Fury at Gunsight Pass

I didn't plan to watch this film but found it channel surfing as it was starting. It caught my attention because as it opened you could see three people though a window of a bank talking, but couldn't hear what they were saying. This scene led into one where four outlaws were making plans to double cross their other four partners. For a 1956 black and white, low budget film, it had a lot of interesting sub-plots. I enjoyed the movie quite a lot, due I think, to the many strong character actors. Nothing great, but worth watching if you like the old shoot-them-up Western films.

Howdy: This one was good or average, I ought to say, but better than 99% of the spaghetti westerns.

A gang of outlaws are going to rob the bank at 1 p.m. which is when the wedding ought to be over and most people lulled into nothing-ville from the after wedding party. But the wedding is running late. When they do rob it, and only four of them do because they are going to betray the others before they arrive in town, they get caught. They escape, of course, and are chased by a posse that resembled more the keystone cops than a real posse. (Example: When they are chasing outlaws and they arrive at the spot where the outlaws went into the rocks, they turn around and don't even bother to check the ground for horse tracks.) The characters were unreal and unbelievable. Yes, it was a low budget black and white job so what can we expect. Or can we expect more? After all, other westerns like The Ox-Bow Incident and High Noon were also black and white and those were excellent. But they had such greats as Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda and this one only had some "almost" greats.

Anyway, I video taped it and will watch it again when it rolls around as I watch my video tapes in order. And I will enjoy it because it is a western and I am a lover of westerns--even if they are severed with spaghetti.

An outlaw gang plots a bank robbery. Trouble is there's a double-cross in the works, plus a timetable and a wedding to contend with. Then too, not all the people in town can be trusted. So how will it all work out.

Money, money, who's got the money. $35 thousand stolen from the bank, but lost in the shootout that follows. This is a better-than-average western. Frankly, I had few expectations when I saw pedestrian Fred Sears as the director. He rarely adds anything on screen to the scripts. Here, however, he appears engaged with some good staging, especially in and around Vaszquez Rocks. Though I don't buy one guy (Brand) sticking-up a whole posse. And get a load of that windstorm, enough to blow Hollywood off the map, but it does add a lot to the climax. Note how there's even dust in the interiors—a good touch from somebody. I wonder if the big wind-blown cast got hazardous duty pay-- they deserved it. Anyhow, there're a number of sub-plots and lots of characters, plus a few twists, especially that overturned buckboard at the end. So bring your scorecard. Then too, no film with the great Neville Brand can afford to be passed up.

The last half or so of the film takes place in a sandstorm in a town, which makes it extra exciting. The plot is pretty riveting and kept me glued the whole time. Neville Brand and Richard Long are the standouts in the cast, not as stodgy in acting style as sometimes movies in the 50s and earlier were. Unexpectedly enjoyable shoot-em-up, well worth the watch if you're into that genre.

A group of bank robbers ride into Gunsight Pass. The robbery goes awry, part of the gang is captured, but the money isn't recovered. The men of Gunsight Pass quickly become a mob, ready for a lynching. As the prisoners are being escorted out of town (to avoid the vigilantes), the rest of the gang (lead by Neville Brand) ambushes the posse, frees their cohorts and returns to town to locate the loot. With a windstorm raging, they announce they'll start shooting civilians - one every 30 minutes - till the money is handed over.

An action-packed western with an interesting plot. What's unique that there isn't a main hero - not unless you count Richard Long - and it's just the town folk vs bank robbers. It's a well-made b western with some good suspenseful touches. The finale in the wind storm is a nail biter.

David Brian and Neville Brand are appropriately shifty as double-crossing bank robbers. Percy Helton and Katharine Warren are impressive as the crooked undertaker and his wife. Morris Ankrum is terrific as the town doctor.