At Gunpoint

Fred MacMurray was not fond of his westerns, his most famous quote was that "the horse and I were never as one". But he rode no horses in At Gunpoint. MacMurray plays the town storekeeper who takes up a weapon and together with Frank Ferguson shoots Jack Pickard head of a gang trying to rob John Qualen's bank. He gets the outlaw leader and saves the money. The town acclaims him and Ferguson, but Ferguson is ambushed by the same gang outside town, MacMurray becomes the town leper.

Comparisons have been made with High Noon, but I think this resembles more 3:10 to Yuma and Johnny Concho. In those two westerns we had citizen heroes as opposed to cowboy heroes. There's no resemblance to John Wayne in MacMurray's role.

Even his wife Dorothy Malone wants him to leave, but MacMurray wants to stay. His only friend is the town doctor Walter Brennan.

This is a very good if somewhat unconventional western. Keep an eye on Skip Homeier as well. He's playing once again an evil punk.

WIth the dependable Walter Brennan and the equally dependable Fred MacMurray (a reluctant cowboy both in the film and in real life), At Gunpoint is a moderate success. With an obvious similarity to High Noon, this film avoids focusing on MacMurray's character, and focuses on the character of the town he lives in, instead. And that character is challenged from beginning to end. An enjoyable oater.

This film essentially begins with a small group of outlaws known as "the Dennis Gang" riding into the peaceful town of Plainview, Texas and robbing the local bank. Unfortunately, while trying to escape, one of the bandits named "Alvin Dennis" (John Pickard) is shot and killed by the owner of a general store by the name of "Jack Wright" (Fred MacMurray) and another local citizen named "Al Ferguson" (Irving Bacon). And since all of the money is recovered because of that, the local banker named "Mr. Livingstone" (John Qualen), along with the other members of the town, are quick to hail the two men as heroes. That is, until the gang returns the next night and kills Al Ferguson in cold blood. And it's this action that turns the entire town into a state of pure panic--which results with all of them wanting nothing to do with Jack Wright out of fear that they might draw the ire of the Dennis Gang if they return again. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a pretty good Western which had clear parallels to the outstanding film "High Noon" produced 3 years earlier with both Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. But make no mistake, although I consider "At Gunpoint" to be an entertaining film, it is by no means as good as the aforementioned 1952 classic. Even so, I still enjoyed this movie for the most part, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

The Dennis band (Skip Homeier , Jack Lambert and others) wishes to rob the bank of the sleepy and quiet town of Plainview, Texas . There the honest storekeeper Jack Wright (Fred MacMurray , though Joel McCrea was originally cast ) settles down for a peaceful existence and he runs his general store with wife Martha (Dorothy Malone) , brother-in-law and accompanied by their child Billy Wright (Tommy Rettig) . Then the gang steals the bank, killing a teller and the alerted Sheriff is shot , too . In the street, store keeper Jack Wright picks the dead marshal's gun up and shoots from a great distance, fleeing stealers , and the outlaws drop the loot and escape . As when his beloved sibling is murdered , Bob Dennis exacts vengeance , the killing marks the turning point of transition from a robber , to bent on vendetta . Later on , a new town Marshal abandones his employment , despite the disagreements of townspeople around him . Shortly after , Wright must face the bunch of deadly killers alone when the gang leader, an avenger outlaw and his hoodlums arrive in the town . Bob Dennis (SkipHomeier) has sworn revenge and he will early arrive to the small town to reckoning .

This classic and traditional western is plenty of suspense as the dreaded hour approaches and the protagonist realizes he must stand alone but his fellow town people for help , nobody is willing to help him . Just when the previous sheriff about to leave , comes a vengeful gunman and his henchmen , as our protagonist is deserted by the townspeople who fear the threatened return of the nasty bandits . It is still a run-of-the-mill entry in Western genre . The film has an interesting premise similar to the classy ¨High Noon¨by Fred Zinneman with Gary Cooper , Grace Kelly , as the intimate starring is also left , instead of showing support for him , the citizens' committee advises Jack to sell his store and leave town for good . At the end starts a small war between the revengers and the loner seller with unexpected results . Fred McMurray gives a decent acting as the peace-loving owner of a general store who became a town hero when he luckily killed the leader of a gang of bank robbers . This is one of a clutch of acceptable horse operas Fred made in the forties , in the late 50s and the early sixties , such as ¨Texas Rangers¨, ¨The trail of the lonesome Pine¨, ¨A gun for a coward¨, ¨Good day for a hanging¨ and this ¨At gunpoint¨. Although MacMurray also played other genres as drama , adventures , wartime , children films , such as : The happiest millionaire , The shaggy dog , Son of Flubber , The absent-minded profesor , The princess come across , The Caine mutiny , Dive bomber , Above suspicion , Murder he says , The miracle of the bells , Alice Adams , The apartment , and Noir film as the classy : Double indemnity . He is accompanied by an important plethora of notorious secondaries . As the movie contains a great support cast , plenty of familiar faces from vintage Westerns such as : Walter Brennan , John Qualen , Whit Bissell ,Irving Bacon , James Griffith , John Pickard, Jack Lambert ,Ray Barcroft ,Irving Bacon ,Harry Shannon and Frank Ferguson .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Alfred L Welker . He was a good craftsman who made films of all kinds of genres , especially ¨Noir¨ and Westerns , such as : 1953 Devil's canyon , 1953 The Last Posse , 1951 Sealed Cargo , 1947 Pirates of Monterrey , 1947 Repeat Performance ,1944 My Pal Wolf , 1944 I walked by night ,1942 Whispering Ghosts ,1942 The Mad Martindales ,1939 Sherlock Holmes vs. Moriarty ,1939 News Is Made at Night , 1939 It Could Happen to You ,1938 Up the River , 1938 Gateway , 1938 Kidnapped ,1938 City Girl , 1937 Big Town Girl ,1937 Wild and Woolly ,1937 We Have Our Moments , 1936 Love in Exile ,1934 You Belong to Me ,1933 Advice to the Lovelorn , among others . Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable film that will appeal to Western aficionados .

I'm not a huge Fred MacMurray fan when it comes to Westerns, I guess, but he could do a credible enough job as he did in At Gunpoint. The basic storyline involves a store clerk who shoots one of an escaping band of robbers. Only by a lucky shot does the clerk actually hit and kill one of the robbers; the dead guy's brother who is also in the gang makes it his personal business to get revenge, especially when the newspapers glorify the action of the clerk in shooting down the bad guy.

This movie has one of my all-time favorite Western character actors, Skip Homeier, who is the bad guy seeking revenge. (Homeier and MacMurray are also a protagonist / antagonist pair in another Western, "Day of the Bad Man", where MacMurray plays a judge.) In this movie, MacMurray's son is played by Tommy Rettig of the 'Jeff's Collie' (i.e. 'Lassie') TV show and he is rather annoying in the role. Maybe the director wasn't paying as much attention to him, as Rettig was really very good in 'River of No Return' with Robert Mitchum. (The lucky kid had Marilyn Monroe's hands all over him during that movie!) Walter Brennan, another great, is in this movie and as a testy old doctor, he has some pretty funny acidic observations to make. When his best friend and checkers-partner gets shot and killed, Brennan underplays the scene where he sees that his friend is dead - and he does so masterfully. He gives only the slightest view of his anguish but you can tell he's devastated. Brennan was a giant of the Westerns and he's great in this movie as always.

I think the premise of a story is all important and this movie has a great one - take an ordinary guy, give him beginner's luck at accidentally beating the bad guy, then have the rest of the bad guys come back seeking revenge. Don't compare this movie to High Noon as one other person did, because it's really not the same theme. Frankly if I had a choice of which one to watch right now it would be this movie, At Gunpoint. (And I do like High Noon very much, but this is also a darned good film.) You won't waste your time by watching this one. If you like Westerns, this is one you will enjoy.