Shotgun

Even if you consider only his second part of career, this western is above the average stuff from this specialist in the gender. Of course Sterling Hayden contributes more than a part in the quality of this movie. The topic. In this film, Sterling Hayden's character has his first name CLAY and this is Hayden's last name in THE KILLING. That amused me. So, back to this western, yes we have the proof that Lesley Selander could make good films when he had the budget, especially after several decades of films and hundreds of them. He had plenty of time to learn how to direct westerns. The peculiarity here is the raw brutality of several scenes, very rude, rare for this period. But Ray Enright, another western specialist from the forties, gave us this kind of feeling too with some of his films. I almost forgot to speak of Yvonne De Carlo, the underrated great actress from Hollywood whose beauty was far far beyond the roles she had in her career.

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.

Well directed by Lesley Selander ( unknown as a director to me ) it has two major merits; one, the casting of Sterling Hayden and Yvonne de Carlo, and two the use of the outdoors, and only marginally using interior shots. The editing is excellent and not one minute of the film is wasted. Hayden plays an outlaw turned good and Yvonne de Carlo plays an ex-saloon entertainer. Their pairing here is of a rough romance but the ending is inevitable. No spoilers on the plot except to say that Hayden is hunting down a batch of killers and finds de Carlo on the way. The film shows the Apache people in a slightly less offensive way than usual. There is a scene where de Carlo bathes in a stream hidden by foliage and there is no come on scene as depicted on the sensationalist original poster. It is true that Zachary Scott who has joined them takes a peek and gets very badly beaten up for it, but it is certainly no open season for Abby. De Carlo's character. On the contrary she is dressed in men's clothes all through the film, and there is never a female garment in sight. The BBFC shows the poster and it just shows how far Hollywood would draw in an audience, and to put it lightly exaggerate the subject matter. To sum up Hayden and de Carlo are perfect together and they both had the rare art of acting while being simply themselves. On screen that is, and it is not as easy as it seems.

A Deputy Marshal in Arizona (Sterling Hayden) goes after a ruthless killer (Guy Prescott) in the sunny wasteland, where he meets a spitfire (Yvonne De Carlo) and a suave bounty hunter (Zachary Scott).

"Shotgun" (1955) is an obscure 50's Western so my expectations weren't exactly great, but it's actually pretty unique and commendable. At first, I thought it was going to be a town-bound Western, but the movie was shot primarily in the spectacular desert wilderness of the heart of Arizona. Hayden is laconic and determined while De Carlo is spirited and beautiful; meanwhile Scott is smooth and Prescott shady.

I like the psychological examination of the characters. Although the villain is wholly corrupt, most of the others function somewhere in the grey area, which makes for interesting social dynamics. The depiction of the Apaches is thankfully believable with many of them being of Amer-Indian stock. Lastly, the showdown in the last act is well done and inventive.

The film runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot at Vasquez Rocks in the high country north of Los Angeles (the opening) but mostly in the Sedona, Arizona, area (Red Rock Crossing & Oil Creek) with town scenes done at Universal City, California.

GRADE: B.

One need only check out the poster to see why Yvonne was in this film. The acting was acceptable, but basically it was everyone playing their stereotype. Zachary Scott again plays a weasel, which made me wonder at the loss to our film heritage by the failure to develop the talent he showed in The Southerner and Mildred Pierce. In the film I saw, there were major and multiple continuity problems, and the lighting of several scenes went from daylight to night, to twilight. And I wonder at whether Apaches would set up an inherently ludicrous "duel" in which more than one horse would likely be injured or killed.