The Stranger Wore a Gun

Fresh from his work on 'House of Wax' Andre De Toth was assigned another 3D project by Columbia in the form of this Randolph Scott western with rather Gothic-looking interiors in which De Toth demonstrates a liking for shadows when not pushing objects at the audience. These include Lee Marvin, already teamed with Ernest Borgnine, with whom he soon made such an ugly pair of heavies in 'Bad Day at Black Rock' (the two of them vying with Alfonso Bedoya to see who can show the most teeth while grimacing).

There's hardly any romance this time round, Claire Trevor providing wry asides rather than fluttering her eyelashes.

I have a feeling that a lot of The Stranger Wore a Gun was left on the cutting room floor and if someone's ever interested in a director's cut it might explain some of the holes in this story.

The film opens in the middle of raid on Lawrence, Kansas by William Quantrill. Disgusted by all the killing, Randolph Scott quits the outfit, but can't outrun his reputation. Going further and further west Scott gets himself involved with another ex-Quantrill man, George MacReady who's looking to set himself up in Arizona as another version of Quantrill.

This is the last of four films Scott made with George MacReady, not counting their joint appearance in Follow the Boys. The first one they did together, Coroner Creek, is a classic among westerns. Sad to say the quality diminished as the two worked together until this one.

I couldn't follow the story nor could see what Scott's motivations were for doing what he did. It might be a case of bad editing or maybe it wasn't that good to begin with. I think it's one of the weaker Randolph Scott westerns.

Claire Trevor is yet again a saloon girl with a heart of gold and a yen for Randolph Scott and her rival is Joan Weldon, stage line owner. Doing almost a dress rehearsal for the parts they did in Bad Day at Black Rock are future Oscar winners Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin as a pair of MacReady gang members.

I will say if you can sit and sift through the plot you will not be disappointed in the shootout between Scott and MacReady inside a burning saloon. Would that the rest of the film was as good.

There are quite a few surprises in this film. First of all, it keeps you guessing especially as regards Randolph Scott's character, whose motivation is difficult to discern. It's hard to tell if he's a bad guy or a good guy sometimes, as he manipulates two different gangs of unsavory characters. This does not anticipate Yojimbo or A Fisftful of Dollars. Both of those films, plus this film, all derive somewhat from The Glass Key, which was filmed twice before The Stranger Wore A Gun was released in 1953. (In 1935 with George Raft and 1942 with Alan Ladd.)Those films were based on Dashiell Hammett's novel of 1931. In any case, this film has its own tale to tell, and the performances of Scott, Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine are solid. The film suffers somewhat from the 3-D effects which are kind of lame in the 2-D format we have to suffer on our TV sets. People who don't remember the 3-D craze will probably think the director was weird. All in all, the film's offbeat style and great ensemble cast make this well worth watching a time or two. It is by no means an ordinary run-of-the-mill Western.

'The Stranger Wore a Gun' did have a good deal of potential. The premise sounded interesting as was seeing how early 3D would fare. Randolph Scott was always well worth watching, well when his acting style matured, especially his work with one of his most prolific directors Budd Boetticher (i.e. 'Seven Men from Now'). Andre DeToth was another frequent director, with he and Scott doing six films together. Ones that were watchable at least for namely Scott but not must sees.

Which is where 'The Stranger Wore a Gun' fits under exactly, watchable but not essential. While Scott is one of the best aspects and it is a good representation of him as an actor, he did do a lot better films and performances. It is not a good representation really of DeToth, who was no stranger to good and more films himself, my first exposure to him being 'House of Wax'. Does all that mean that 'The Stranger Wore a Gun' is a bad film? No. It's not great or even good either, my feelings if anything were very mixed and a large part of me was disappointed seeing as it was an opportunity to see Scott in the film genre he was best known for.

Sure 'The Stranger Wore a Gun' has good things. Some of the production values are nice, the film is handsomely shot and the scenery is attractive regardless of whether they're authentic or not. The music is pleasant and rousing enough. The climax has fire and excitement that wasn't present enough in too much of what came before it.

Found the cast to be a very mixed bag. Scott comes off best, typically purposefully stoic but very authoritative too. Claire Trevor brings a good deal of class to her role and does a great job with what she has. Seeing Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine in anything is always worthwhile, and seeing both of them being menacing and fun (especially Marvin) and making the most of the too little they had was a pleasure.

Others were less successful. Worst was Alfonso Bedoya, who overdoes it and comes over as really grating. Joan Weldon is rather pallid, acting inexperience showing, and the film does too little with her character, to the point where you question why she is even there. Was not sure what to make of George MacReady, he does what he can but did think at the end of the day that he could have been more menacing and gone for it more (being almost too smooth). DeToth's direction is pretty routine and didn't seem properly engaged with the material or know what to do with it.

While some of the production values were nice, the 3D is pretty cheap looking and added nothing (almost gimmicky) and the editing in some scenes is haphazard. Lets not get started on the blatantly obvious stunt doubles. The script lacked toughness and grit, playing it too safe too often, and was very stilted and hard to take seriously. The story's action is pretty forgettable and under-utilised, shining properly only in the climax, and the soapy love triangle is just as pointless as the 3D. Not only was the story bland and silly, it felt incomplete and like things had been dropped out in editing when they should have been left as some events and character motivations are vague at best and downright beyond confusing at times.

In conclusion, definitely not something to write off but there are far better Scott, DeToth and Western films around. 5/10

Having been shot in 3-D, expect a lot of guns to be pointed at you and sometimes shot, fire coming at the camera, and even rock formations in Lone Pine to appear to have shelves. Outside of this minor distraction, the story is a good one concerning the aftermath of Quantrill's Raiders involving one of his spies, Jeff Travis (Randy Scott), who is determined to run away from his past and begin a new life. Following a fracas on a riverboat, he ends up in Prescott, Arizona, just as the capital of the territory is being moved to Phoenix because of the lack of law and order in the town. Somewhat of a mentor to him as well as lover is the soiled dove Josie Sullivan, played knowingly by Claire Trevor. He rides into Prescott loaded for bear, hence the title "The Stranger Wore a Gun." That he can't shake his past even in an out of the way western hamlet becomes obvious when both Josie and Jules Mourret (George Macready), another ghost from yesterday, turn up there. It's not quite clear where the stranger is heading until a close pal is murdered by Jules' henchmen. To muddy the water a damsel in distress appears, pretty Shelby Conroy (Joan Weldon), who seems shy and innocent. The stranger begins falling in love with her to the displeasure of Josie. Newcomer Jules is holding a Mexican gang at bay led by the colorful Degas (Alfonso Bedoya). The stranger begins playing one gang against the other to almost be gunned down in the crossfire.

Two of Jules' henchmen would go on to win Academy Awards a few years later, Lee Marvin as Dan Kurth and Ernest Borgnine as Bull Slager. Borgnine wears one of the loudest cowboy outfits ever, including a green shirt. He looks like a dude from the east. This doesn't stop him from being the sadistic bully he usually played in those days. Marvin too is his usual twisted demented character fans loved to hate. To see these two in action is worth the price of admission.

Postscript: Look for Tap Canutt, son of famous stunt man Yakima Canutt, in a bit part. He was also one of the stunt men for the film.