The Fastest Gun Alive
Encyclopedia
The Fastest Gun Alive is a 1956
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...

 western film starring Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...

, Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress.-Early life:Crain was born in Barstow, California, to George A. Crain, a school teacher, and Loretta Carr; she was of Irish heritage on her mother's side, and of English and distant French descent on her father's...

 and Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...

.

Plot

Notorious gunslinger George Kelby Jr. (Glenn Ford) and his wife Dora (Jeanne Crain) settle down in a peaceful little town of Cross Creek under assumed identities to avoid having to continually face men out to become famous for shooting down the "fastest gun alive". George becomes a mild-mannered teetotal
Teetotalism
Teetotalism refers to either the practice of or the promotion of complete abstinence from alcoholic beverages. A person who practices teetotalism is called a teetotaler or is simply said to be teetotal...

 shopkeeper little respected by the other townsfolk.

One day, the whole town hears the news that outlaw Vinnie Harold (Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford
Broderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...

) has gunned down Clint Fallon, reputedly the "fastest gun in the west", and he listens to the townsmen talk about Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was an American gambler, investor, and law enforcement officer who served in several Western frontier towns. He was also at different times a farmer, teamster, bouncer, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. However, he was never a drover or cowboy. He is most well known...

, Wes Hardin, and other so-called "fast guns". They are also laughing at George, seeing him as nothing but a "ribbon clerk". HIs pride stung, he goes back to his store, retrieves his gun from hiding (he has told his wife how he tossed it into the river years ago), belts it on, and - over her desperate pleading not to destroy the peaceful life they have built - says "they have to know who I am" and goes to the bar. The men are astonished - and a little afraid - at seeing George wearing a gun, believing him to be drunk. He sets about destroying the myths these men have about gunmen, displaying a detailed knowledge of guns and gunmen they never suspected he had, and finally blurts out his secret that he is the fastest gun alive... "...faster than Earp, faster than Hardin, faster than Fallon, and faster than the man who killed him." When the citizens disbelieve him, he takes them into the street and gives them a demonstration of his skill. First, with only two shots, he hits two silver dollars tossed into the air on the count of three by two men. Following that, he shoots a beer glass full of beer dropped from a man's hand at twenty feet, hitting it almost immediately after it left the man's hand.

Meanwhile, while everyone is in the church where they have taken an oath not to tell George's secret, Harold has come to town and finds out about George's display of gun skill from a local boy. Even though he is on the run---and over the objections of his fellow bank robbers, Taylor Swope (John Dehner
John Dehner
John Dehner was an American actor in radio, television, and films, playing countless roles, often as a droll villain. Between 1941 and 1988, he appeared in over 260 films and television programs. Prior to acting, Dehner had worked as an animator at Walt Disney Studios, and later became a radio...

) and Dink Wells (Noah Beery, Jr.
Noah Beery, Jr.
Noah Lindsey Beery , known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting...

), who just want to escape the law---Harold decides to stay and face George. Vinnie finds out that the "fast gun" is in the church and sends Swope to the church to call him out so his boss can meet him. When the town refuses to send out "the man who shot two silver dollars at the same time", Harold sends Dink out to find some kerosene and pour it over all the building in town, and then orders Swope to deliver a message to the people in the church that if the fast gun doesn't come out in five minutes, Vinnie and his men will burn down the whole town unless George faces him.

The townspeople now "forget" their oath and try to force George into the street. George now has to tell the whole truth, explaining that he is no gunman, that he has never been in a real gunfight. The gun with the notches in the handle is actually his father's (a famous lawman shot down from ambush) and he is terrified at the prospect of actually facing a man in a gunfight.

Swope and Wells elect to abandon Vinnie. Dink stays for awhile, but rides off. Swope, who decides to take his share of the gang's loot, is told by Vinnie to either draw or ride out—but without any of the loot. Swope leaves, toys with the idea of drawing on Vinnie. He thinks better of it and leaves, just before George exits the church to face Vinnie.

But with no other choice, George forces down his fear and goes out into the street, where he outdraws and kills Harold. When a posse
Posse comitatus (common law)
Posse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law or statute law authority of a county sheriff or other law officer to conscript any able-bodied males to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon, similar to the concept of the "hue and cry"...

 pursuing the outlaws shows up, the townspeople, who are attending the burial of Harold and Kelby, claim that Kelby and Harold shot each other dead. After the posse leaves, it's revealed that Kelby wasn't killed and that a coffin filled with stones, Kelby's gun, and Kelby's reputation as "the fastest gun alive," was buried. This allows George and Dora to resume their peaceful existence in Cross Creek.

Cast

  • Glenn Ford
    Glenn Ford
    Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...

     as George Kelby Jr./George Temple
  • Jeanne Crain
    Jeanne Crain
    Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress.-Early life:Crain was born in Barstow, California, to George A. Crain, a school teacher, and Loretta Carr; she was of Irish heritage on her mother's side, and of English and distant French descent on her father's...

     as Dora
  • Broderick Crawford
    Broderick Crawford
    Broderick Crawford was an Academy Award-winning American stage, film, radio and TV actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his starring role in the television series "Highway Patrol."-Early life:...

     as Vinnie Harold
  • Russ Tamblyn
    Russ Tamblyn
    Russell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....

     as Eric Doolittle
  • Allyn Joslyn
    Allyn Joslyn
    Allyn Joslyn was an American stage, film and television actor.-Biography:Allyn Joslyn was born in Milford, Pennsylvania, the son of a mining engineer...

     as Harvey Maxwell
  • Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...

     as Lou Glover
  • John Dehner
    John Dehner
    John Dehner was an American actor in radio, television, and films, playing countless roles, often as a droll villain. Between 1941 and 1988, he appeared in over 260 films and television programs. Prior to acting, Dehner had worked as an animator at Walt Disney Studios, and later became a radio...

     as Taylor Swope
  • Noah Beery, Jr.
    Noah Beery, Jr.
    Noah Lindsey Beery , known professionally as Noah Beery, Jr. or just Noah Beery, was an American actor specializing in warm, friendly character parts similar to the ones played by his uncle Wallace Beery, although Noah Beery, Jr., unlike his uncle, seldom broke away from playing supporting...

     as Dink Wells
  • Christopher Olsen (Chris Olsen) as Bobby Tibbs

Production

Russ Tamblyn
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving "Russ" Tamblyn is an American film and television actor, who is arguably best known for his performance in the 1961 movie musical West Side Story as Riff, the leader of the Jets gang....

, who later co-starred in West Side Story (1961), performs a dance routine during a hoe-down early in the film that includes a "shovel" dance, i.e. dancing on shovels used as stilts.

Demonstrating his prowess with a gun, the Glenn Ford character asks a citizen to hold a glass of beer away from his body and, upon the count of three, let it drop. He shoots it before it hits the ground. The scene is shot from behind the glass of beer with Ford facing directly into the camera, but is actually the result of trick photography. (This scene later came back to haunt Ford when, while in the Service and on the pistol range, he was forced to prove his "fast draw" skill by an instructor who had seen the movie. Ford once recounted during a Tonight Show interview how he had to stand there for hours until he succeeded in drawing his pistol and hitting the target.)

Critical response

When the film was first released, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

fim critic, Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...

, praised the film and the actors, writing, "Although it is more concerned with mood and motivation than with gunplay, The Fastest Gun Alive, which crashed into the Globe yesterday, emerges as an engrossing and, on occasion, a comic and tricky adventure...Although it takes a mite too long to reveal the reasons for his actions, Glenn Ford's characterization of a man driven by fear and a desire for a peaceful life is both sensitive and forceful...John Dehner does a-professionally smooth and funny job as one of his callous sidekicks; Jeanne Crain adds a tender and compassionate stint as Mr. Ford's understanding wife, and Leif Erickson, Allyn Joslyn, Rhys Williams, J. M. Kerrigan, Chris Olsen, the child actor, and Russ Tamblyn, who contributes an acrobatic dance reminiscent of his chore in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is a 1954 musical film directed by Stanley Donen, with music by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul, and lyrics by Johnny Mercer....

,
weigh in with competent performances as Cross Creek's leading lights."

Recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz praised the film, writing, "Though the story gets lost for too long in too much psychological explaining, it redeems itself with a fine action-packed tense ending. Rouse does a nice job keying in on the reactions of the townsmen, stages some fine action sequences and the performances are solid (especially by Ford and Crawford)."

External links

  • The Fastest Gun Alive at DVD Beaver (includes images)
  • The Fastest Gun Alive film trailer at Turner Classic Movies
    Turner Classic Movies
    Turner Classic Movies is a movie-oriented cable television channel, owned by the Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary of Time Warner, featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and MGM, United Artists, RKO and Warner Bros. film libraries...

    Media Room
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK