Gunplay

This western series of the late '40's and early '50's was one of the best...... mainly due to the exemplary performances of Tim Holt & Chito Martin. This film was very well done, with Tim & his woman-crazy sidekick on the trail of an elusive killer.

Action and suspense were always in the forefront in these films, with this one being a prime example. Holt was a rare star who could handle action & acting equally well. In this one, he helps to make a standard plot believable.

Even non-western fans can find good entertainment in a Holt film. Enjoy this one, pardners ! ( I did .... )

Tim Holt (Tim Holt) and Chito Rafferty (Richard Martin) arrive at a ranch to work for Terry Blake (Joan Dixon). They are surprised to find that Terry is a woman. The trio encounters Sam Martin and his young son Chip who are lost on their way to nearby Orodale, Arizona. Once in town, Sam catches up to his former criminal cohort Curt Landry and demands payback. Later, the Martins get ambushed.

This is a fine standard western. The leads are all very functional. I like the group chemistry and I like the duo. It has a good standard premise. It's shot in California and looks like a B-western. It's not more than that.

Okay entry in the Holt-Rafferty series. I could have used more of their screen time than what they get, which is surprisingly little for cowboy leads. After all, they're the main reason fans tune in. Here they're helping an orphaned boy (Carter) whose dad has been swindled and then murdered by a slickster named Potter (Hugo). Trouble is no one in town seems to know who Potter is now that he's changed his name to Landry. So our heroes can't even be sure who they're fighting against.

Looks like RKO scrimped out a bare-bones budget since the action never leaves the San Fernando Valley, nor a studio town. So there's no scenery to speak of. What's unusual is the 11-year old boy played by Carter. He's one tough-talking little terror once he finds his dad hanging from a tree. But then in a rather awkward shift, he goes all meek and agreeable. It's really he who gets much of the screen time. I agree that Moritz Hugo is outstanding as the villainous Potter-Landry, suitably persuasive in a complex role. And catch that great all-purpose thug Robert Wilke as one of the henchmen. All in all, it's an average entry, at best, one that could use more of the usual Holt-Rafferty pizazz.

A "5" on the Matinée Scale

This film starring Tim Holt had a great story and was not just one of the mill old time Western. This story starts out with a young boy named Chip Martin, (Harper Carter) and his father who are traveling through the countryside and heading into town. The father wants to visit a man named Matt Potter, aka Curt Landry, (Mauritz Hugo) who cheated him out of his mining investment and he seeks out Curt to get back all the funds. Curt gives the father two-thousands dollars as a down payment and plans to make a settlement. However, as soon as Chip Martin and his father leave he sends men after him and they take the law into their own hands and hang the young boys father. There is plenty of action and Mauritz Hugo gave an outstanding performance. Joan Dixon, (Terry Blake) gave an outstanding supporting role and female charm to this film. Don't miss this one.

Gunplay has Tim Holt and Richard Martin looking for work and finding it on Joan Dixon's ranch. But no sooner are they hired then they find young Harper Carter on the trail, afoot and abandoned and looking for his father. Father Robert Bice is found later hanging from a tree.

Previous to that Bice had located a man who was living under another name as the man who swindled him out of a gold mine. But murder is then committed and cowboy heroes Holt and Martin are ready to see justice done and right prevail. Fortunately for them their boss Dixon wants the same thing otherwise they'd be looking for work again.

No mystery, the villain is a traditional one in B westerns. A respectable citizen with a criminal past. Richard Martin even gets a proposal of marriage for the boy's sake and does he fade with that one.

The villain even gets custody of the boy in Snidely Whiplash tradition. This is a man that must be stopped and Tim Holt and Chito Rafferty are just the men to do it.

Tim Holt fans should be pleased.