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Listen to Man With The Gun while having your eyes closed, and you will hear an excerpt from The Mercury Theater on the Air. It is a film that has the aural qualities of an Orson Wells radio production. The dialogue is crisp, the pace is brisk, and the cracking sounds provide the ambiance of a working station.
It’s when I found out who the director and co-writer was that opened my eyes, and it was Richard Wilson, also known as Dick Wilson. He was a long-time member of Welles’ rep company and the one survivor of the group. He helped oversee the editing and release of the documentary ‘It’s All True’ from scenes Welles shot that were part of his unfinished South American project. That entire saga scattered the remnants of his Hollywood career.
That particular Western, which is poorly rated, grabbed my attention because of Robert Mitchum, who is also cast in the movie Mr. Always Gives Fair Value. In this movie, he plays a town tamer who is a professional gunman and a lawman who is hired to tame a town that has gotten so out of control he is brought in to set things straight and act as a gunslinging dictator.
To make matters worse, there’s a cruel, corrupt man that has a ton of hired guns, with him acting as a dictator and only lets the locals and the sheriff go as far as he wants.
It is one of the oldest cliches in Western movies. Do you remember the movie Support Your Local Sheriff? That is the primary reason this James Garner comedy exists. Even Dana Andrews had a movie called Town Tamer that came out a decade later.
I could not discover any evidence of this specific title existing in the Old West when bounty hunting was popular. However, it does seem to be very much like the real life Earps role with the exception of corruption. They were operating in multiple towns and double dipping as gamblers and law enforcement.
Tollinger’s Clint Tollinger is in search of a woman and has ridden into town. Nelly (Jan Sterling) is the local Madam and runs a brothel. Early television westerns used to refer to them as dance hall girls. Clint has some outstanding affairs to settle with Nelly. Look out for a young Angie Dickinson because she is one of the dolls that was part of the troupe.
With the local barbarian looking to kill a dog that irritated him with all of its barking, Clint entered the town on the tail of the chief henchman (famous tough guy Leo Gordon). While Clint is searching for the seemingly elusive Nelly, that thug and his Palace Saloon Boy which has Claude Akins as one have had a run-in with a farmer John Lupton. By the end of the day, those guys will be ready to fight.
The village does not accommodate cars and has some greenery too. There are also cross streets and some buildings are placed behind other buildings. Mitchum’s entrance into the town of Sheridan City makes it clear that it has some elevation. (The Samuel Goldwyn backlot). This is uncommon in Westerns, so it is eye-catching.
I think that’s the reason people do not recognize it as veteran Western enthusiasts seem to remember each and every single decent one. Themes in films are much more daring than the usual mindless shooting done on TV sets back in the day. It never tries to be anything else than what it is and comes across powerfully. Instead, it breaks free from the chains along with the more reactionary guy-with-the-fastest-gun-makes-the-law dogma of most Westerns.
As Clint steps forth into the scene, the first thing he does is impose some control measures. He further states, “No weapons worn in town.” The locals begin to complain about worriment they have put a dictator as Mayor claiming they have been promising him to be quick in his work.
Mitchum is attempting to portray the distinct screen persona he has built over the last decade. While not everything blends well, there are seasoned character actors such as James Westerfield who appease the film in a certain way.
Man with a Gun or The Trouble Shooter, also dubbed The Deadly Peacemaker crams a vast number of characters, events, and action into its concise 84 minutes. All the dialogue being mixed at a breakneck pace helps as well. Clint’s first “arrest” is offscreen with two gunshots. Rather, the “High Noon” finale does not include the most recognized centerpiece. It is, instead, a massive fire that allows us to witness Clint’s stirring revelation that he is no longer the hero of the story he has indeed crossed the line. The violence ante gets upped because Clint knows that in no time at all, he will be receiving the violence he so greatly deserves with pitchforks.
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