Should've Been Fired at the Director!

[klondike]

Everything I found to read about A Bullet Is Waiting lead me to believe that this fun-sounding little film was right up my alley - legitimately occupying that micro-genre of "frontier noir", the subjects of which have frequently supplied me with so many cheap popcorn thrills.
But not this time!
Wow . . what an irritatingly pompous, pointless stinker, from the queerly sacharine soundtrack, to the boric-acid quality of the color, to the wandering, wooden dialogue, to the off-handed, glandular angst of the so-called plot, like Zane Grey arguing with Jack Kerouac over the last pint in a jug of bathtub gin.

Time to start peggin' the milk duds around, Kids, cause this matinee's in the crapper!

[mrsl]

But tell us how you really feel sweetie!

Anne

[Bogie]

Thank goodness I didn't watch that crap then

[moira finnie]

Wasn't this minor motion picture one of those made during the period when Howard Hughes, in all his addle-brained wisdom, decided to wreck the career of his contracted star, Jean Simmons after she had the good taste and sense to refuse him?

So, in some squirrelly way, the badness of this movie, (and one scene with Stephen McNally barking at Rory Calhoun was enough to put me off), might have been deliberate?

[klondike]

Hey, good point, Madame M; I confess that I missed the Hughes angle, did his name actually show up on this mutt? I didn't spot his "brand" burnt into the credits anywhere, but I've been known to blink once in a while.
Here's a laugh for ya: I just looked this one up with our old buddy Lenny Maltin, figured his put-down for this one would be good for a chuckle (undeniably, LM is one of the most charismatic culture commentators since Mr. Peabody started walking upright) and dig this - he actually liked this wet-feathered gobbler! His review reads like he thought it worked as a mystery - only mystery to me is how a major player like Columbia found the nerve to release it with a proverbial straight face!

[jdb1]

Oh boy -- now I really want to see it! Sounds like serious MST3K fodder.