Gun Fever

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.

Gun Fever is a good example of the sort of very low budget western that was once a Hollywood staple from late in the era when going to the movies for many Americans meant going to see a western. By the time the picture came out (1958) television, with its literally dozens of western series had largely replaced movies as the primary source of filmed westerns except at the A and very high budget level.

Cheap as it is, this movie shows some directorial flair and, aside from Larry Storch's terrible performance as a Mexican, it's not badly acted. As to the story, it's scarcely worth mentioning except to say that it falls into the category of what can best be described as the revenge western. Directed by and starring Mark Stevens, ex-second tier leading man, now third tier and fading fast, it moves quickly and, depending on the point of view, either benefits or is hampered by the use of wind machines, as this is one windy movie.

If the reason for this is mentioned in the film at some point I must have missed it. Maybe there are parts of the west that experience windy seasons, just as there are rainy seasons, dry seasons and so forth. Gun Fever takes place where it appears to be windy season all the time. This enabled Stevens and his crew to disguise, as best they could, the movie's cheapness. I think it works even as I admit that it's a gimmick.

The notion that just being outdoors is or can be dangerous in and of itself is nicely driven home in the movie even as it doesn't appear to be its theme, such as it has one. It's never comfortable for the characters in the picture to be outside for any length of time due to all the blowing dirt, sand and leaves. I wouldn't go so far to say that isolation is a theme in the film but rather a consequence of the way it was made. This is a movie to experience, not ponder.

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

Gun Fever is directed by Mark Stevens and Stevens co-writes the screenplay with Stanley Silverman. It stars Stevens, John Lupton, Larry Storch, Maureen Hingert and Aaron Saxon. Music is by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by Charles Van Enger.

It feels a bit churlish to criticize Mark Stevens' Gun Fever for its cheap feel and well worn plotting, for he clearly has respect for the genre. Apart from budget restrictions stymying his hopes for something more dramatically appealing, he's probably more hampered by his own decision to make a safe old traditional Oater. He relies on tried and tested staples in the hope of appeasing the masses, particularly with the standard "get revenge on the man who instigated the killing of my folks" storyline.

The wind machine is permanently on, more so in the sound mix than actually blowing up a gale in scenes, so it's not a good sign that this is noticeable to viewers more so than what is actually on the screen. The Mexican character is played poorly by New Yorker Larry Scorch, and this is consistent with the all round average feel to the play playing out. However, Stevens and Enger manage to put a grim texture to the visuals, creating an earthy mud and rags look more befitting the real Wild West than the glossy Hollywood one.

Sadly doesn't live up to the promise of its throat grabbing opening, and not one to recommend seeking out as a matter of need, but there's worse out there and it's not for Stevens' want of trying that it's no great genre offering. 5/10

Two reasons to comment on this ultra-cheapo made at the height of TV's Western craze. The film's biggest star is the wind machine that blows for almost the entire 70 minutes, even gusting away the ghostly-looking credits as they crawl by! I guess the latter was an insider joke. But actually the constant wind serves a couple of "higher" purposes-- to lend supposed atmosphere, and to mask the SoCal scrublands so close to LA, you can almost hear the traffic noise. The other reason, is to scope out the absolutely worst imitation of a Mexican outlaw in Hollywood's long and dishonorable history of "ethnic types". The dishonor here goes to Larry Storch-- yeah, that Larry Storch of the buffoonish F Troop TV series. After seeing him here grinding teeth and mangling accents, you can understand why he went into burlesque comedy. There's also an "Indian chief" so obviously Anglo, it's like putting a feathered headdress on Ozzie Nelson, while the main bad guy is played by a professional wrestler, whose cartoonish sneer suggests he's still doing his ring act. In fact, the most convincing thing about this movie is John Lupton's cough. I expected a lung to come up any moment on a cascade of blood.

Of course, it's easy to mock a cheap misfire like Gun Fever that likely played in 1 or 2 remote drive-in's where necking teenagers hardly cared what was on screen. In fairness to the record, actor-director Mark Stevens had a strong hand in two above-average cheapos-- Timetable and Cry Vengeance-- showing that with the right material (especially cast), he could turn out a decent product. Nonetheless, this campy flop is only for those of us addicted to The Western Channel.