Invitation to a Gunfighter

"Invitation to a Gunfighter" is a film searching for a consistent tone. By turns it's stilted, silly and melodramatic, and the result is mostly just confusing. The kernels of a very good movie are present, but often left "unpopped." For example, the town is initially portrayed as morally upright, and Brynner's character as amoral, and the film tries to flip this on its head. The trouble is, we rarely see anything to prove this; instead, we're forced to fill in the blanks ourselves from sparse pieces of (vague) dialogue. The story is so buried in subtext and so much is not shown that scenes like Yul Brynner's drunken rampage is robbed of its dramatic potential because we haven't seen anything that would seem to justify it. On it's own, that could have been a powerful idea, since Brynner's character is given a back-story like nothing these townsfolk have ever known, but in that case, the movie devotes far too much time to the troubles of the townsfolk instead of focusing on Brynner's inner turmoil.

The acting is all over the board in this one, as well. Brynner's performance can't be faulted; he's his usual simmering, silent presence, but seems miscast in a role which could have been quite interesting if it weren't so poorly-written. Janice Rule seems confused in her role as Ruth Adams (and well she should be, forced to serve as the love interest between--count them--three men, all trying to kill each other at some point or another), and spends most of it looking vaguely sad and disinterested, and Pat Hingle is neither evil enough nor serious enough to make a compelling villain. Clifford David fares better as the perpetually angry Crane, and George Segal, as the unfortunate Matt Weaver, is just about the only member of the cast that seems to have any idea what he's doing. The rest of the townsfolk are a mixture of clichés and stereotypes that make it seem as though Yul Brynner mistakenly wandered onto the set of "Blazing Saddles." Brynner's presence, and the multi-layered, operatic scale of the plot might warrant repeat viewings, and the film should be credited for trying to tackle weighty issues of morality and racism, but ultimately "Gunfighter" misses its mark. The classic mantra in storytelling is "show, don't tell," and this film doesn't do that, rendering what should have been a very good movie into a very mediocre one.

One of those Westerns in which the townspeople come to wish they hadn't hired a gunslinger to do their dirty work. I had suspected that the version I saw on TV had been edited to squeeze into programme schedules, but this website gives the running time as 92 minutes and the TV slot (including commercials) was 105 minutes. One moment Matt Weaver has stormed into the night, furious that in his absence his home has been sold, the next he's become a feared outcast who's killed a man, instantly becoming such a threat to the townspeople that they have to hire a gunman. OK, the town has lost many of its men to the Civil War, but surely its citizens could muster enough courage and guns to do the job themselves? Brynner produces a sinister screen presence and dominates the cast, many of are low key. And several plot elements are understated; racism there may be in the town, but this is only evident when the hotel owner suggests that d'Estaing might be better suited seeking a room in the Mexican quarter; there's been many a better portrayal of a corrupt town boss than Pat Hingle's; and the lady to whom d'Estaing returns her pawned jewelry looks a bit too elegant to be down to her last dress.

d'Estaing's drunken rampage through the town came as a shock; the place must have been typical of many of the postbellum period, and its racism, venality and corruption as portrayed in the film didn't seem to justify a hired assassin's rage. It would have been better had d'Estaing been exposed to more overt racism than a patronising suggestion that he finds accommodation in a Mexican establishment.

No great surprises in the ending, but again it wasn't convincing when the Anglo-Americans united with the Mexicans in a gesture of respect.

Take away Brynner and this would have been an extremely average Western.

Co-star George Segal gives a creditable performance as Matt Weaver, the one Reb soldier in a Union town who returns home from the war to find his house and woman taken away from him. When he is later thought to have killed homesteader John Medford (an unbilled Russell "The Professor" Johnson), the townspeople agree to hire a gunslinger to eliminate Matt. The man they hire is a smooth Creole with the fancy name of Jules Gaspard D'Estaing (Yul Brynner). Jules doesn't really like the place, or the people, but he hangs around long enough to take their money, and ultimately go to war with his own conscience.

What this viewer appreciated about "Invitation to a Gunfighter" was the fact that it didn't play out in an obvious, formulaic way. It's definitely a Western with a social conscience, taking place in a supposedly enlightened town where racism can still be revealed in modest ways. The screenplay is by producer / director Richard Wilson ("Man with the Gun") and his wife Elizabeth, working from an adaptation (by future 'Night Gallery' veteran Alvin Sapinsley) of a story by Hal Goodman & Larry Klein. There is a fair amount of nuance here, and not just gun fighting. Most unexpected was the drunken rampage that our hired killer goes on in the final third of the picture. What we learn from the evolving storyline is how things are not always the way that they appear to be.

Brynner, as always, has a very commanding screen presence. If other viewers overall don't care much for the film, they can at least agree that it delivers for fans of the star. Janice Rule has definite appeal as the wife of the local storekeeper (Clifford David); other familiar faces appearing throughout include Strother Martin, Clifton James, Brad Dexter (one of Brynners' co-stars in "The Magnificent Seven"), Mike Kellin, Bert Freed, and William Hickey. Pat Hingle is excellent as the town boss who knows just how to keep his citizens riled up and passionate. Future big-time cinematographer John A. Alonzo (who'd also acted in "The Magnificent Seven") plays Manuel here.

In general, "Invitation to a Gunfighter" makes for reasonably interesting viewing, and is paced quite efficiently, clocking in at a little over an hour and a half.

Seven out of 10.

I loved Yul Brynner in this movie, and Janice Rule did a good job as the frustrated wife of the crippled, hard-drinking, ex-Civil War fighter. Yul Brynner is excellent as the brooding, cold, mercenary who has a job to do, but falls for the lady whose house he's decided to stay in while doing it. I was in my "Yul Brynner" phase when this one came out, and I can still see it over and over--much as I feel about The Magnificent Seven, the Return of the Seven, The Journey, or The King and I. I couldn't help but wonder if he actually played that harpsichord. He obviously couldn't sing, and only spoke the song while he played the tune on the lady's harpsichord.

Yul Brynner was a smoker, and the cigar is ever present. I met him in 1972 out in Malibu, and I asked him if he could quit smoking for his health's sake. He said, "Nope. Too hooked." He was, and sadly for his fans, it was his undoing. He signed a photo for me for my birthday that year, which I still cherish. The world lost a great actor when he passed. He was the best in a Western, wearing black and walking that walk...a man of few words.

This is an underrated western with a great moral lesson about both racism and judging too quickly from appearances. The townspeople led by Pat Hingle in this northern leaning western town hire Yul Brynner to gun down George Segal who has returned from the Civil War after fighting for the Confederacy. George Segal has come back to claim his land and his woman, each of which has been taken by another.

AS the movie progresses it's slowly revealed that the Union leaning town is not what it seems to be. Pat Hingle plays a politician very common for 30 years after the Civil War, adept at what they called "waving the bloody shirt." Just demagogue away at who did what and where during the war and ignore the current issues both social and economic.

During the course of The Magnificent Seven, Yul Brynner's Chris Adams is referred to as a Cajun. Here he's given a proper Cajun name of Jules D'Estaing and when his secret is revealed, a whole lot of people in that town have to confront their own prejudices.

Makes for worthwhile viewing.