Blazing Guns

A competent Monogram B Western, this otherwise harmless programmer is a bit painful to watch. Ken Maynard looks fat and old near the tail end of his career, and attempts to have him play straight man to Gibson's usual low-key humor are largely mechanical. Gibson is, as always fine and steals every two shot they are paired in with his low-key mugging -- if you're not familiar with his work, his style may remind you of Charles Grodin, who seems to have picked up a lot of Gibson's tricks. The pair of aging stars still look good on horseback, but ...

Like most Monogram westerns, this story of two marshals sent in to clean up a town is written and shot in a very conservative fashion and, to the modern eye, may seem annoyingly eked out with shots of men riding horses that could be shortened or cut. But in large part, the western was built on these shots and veteran dp Marcel Le Picard's cinematography is well calculated with many beautiful compositions.