Hidden Guns

1955's "Hidden Guns" belies its status as a Poverty Row Republic Western with a script that allows its actors to enact the clichéd characters in their own inimitable style. Current singing star Faron Young, using his own name as the deputy, provides singing commentary on the action, just like Tex Ritter did for the 1952 classic "High Noon," and this marked only the second featured role for 24 year old Angie Dickinson as the doctor's daughter, only four years away from "Rio Bravo." The setting is Youngstown (not Ohio), where the crooked Stragg (Bruce Bennett) has the townspeople evicted, and the politicians in his hip pocket, until Sheriff Ward Young (Richard Arlen) discovers a witness willing to testify against him in his brother's murder. Enter the suitably named hired killer Snipe Harding (scene stealing John Carradine), who astutely sizes up the job, easily increasing his salary before riding to Youngstown to provide the 'hidden guns' for his evil confederate. This was probably the juiciest Western role Carradine had during the 50s (see also "Showdown at Boot Hill"), his deceptive tactics and humorous demeanor providing excellent cover for his death dealing prowess (Carradine and Bennett would be reunited three years later in "The Cosmic Man"). Watch for solid work from longtime veterans Lloyd Corrigan, Irving Bacon, Ben Welden, and Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams.

The less we can say is that was a god beginning for the director Albert C Gannaway with this B western for Republic Pictures. OK, the topic, scheme, brings nothing at all, nothing new, but Bruce Bennet as the head villain is delighful, and John Carradine maybe a bit midcast, many other usual westerns villains would have been better. The singing off voice was not the best thing in this movie. It doesn't bring the good touch to enhance it. That's a detail and also unusual in a western. It is a rare film, so it remains worth seeking, without being a golden nugget either. Richard Arlen does just his job, no more no less. Before, ten years later, the AC Lyles production westerns.

For a straightforward Western with no frills, "Hidden Guns" has some positive features. It has a decent story and features some entertaining acting by John Carradine as one of the villains.

The story concerns the efforts of Sheriff Ward Young (Richard Arlen) and his deputy/son to stop the outrages of an outlaw named Stragg (Bruce Bennett), who has the rest of the town too intimidated to speak against him. The sheriff heads to another town nearby, where there is a witness who might be willing to speak against Stragg. Meanwhile, Stragg has sent a henchman to the same town to hire a gunman (Carradine) to deal with the witness and the sheriff. It's a fairly conventional setup, but it plays out with a couple of interesting developments.

The characters are all standard Western types, but things perk up when Carradine comes in as the gunman. His performance is quite exaggerated compared to the rest of the cast, but he makes his character pretty entertaining. Look also for a young Angie Dickinson in a few scenes as the daughter of the town doctor. Country singer Faron Young plays the sheriff's son. Young is not much of an actor, but his presence enables him to provide singing commentary between key scenes - an interesting idea, although it gets a bit old.

Though routine in many respects, "Hidden Guns" should have enough to make it worth watching for most Western fans.

Hidden Guns is a typical, grade B, one-hour-long Republic "Oater" (Western sub-genre) of the period, BUT, if you happen to be a Faron Young fan, it is an amazing look into what a good actor he was. Even though Deputy Faron Young (he used his own name for his character) never picks up a guitar and sings, he does provide an opening song--and also recaps the plot in song several times during the hour just in case you doze off. These songs have never surfaced, even in his Bear Family Box Set, so it's nice to uncover some rare Faron Young. Richard Arlen does a great job as Sheriff Ward Young (Faron's father - Arlin and Young would both appear later in 1967's The Road To Nashville - but not on the screen together), John Carridine chews the scenery (never better) as the hired gun, and don't blink or you'll miss Angie Dickinson (in only her fifth film) as Faron's love interest. Faron only made two more Westerns: Daniel Boone, Trail Blazer (1956) and Raiders of Old California (1957). The other half-dozen films he appeared in were singing performances, and it's great they've been preserved, but a shame Faron did not follow Elvis' road, as he showed great promise as an actor.

Five is the highest rating my conscience will allow for this oater, given that production values are near non-existent, and most of the acting is the same. This was made towards the end of the Republic Studios era, and if one had to base their entire output's reputation on this film, that ending might have been a welcome relief. (But they really did do much, much better things - earlier.) Richard Arlen was a good actor from the end of the silent screen days to well past this particular folly, but here, neither he nor his film son, Faron Young, seems the least bit capable of taking on anyone with the presence and pure size of Bruce Bennett or Guinn Williams. It is understandable that Arlen might look a little tired, but Faron Young looks just as tired, and he was only in his twenties. The only really good performance in the film comes from Bruce Bennett, in a fairly unusual role for him - a real nasty (but classy-looking) villain. He acts as though he thought he was in something worth doing, although his speaking voice is also much too classy for such an unmitigated lowlife. Bruce was a classy actor and deserved better than what he usually ended up in. The joy of the film, in a perverse way, is John Carradine in the unlikely role of a paid gunman, but not a fast-draw type, as he only shoots people in the back with a Derringer or with a rifle from hiding. Still, he hams it up wonderfully; we have a gunman who actually quotes great literature and sings occasional song snippets in a quite good voice (it's his own; I saw him all the way back in 1950/51 on TV's Ken Murray Show sing a whole song in a cavernous bass after downing a very large glass of Budweiser during the show's weekly sit-down-and-let's-talk advertisement). Bennett may be the best thing in the film, but Carradine is definitely the most enjoyable thing in it, even if, at only 50, he is already showing signs of the arthritis that would impair so much of his physicality and hand movements in years to come. That said, this is a real stinker, and the never-ending sung description of everything that is going on on the screen is like an incredibly inept steal from Tex Ritter in HIGH NOON. Elsewhere, someone questioned why he had never seen any of the music from this film on one of Young's song albums; maybe it's because everything in it seems to have been written and/or arranged by the then quite famous Salli Terri, a wonderful Jill-of-All-Trades mezzo-soprano, who was particularly known in the folk song field around the time this film was made, and who made loads of Capitol recordings back in the 1950s and 1960s in everything from Spanish and American folk song to the Baroque. Maybe she kept them for herself. Why she would have wanted to I can't figure out, because they're all pretty awful. Anyway, '10' for Bennett and Carradine, but '-5' for the rest, which comes down to a '5' rating. It's the best I can do; I mean, when even Angie Dickenson can't strike sparks in my loins, the film really has to be awful!