Gunfight at Comanche Creek

A gang led by Amos Troop (DeForest Kelley) has been robbing banks. They break prisoners out of jail and use them as front-men in their robberies. The front-man is the only one who gets recognized. When the reward for each front-man gets high enough, they are killed off for the money. The National Detective Agency is desperate after an undercover agent got killed. They assign Bob Gifford (Audie Murphy) to go under. Saloon owner Abbie Stevens (Colleen Miller) and Kid Carter (Ben Cooper) are taken with the newly arrived Gifford under the name Judd Tanner.

I do like the premise although this is strictly an old style western. There is nothing to show any edginess or risk to the movie. I don't like the narrations which sounds like words from a book. Audie Murphy has never been that much to me. As a Star Trek fan, Deforest Kelley holds much more interest. In the end, this is very average and limited especially for the 60's.

Audie Murphy goes undercover to break up a gang who have come up with a gimmick: break an outlaw out of jail, put him in front of their raids while the rest of them are masked, drive up the price on his head, then shoot him and turn in the corpse for a reward.

It's directed by Frank McDonald, a prolific director who spent a lot of his career in the upper ranks of the Bs, mostly because of his speed and cheapness. Most of his movies were westerns. His actual strength lay in comedy, and like many a B director, he wound up in TV, where he directed several episodes of GET SMART.

This late Audie Murphy oater is marred by Hadley Reed's narration, explaining what is going on, as if it's an episode of DRAGNET and the producers are afraid to either trust the audience to figure out what is going on or allow the actors to indulge in exposition. Joseph Biroc's color camerawork is efficient and not particularly distinguished. All in all, a mediocre example of the vanishing western.

GUNFIGHT AT COMANCHE CREEK (1964), done for Allied Artists, was part of Audie Murphy's last, frenzied wave of quickie westerns before his virtual retirement after 1966. It's a low-budget production shot on Hollywood backlots and nearby California locations, but within those parameters it actually boasts a well-written script by Edward Bernds, competent direction by B-movie vet Frank McDonald, and crisp photography by Joseph Biroc, a trio of professionals who were old hands at this kind of thing. It's also got a solid cast of familiar players who clearly know how to put on a good show for western fans.

Murphy stars as a Pinkerton-type detective who goes undercover to infiltrate a gang which specializes in a unique brand of caper. They bust known criminals out of jail, use them as front men in robberies until the price on their heads goes up, and then kill them and turn them in for the reward. When Murphy's partner is betrayed by someone who is secretly the brains behind the gang, Murphy is put in a particularly dicey situation--unarmed, unaided, and suspected of being the undercover agent that he is. While some of the plot turns will be predictable to western buffs, the script generates enough suspenseful situations to keep viewers glued, despite the fact that there really isn't a whole lot of action until the title shootout which comes at the very end.

Murphy is more relaxed than usual here, playing someone older, more experienced and more confident than the young, tormented loner he usually played. He's even something of a womanizer, a character touch not often applied to his roles. The star generally thrived when faced with formidable bad guys and he's got a colorful rogues' gallery to contend with here, including DeForest Kelley ("Star Trek") as the head of the gang and Adam Williams (NORTH BY NORTHWEST) and Mort Mills (TOUCH OF EVIL, PSYCHO) as convincingly snarling heavies. Also on hand are Ben Cooper (JOHNNY GUITAR) as a reluctant gang member, Colleen Miller as a lady saloon keeper, John Hubbard as the wily town marshal, Jan Merlin as Murphy's partner, old-timer Eddie Quillan as a hotel clerk, and the venerable Tom Browne Henry as the head of the detective agency. Future soap star Susan Seaforth has a brief turn in the requisite role of the rancher's love-starved daughter. Reed Hadley recites the abundant narration as if this were an episode of his old "Racket Squad" TV series. Such a strategy gives the unmistakable feel of a crime drama to the proceedings.

I liked this film a lot, but then I love westerns. It's got Audie, Ben Cooper, Jan Merlin, and scores of others, so how can it go wrong? Well, for one thing, it's a blatant remake of the earlier western, Last Of The Badmen (1957). How the writers of that film could let writer Edward Bernds get by with taking full credit for writing this film is beyond me. Sure, the setting is different, the characters have different names, but the basic story is almost identical. Both films even feature an annoying narrator, who details facts that none of us need to hear voiced....all the way through the film. If you've seen both films, you'll know what I mean.

Which is the better version? It's hard to say. They are bot very good, with excellent casts and fine direction. Both would have benefited from losing the narrator.

Johnboy

The plot, irritating narration, and lack of originality have been covered at length. Not Murphy's worst, not his best. Biggest problem I saw was its absolutely miserable sound. Remember the standard jet-fighter sound used in every jet movie of the '50s? It is omnipresent here... even revolver shots are truncated clips of the same noise. Otherwise, it has a relatively solid cast, and you won't feel like you wasted two hours of your life.