail, but when his son kills a deputy his dad tracks him down and kills the boy in a gunfight.
I don't know if the ending was convincing, where the racist Heflin suddenly changes his views after the death of hunter and asks both Darren and his Indian girlfriend to help him take his dead son back home, before breaking down into tears. However, I liked both the film and the ending
Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 12:08 pm
by RedRiver
I love learning about MIA movies like this. They may not be great, but they deserve to be remembered.
Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 12:46 pm
by JackFavell
This one sounds at least like a good story, Stuart! I'll have to see if I can find it.
Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 3:58 pm
by mrsl
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Jack Baby:
I'm surprised you've never seen Gunman's Walk. I'm sure it's been on TCM, but I'm more sure it's been on Encore Westerns. Stuart's right. It's not a great movie, but it's a very good one. The murder and the way Hunter gets out of the blame is enough to make any caring human being angry. As a minor fan of Tab Hunter's as a kid, I'm glad I never saw this until I was older and over my teen age idol crushes. It would have killed me to see Tab as a villain and he sure was a nasty fellow. On the other hand, I'll never get over my crush on Jimmie Darren - what a doll !!!! Even much later on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series, his looks never faded.
Van Heflin was perfect as the hard headed, hard nosed ranching father who obviously preferred the more boisterous son over the quiet sensible one. I pretty much agree about the ending, although I imagine it would take a traumatic event like what happened to change a man's beliefs.
Any of you who have yet to see this one should find it a good western, worthy of your attention. Those of you who admit they are not western fans, I hope you have checked out some of the movies discussed herein and although you may not have come over to being die hard fans like some of us, I do hope you are willing to accept that some of the late 40's and 50's westerns had some merit as decent entertaining, and worthy films to admire.
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Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 4:06 pm
by ChiO
Directed by Phil Karlson. For me, not quite up to his Kansas City Confidential (1952), 99 River Street (1953), Tight Spot (1955), 5 Against the House (1955), The Phenix City Story (1955) and The Brothers Rico (1957), but still fine viewing.
Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 8:24 pm
by JackFavell
Ah, Phil Karlson. OK! I like 99 River Street the best of those you mentioned, but that helps... I like Phil Karlson.
Mrsl, I don't get Encore westerns.
Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 8:33 pm
by mrsl
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Jack:
I'm sorry, I'm so used to having it that I forget other people don't have it. Some friends of mine had it for a year before I even knew about it and they used to talk about the movies they had seen and it never occurred to me to call and see if my system offered it.
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Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 7th, 2013, 8:47 pm
by JackFavell
My cable company offers it, but only on the next tier up, and we already pay 70 some bucks a month to get TCM which is a second tier channel. I can't justify the price as it is.
Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 8th, 2013, 1:38 am
by mrsl
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Isn't that strange? I get all 7 Encore channels free by getting HBO. How do these companies figure how things should be offered? It's so confusing. With my AT&T U-verse I can DVR 4 shows at the same time while watching a fifth, which makes it nice for me who has nothing to do all day except this computer, TV and craft work such as sewing, crochet, cross stitch, embroidery and some oil painting. That may sound like a lot but I would much prefer to be outside walking in the fresh air but alas, I can't, because of my back and knees. Oh, well, such is life in the fast lane, right?
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Re: Gunman's Walk
Posted: June 8th, 2013, 10:03 am
by JackFavell
Well, thank goodness for TCM, otherwise I'd have gone out of my mind staying at home every day.