joncha

The Fastest Gun in the West = the Worst Western Ever. OK, we need a really bad villain. How about Broderick Crawford, all 260 lbs of him, including his jowls. For the hero, Glenn Ford, not bad but just not right for this role, plus he never puts on a hat. Leading lady, Jeanne Crain, too beautiful for this dusty frontier town and with a waist so tiny you can't believe she had seven children in real life. Then throw in every character actor you can imagine or recognize, too many to name here. Then there's Russ Tamblyn, a dancer from West Side Story. What's he doing here? Not to worry, there's a barn dance scene, where he goes leaping from hay loft to stable to everywhere, just to show he can dance and is not in this movie for his looks. The final showdown is what you expect except for a surprise ending that keeps you wondering for about 10 seconds.

Unlike the Audie Murphy/John Huston version from 1951, this film was truer to the book in at least two points: the Union regiment was from New York, not Ohio; the solders were all young men, not grizzled old Hollywood character actors apparently preferred by Huston.