Gun Fever

Yes it's low budget but deserves watching for it's gritty, no nonsense and uncompromising violence, especially when compared to other westerns of this period.

I came across this film by chance on the Encore Westerns Channel and despite its low budget and occasional slow pace, I found this to be an entertaining movie based on relationships: good, bad, strained, and warped. The black & white photography (a budgetary necessity, no doubt) and the blowing wind added to the atmosphere. Trench and Amigo are among the most bullet deserving villains around. Like a lot of the lower budget Western films of mid and late fifties, it much resembles the television Westerns of the time and might have been better off as an hour long episode.

And banned in Finland and Sweden? I suppose it would have passed if Sam and Tanana had been skinny dipping in Lake Tahoe.

This is the worst Western, and maybe even the worst movie ever made. I kept watching it hoping that it had to get better , but alas it continued in a downward spiral. It is so bad that it is unintentionally funny .

It looked like it was photographed in someones back yard in an LA suburb.

Even the old quickie Westerns in the !930's were better than this .

Larry Storch's Mexican character set back Mexican - American relations 20 years

The Federales probably tried to have him arrested for insulting the Mexican culture .

Most of the dialog was amateurish drivel , and the acting was even worst .

View this film only if you are desperately lonely , and have absolutely nothing else to do .

Rebuttal: who was Luke's mother, she is not on the playbill

After a band of Sioux led by a sadistic white man (Aaron Saxon) wipe out a family at a stagecoach way station, the son (Mark Stevens) vows vengeance and goes after the man, not knowing that his pardner (John Lupton) knows the killer well. The lovely Maureen Hinger (aka Jana Davi) is on hand as Indian squaw, Tanana.

"Gun Fever" (1958) is a B&W B-Western directed & co-written by star Mark Stevens. Despite the low budget and lack of color, this obscure lil' Western exceeded my expectations. Whilst the story involves the hackneyed Bob Steele plot (young man seeks to avenge the murder of his loved ones), the execution is artistic with strong acting by the principles. For instance, Stevens (a Dean Martin lookalike) is a gaunt and powerful presence; Lupton too, just taller.

The movie is dark and brooding with brief flashes of warmth, like a B-Western version of "Apocalypse Now" 21 years before it debuted. Don't look for any comedy or goofiness; it's realistic but generally grim with wind-swept landscapes and rolling tumbleweeds. A critic described "Gun Fever" as being "far from a good movie, but it's interesting." It's a shame Stevens didn't go on to greater success, but at least he had a respectable career in film & TV and we can continue to appreciate his contributions.

The Amer-Indians are played by Caucasians, which was par for the course at the time since there weren't many Native American actors roaming the streets of Hollywood. Just pretend they look more 'Indian' than they do. Regardless, the actors' depiction of Natives is respectable and not laughable.

The film runs 1 hour, 23 minutes. I can't find information on where it was shot, but obviously it was one of several movie ranches in the Hollywood area.

GRADE: B-/B (6.5/10).