A Bullet Is Waiting

Not a western but an entertaining if improbable drama set in an isolated area in the west. Jean Simmons is full of guarded, wounded vulnerability, a very fine actress. She and Rory Calhoun make a surprisingly simpatico pairing. Stephen McNally's character is rather one note, a more distinctive actor could have perhaps fleshed it out but it doesn't hurt the film. Makes some observations about a man's true nature even if he has committed a criminal act. Brian Donlevy shows up near the end to act as a sort of catalyst for the resolution and is fine as always but the picture could have done without him. Not a classic but a solid film.

John Farrow directed this unusual western about a bounty hunter (STEPHEN McNALLY) and his prisoner (RORY CALHOUN) seeking shelter in a remote cabin owned by JEAN SIMMONS, biding their time until the bad weather passes so that McNally can bring Calhoun to justice for a crime he's committed involving McNally's brother.

Somehow the casting seems adrift. McNally is usually much more at home as a villain and should have played Calhoun's part. And yet, Calhoun and Simmons don't seem like a good match, she being completely out of place in this sort of western and he not convincing enough as the bad man McNally is after.

The storm sequences are well done, the settings are good, and everyone tries hard to keep the melodramatics on a believable level--and most of it works quite well.

BRIAN AHERNE, as Simmons' absent father, only makes an appearance toward the end of the story when his role becomes important in the scheme of things. He too seems oddly out of place in a western.

Despite the flaws, makes an interesting watch.

A airplane crash leaves Lawman Sheriff Munson (Stephan McNally) and Prisoner Ed Stone (Rory Calhoun) stranded on a Sheep Ranch in the modern (1954) West. Between escape attempts ED makes a play for the beautiful Cally Canham (Jean Simmons) who is holding down the ranch for her Father David (Brian Aherne). MUNSON has a personal grudge against ED, but FATHER David arrives at the close too sort things out and you expect ED and CALLY will eventually get together, nuff said.

Good scenery and interesting casting are the most worthwhile features of this film. Calhoun and McNally seem quite at home in the West, but Aherne and Simmons would seem too be by intellect and temperament more suited for a drawing room. Jean does fill out her 'jeans' quite well and is as sexy in those as any more feminine costume. She would exhibit the same assets in THE BIG COUNTRY (1958). The film is worth watching just for her.

It is a short adventure thriller - not a western but it could have been and maybe it is a modern western after all - and only the Stephen McNally and Rory Calhoun presence justify the watch. By the way, I would have imagined Rory Calhoun and the "sheriff" and McNally as the bad guy.... Not a bad film, and directed by John Farrow. So, if you have eighty minutes to spend - maybe not waste - try it. It is bearable. Forget the ending.

A lawman and a fugitive, fight it out in the countryside with the lawman being overcome by an injured ankle, allowing the fugitive to get the upper hand. The lawman is Stephen McNally, an actor whose face was usually reserved for playing villains and the fugitive, Rory Calhoun who has been one of my favourites since I was a boy. A 6ft 3inch giant of a man, Calhoun was ideally suited for playing heroes as he was extremely good looking also and here he's supposed to be the bad guy. But is he?

The two come across a young woman living alone in a cabin, Jean Simmons, looking more beautiful than I ever remember before. She takes them in under an element of duress but slowly starts to become attracted to Calhoun and vice versa, in fact they have great chemistry and the sexual tension is palpable.

McNally is constantly trying to regain the upper hand and it eventually comes to a head but not before we are treated to a surprisingly well crafted scene of dialogue about philosophy that seems out of place in a pseudo western like this but I thought it raised the level above the usual melodrama.

Directed by John Farrow with a nice score by Dimitri Tiomkin, the film is beautifully shot in technicolour and the acting, joined at the end by Brian Aherne as Jean's father, is rather good. It shows Calhoun in a different light to his westerns and actually allows a showcase to display a wider acting range than usual for him.

An interesting lost movie I found only on YouTube with a gorgeous print copy so I'm rating it an 8 out of 10. Jean Simmons at her most stunning is worth seeing alone.