Shotgun

Sterling Hayden was a good, macho actor with a nice screen presence. Because he was so good, even a rather routine western like "Shotgun" is worth seeing.

The film begins with the Marshall being gunned down by Thompson and his gang. Their weapon...a shotgun. Deputy Marshall Clay Harden (Hayden) is all set to retire...but he cannot allow himself to leave the Marshall unavenged. So, he tracks the gang members though the Arizona countryside as he picks them off one by one. Along the way, he meets a superfluous woman, a sleazy bounty hunter and a whole lotta Apache.

The film is lovely to look at, as it's in color and the Sedona countryside is spectacular. Less spectacular is the plot, as Yvonne De Carlo's role isn't especially necessary AND some of the dialog between her and Hayden is downright silly. Also silly is the duel at the end...a bit hard to believe. But the film, on balance has a bit more to like than dislike and if you enjoy the genre, give this one a look.

By the way, this film has a rattlesnake...if you are deathly afraid of snakes, better try another movie!

Despite the promising setup where Deputy Marshal Clay (Hayden) vows to catch killers of his respected Marshal superior, the suspense of revenge fails to gel. The following pursuit carries him over miles of rugged western desert and sometimes hostile Apache. All in all, these are promising ingredients for a good dramatic oater.

Nonetheless, potential suspense fails to gel mainly because the storyline's cluttered by subplots involving DeCarlo and Scott. As scripted each detracts rather than adds to the main premise. But then both D and S were name performers at the time and I suspect they were added for marquee value. Nonetheless, what may have helped the box-office didn't help the end result, at least as scripted. And that's along with lots of meaningless slow riding that mainly pads the movie's runtime and adds nothing to a showdown build-up.

What the flick does have are dazzling red-rock backdrops of Sedona, Arizona. Thus eyes remain focused even as the story itself meanders. Then too, there are some good minor touches like Clay watering his desert-dry horse with his cowboy hat, a nifty unusual touch. Then there's Clay keeping his dirty shirt on after a dramatically staged fist-fight, thus showing an occasional concern for frontier realism.

My guess is that there's a good western buried somewhere beneath The Shotgun's meandering storyline. Certainly the Gary Cooper-like Hayden's capable of carrying out a really good oater. For example, the following year he would star in the best of all heist films, Kubrick's The Killing (1956), along with his many westerns.

Anyway, if you're more a fan of great natural scenery than a coherent storyline, then I recommend this Allied Artists 1955 flick, flawed though it is.

There are very few westerns that aren't built up mainly on a theme of revenge, the western avengers on films must be innumerable, and they are always bold cold-blooded heroes, and there is always some beautiful girl waiting for them. Yvonne de Carlo here though has plenty of skin on her nose, and although Sterling Hayden doesn't exactly treat her as a gentleman, she is after all a good match for him, after all the obligatory fights, fisticuffs and gunfights, including a formidable bunch of Apaches. Any western fan will buy all this and enjoy it even with relish, because of the splendid photo and equally splendid music by Carl Brandt, but it is still a rather conventional piece of routine very far from the more hardcore rough settlements of for example Sam Peckinpah. This is all right, you will enjoy the three great leading actors and their issues, you will even more enjoy the landscapes and the music, but it is hardly a film you would need to watch another time.

Sterling Hayden really just goes through the motions in this rather static western adventure. He is "Marshal Hardin", determined to avenge the death of his boss at the hands of the "Thompson" gang. On the trail of their leader, he alights upon a staked-out bounty hunter and his gal, and together the three pursue their quarry. Of course he falls for the gal (Yvonne de Carlo) so there is a little hostility with "Jeb" (Zachary Scott) as they travel, but the search for "Thompson" (Guy Prescott) proves to be pretty routine, as do the concluding scenes - despite the best efforts of some marauding Apache. Some nice photography though, but the writing and characters offers us little memorable.

Shotgun is one of the best directorial efforts of Lesley Selander who has his name on about a gazillion B westerns, a large percentage of them the Hopalong Cassidy series. He brings a love of the genre to this ambitious Allied Artists films shot on location in Arizona with a fine trio of stars, Sterling Hayden, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Zachary Scott.

Guy Presscott should have left well enough alone because he decided to gun down marshal Lane Chandler on the street of his town. He also had his deputy Sterling Hayden in mind, but Hayden got one of Presscott's henchmen instead. After that Presscott goes about his usual villainy which includes selling guns to the Apaches.

Presscott took on the first mission because he blamed Chandler and Hayden for a stretch in prison. He should have nailed Hayden when he had a chance because now Hayden has a mission, to avenge the killing of the man who had rescued him from outlaw life.

Along the way Hayden picks up as traveling companions mixed racial Yvonne DeCarlo and cynical bounty hunter Zachary Scott. It's not a harmonious trio by any means. Scott has some really good lines in this film and gives one of his best screen performances.

The film has some beautiful Arizona scenery as it was shot in the desert country of Sedona. The final encounter with Hayden and Presscott features something I've never seen before or since in a western, a duel with shotguns. Really unique and original.

Try not to miss this one if it's broadcast.