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.

Anne Francis is about to hung for the murder of her husband, the son of the local Ponderosa owner John Litel. But her uncle sends Chuck Connors to rescue her and he does, taking her across the Texas state line to New Mexico territory where he, Robert Burton is the local Ponderosa owner. And due to Burton's influence, New Mexico will not honor extradition. What to do, but hire out for The Hired Gun.

In this case it's Rory Calhoun who gets hired for $5000.00 dollars to deliver Francis back to Texas for the sentence to be carried out. He's even deputized to make what is kidnapping have some trapping of legality.

Of course with their time on the trail Calhoun and Francis start getting acquainted. I don't think I have to go any further.

The Hired Gun was almost like watching two different films. A plot line where Francis is being given some unwanted attentions by her rescuer Connors is left dangling. Quite frankly I can't blame Connors for expecting some kind of manifestation of that gratitude. Then when Calhoun and Francis cross the state line, it's like a whole new movie started. I think some writing might have changed midpoint in the film or it was to be a whole bigger type of western when originally conceived.

With stuff like The Hired Gun which Calhoun also produced not being that well received, no wonder Rory Calhoun opted for a TV and he would star in his own television series, The Texan very shortly.

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.

A very short western,clocking at hardly 70 min,but a fast moving one,well acted and with a screenplay which can appeal to ladies ,which is not obvious a far as this genre is concerned ;the background may be the wild west ,but the plot is sometimes close to detective story ,a whodunit (although you would have guessed who the culprit is in the first minutes!) ' Annee Francis portrays a young widow,falsely accused of her husband 's murder and sentenced to death (rare in westerns for a girl!);as her uncle helps her to escape (with Chuck "rifleman" Connors dressed up as a priest),the ruthless in-laws......well check the title .

Rory Calhoun is efficient as the hired gun ;he also produced this entertaining movie,which seems to suffer for its small budget :the last quarter seems botched,but the rest is pretty well done.

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