The Gun Runners

Although this is a well-made film, you have to wonder why it was thought "The Breaking Point" could be bettered. However it gave Audie Murphy an opportunity to expand his range in a non-Western role.

Audie plays Sam Martin who runs a charter boat out of the Florida Keys. It's the only film version that is set in the location of Hemingway's novel. Sam's business is in trouble, and he undertakes some illegal trips to Cuba running guns for Hannigan, an affable, but ruthless businessman played by Eddie Albert - proving that a charming villain is always more effective than a straight-out evil one.

Sam is married and resists the not overly strenuous advances of Hannigan's mistress Eva (Gita Hall). Gita was underutilised here, she looked blonde, cool and interesting; a missed opportunity really, it was this relationship that created much of the tension in "The Breaking Point".

Eventually it ends with bullet holes in much of the boat and most of the protagonists.

I still find Audie Murphy a fascinating screen presence. Film allowed us to stare eyeball to eyeball into the face that was about the last thing 250 of his country's enemies ever saw. Occasionally we see interviews with war heroes, but the movies gave us an intimate acquaintance with this one.

He was a complex guy and not universally liked, some thought him dangerous; he probably was. I once read "No Name on the Bullet", Don Graham's biography of Audie Murphy. Graham interviewed many people who knew him throughout his life and shed light on some of his military exploits beyond what was depicted in "To Hell and Back". Graham tells how Audie often went on solo missions to hunt down German snipers. It took nerve and skill, forged as a youth in the Depression when he hunted food for his family - one bullet, one kill.

In "The Gun Runners", Audie is tightly controlled showing little emotion. He didn't change much from film to film, but maybe his movies reflected that iron self-control that enabled a man to stand on a burning tank destroyer firing a machine gun for an hour, holding off scores of the enemy.

But that was all a long time ago and possibly a lot of people aren't interested in the stars in that way, simply demanding that the drama hold their attention. I would say "The Gun Runners" does that pretty well. I like the ending, which leaves us with a touch of doubt. It's a very watchable film on a number of levels.

Most Decorated War-Hero of WWII...Audie Murphy...by 1958 had a Decade Long Career in Mostly Westerns,

would Go On to 50 Roles in Movies and TV, took the Challenge of Comparison to Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield. Both Considered Class-A Actors, and Enjoyed Great Popularity.

Murph was Never in Their League, but a Proven Fighter Nevertheless,

was Up for a Choice Icon of Literature, Ernest Hemingway, and Americana and the 2 Aforementioned Top-Notch Performers Did Not Dissuade the "Medal of Honor" Recipient and the Opportunity to "Be All That He Could Be" as an Actor.

Audie Murphy is Quoted Deep in His Career..."Acting was a battle I never won."

This Version was Directed by the Great B-Movie Director Don Sieger, who Populated the Picture with a Talented Cast. And the Script was Written by Another Proven-Pro, Daniel Mainwaring.

It's Got a Lot of Siegel's Style, of Pulp-Panache,

He Could Get "Bang-for-the Buck", and Impressed Critics and Fans with His Hard-Boiled, In-Your-Face Action, that was Economy Film-Making at its Best.

Murphy Did His Best and it's a Solid Outing. Film Critics were Never Kind to an "Audie Murphy" Movie,

with the Exception of a Few Big Pictures Like His Autobiographical "To Hell and Back" (1955) and "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951).

His Filmography is Full of Under-Rated, Low-Budget Gems, and those Critics, it can Now be Said, Historically, that His Huge Fan-Base was Right.

Most of His Movies are Above Average and Murph Always Delivered.

While this Film will Always Rank 3rd Behind "To Have and Have Not" (1944) and "The Breaking Point" (1950), but a Respectable 3rd.

It is a Fine Film and is a Must-See for Audie Murphy and Don Siegel Fans.

For All Others, it's...

Worth a Watch.

Ernest Hemingway's classic short story To Have And Have Not gets yet another remake, an independent production for Seven Arts that stars Audie Murphy taking the place Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield as Hemingway's iconoclastic fisherman/charter boat skipper.

No Lauren Bacall like slinky low voiced siren to take our hero's mind off business. In fact Murphy is happily married to Patricia Owens. But while he has a happy home life he owes some big money around Key West. His boat isn't even completely paid for and the bank is breathing down his neck.

Eddie Albert maybe the answer to his financial prayers. He wants to charter Murphy's boat for mysterious reasons for a trip to Cuba and remember this is 1958 and the Cuban government is rightly suspicious of strangers without proper clearance going to their island. In fact Albert is a gunrunner looking to sell to revolutionaries at a nice profit.

The film takes no political sides as to whether it favors the Batista government or the Castro revolutionaries. All you gradually learn along with Murphy is that Albert is one ruthless individual and quite the user.

Director Don Siegel shot this film on location in Newport Beach, California, curiously enough exactly where Michael Curtiz shot The Breaking Point, John Garfield's film of this story. Bogart's was done on the Warner Brothers back lot, none of them got anywhere near Papa Hemingway's beloved Caribbean waters. Siegel did keep the action going at a good clip.

Audie Murphy showed a bit of versatility here as an actor, taking a break from the B westerns he was doing at Universal. But Eddie Albert who when he does play a villain does remarkably well as he did in The Longest Yard and Attack. One never thinks of him that way, his image is forever fixed with Green Acres, but he was a favorite of mine and his range never ceased to amaze me.

The Gun Runners is your average B picture film about a controversial political issue in which it takes absolutely no sides.

I picked this movie out because Don Siegel never produces garbage in fact it is almost guaranteed quality what ever the budget...and this movie has a B grade budget.

Audie Murphy and Eddie Albert star in this 1958 rendition of Hemingway's To Have and Have Not. It is an intelligent well filmed maritime adventure. Eddie Murphy is superb as the charming villain--I have never seen a better one. Audie Murphy is boyishly handsome and earnest as the hard up boat captain.

Well worth the watch. No politically correct baggage or tiresome social messages just action and gun running to Cuba.

RECOMMEND

A remake of "To Have and Have Not" based on the Hemingway short story. The plot is reset to the early days of the Cuban revolution. A charter boat skipper (Audie Murphy) gets entangled in gunrunning scheme to get money to pay off debts.

Director Don Siegel may be the third person to tackle this tale, but he is not working fro ma dry well. By updating the story to involve the Cuban Revolution (before its success), the film takes on new life and now works as not only a great story but something of a historical document. Assisting Cuban rebels in 1958 may have had a very different sense at the time than it does today after fifty-plus years of Castro.

This was the first feature from the fledgling Seven Arts Productions, before they went on to make "The Misfits" (1961), "Lolita" (1962), and several others, including a large number of co-productions with Hammer films.