The Hired Gun

If you make it past the first 40 minutes you will find the remainder of the film slightly improved but only slightly.

The highlight comes in the first 10 minutes when the double speed the horse chase and it looks like they forgot to slow it back down lol.

Not much for Rory to work with here and the villains lack any real teeth.

The Hired Gun opens with a camera shot through the noose that is scheduled to go around the pretty neck of Ellen Beldon (Anne Francis), the first woman ever to face hanging in Texas. When she's rescued by Judd Farrow (Chuck Connors) and taken back to her family's ranch in New Mexico, the Texans hire Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to bring her back in order to carry out the sentence. The heavy backdrop of a potential hanging, especially of a woman, gives the film some dramatic weight, as does the trip back to Texas, after McCord has recaptured Ellen. The film could have been a lot more interesting if on the way back to Texas it had exploited some of the underlying lust between them. Instead it plays it safe with a few action scenes where a group of Indians attack and McCord kills them, thus putting the film in jeopardy of being a Saturday afternoon flick for the kiddy matinees. Considering the cast, which includes a good part for Vince Edwards as well as Chuck Conners, and the overall noir look due to the b & w cinematography, the film had the story ingredients and talent to be a minor masterpiece.

Ellen Beldon (Anne Francis) is in a Texas jail waiting to be hung for murdering her husband. Her uncle's ranch foreman Judd Farrow (Chuck Connors) breaks her out. Her father-in-law hires gunman Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to bring her back from New Mexico when the Texas authority drags its feet. Some believe her claims of innocence.

There is no real debate that Ellen is innocent. Anne Francis plays it so hard like a damsel in distress. Everything is play by hitting the nail right on the head. There isn't any surprises to be had in this straight forward western B-movie. It would work better in a darker road trip with the two characters. This is not that.

Ellen Belden (Anne Francis) is set to be hanged for her husband's murder in Texas. Ellen's uncle has one of his ranch hands bust her out of jail and escort across the New Mexico border. The father of the dead man hires a gunman named Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to go into New Mexico and bring Ellen back to face her sentence. But is Ellen really guilty or is someone else responsible for the murder?

Overall, I'd call this MGM programmer a bit dull. One of my main issues is that The Hired Gun's plot offers few, if any, surprises. Almost everything is predictable after about 15 minutes. Things like: Is Ellen guilty? Who really killed Ellen's husband? What will happen with Ellen and McCord? It doesn't take a fortune teller to predict the answers to these questions.

In addition, try as it might, The Hired Gun never has an appropriate Western feel to it. The sets don't seem authentic, the wardrobe looks too modern, and Anne Francis is more Honey West than Old West. I know budget constraints probably played a role in this, but the lack of a Western feel really took me out of the movie.

I suppose of all the cast, I enjoyed Chuck Connors as Judd Farrow, the ranch hand, as much as anyone. I felt for the man as time-after-time Ellen rebuffed his advances, yet he kept coming back for more.

4/10

Badly made western featuring Calhoun as a gunfighter paid $5000 to go find an escaped murderer-- who happens to be Anne Francis. He does so, and of course, everyone is trying to stop him. Terrible performances, terrible script, lack luster direction, wall to wall music-- all in all, a really bad movie. And it's only about 72 minutes long. Made back in the days when westerns ruled on the TV screens, it was shot widescreen, with only one or two well shot scenes, the rest of the time, it looked like they did one take and moved on. Classic scenes even included four Indians who were obviously white guys in grease paint. Good for a laugh, that's about it. TCM shows this once in a while-- a real hoot.