Hostile Guns

What a cast! What a so-bad-it's-good movie! George Montgomery plays U.S. Marshall Gid McCool (dig that name!), who's in charge of transporting a wagon train of convicted felons to a state prison in Texas. Tab Hunter, playing his umpteenth juvenile role while in his mid-thirties, is his upstart of a deputy. (He's also got the most obvious stunt double you've ever seen!) Yvonne De Carlo, sporting the longest false eyelashes and giving the worst performance ever by an actress in a western, is one of the prisoners. Not a stereotype left unplayed!

George Montgomery and Tab Hunter have a reunion of sorts in this A.C. Lyles western Hostile Guns. The third film of Hunter's career was a western called Gun Belt where Hunter played Montgomery's nephew. It was a routine western, so is this only not quite as good.

As always it's a pleasure to see a lot of the old timers that A.C. Lyles gave work to in the Sixties. But Hostile Guns has a rather unbelievable plot that I just could not swallow.

Montgomery is a federal marshal transporting prisoners to Huntsville State Prison in Texas and in need of a deputy. Young punk Tab Hunter is the best available so he takes him to transport Leo Gordon, Robert Emhardt, Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez and Yvonne DeCarlo. DeCarlo and Montgomery have some history though we don't learn about that until well into the film.

Gordon is his usual mean, sadistic self and he's scheduled to hang. Why they don't just hang him where he committed the crime and was tried and convicted God only knows, but he's got relatives like John Russell and James Craig looking to bust him out. That's the story of the film as Montgomery faces some bad odds.

In fact these guys should have freed Gordon, but they went about incredibly stupid. Makes for an inferior film.

I have to say that Robert Emhardt plays an interesting role of what we would call a white collar criminal. He's the former Texas State Railroad Commissioner who is eluded to have some sticky fingers. No country club prison for him in those days, but he's convinced friends will help.

Not one of the better A.C. Lyles efforts.

The first half of this Western isn't bad at all. The dialogue is crisp, the situations believable, and it efficiently establishes all the central conflicts and relationships. But around the halfway point, things go terribly wrong. It's as if the filmmakers let their sons and daughters take over and complete the picture. Action scenes are poorly staged, characterizations become muddled and repetitious, plots and subplots get unsatisfyingly resolved in a strangely rushed, banal fashion. And the previously sharp dialogue gives way to howlers like "Mike, this could be your last chance to grow up!"

Interesting mish-mash of a cast however. I had often wondered who George Montgomery was, having seen his name listed for so many films, and while this was evidently made towards the end of his career, he's certainly a classicly square-jawed, masculine lead in the Clark Gable mold. Tab Hunter is okay as the rowdy young hotshot deputized by Sheriff Montgomery for a dangerous prisoner transport, and there are faint (very faint) echoes of the Wayne/Clift relationship in "Red River". Yvonne DeCarlo, though aging, is still believably fetching as the woman prisoner who drives a wedge between the two men.

I guess I should have known there was something fishy about this movie early on, judging by the God-awful stunt doubling done for Tab Hunter in his first fight scenes. The double, quite clearly and amusingly, doesn't look a thing like him.

This is a western produced by A.C. Lyles--a guy who specialized in making lower budget westerns in the 1960s starring folks who were past their prime. This made casting the films cheaper but also provided work to some decent actors. But, because of the age of the cast, I have referred to Lyles' films as 'geezer westerns' and this isn't much of an exaggeration. In many of his westerns, the average age of the cast is about 60. In "Hostile Guns", however, the cast is relatively young...relatively. It stars George Mongomery (51) and also includes Donlevy (66), Red Barry (55), Fuzzy Knight (61), Yvonne DeCarlo (45), John Russell (46). However, a 36 year-old Tab Hunter co-stars in the film--making him a young pup by comparison. I don't recall Hunter appearing in other westerns--other than his ultra-campy "Lust in the Dust".

George Montgomery is in charge of transporting prisoners to prison. However, he's got a really nasty guy (Leo Gordon) in custody and needs an assistant, so he 'encourages' a prisoner already in custody (Tab Hunter plays a guy in jail for a minor charge) to assist him. Unfortunately, the nasty guy has some family members who vow to follow them and set him free. Along the route, they pick up several other prisoners--including a very stereotypical and mostly harmless Mexican (Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez), a really obnoxious public official (Robert Emhardt) and a lady (Yvonne DeCarlo) accused of murdering her abuser. In many ways, this comes off like a reworking of the film "Stagecoach"--but with a motley crew of prisoners, not stagecoach passengers. It is a well-used idea--but COULD have been a lot better. Why? Because some of the characters are terribly written--such as Gonzalez's very silly prisoner who WANTS to go to prison!!! But much worse is Emhardt is the worst, as his character lays on his routine so thick that he is utterly unbelievable. Overall, a time-passer--but also a film that should have been better.

Not a great deal to write home about here, Hostile Guns is every inch a late 1960s Oater clinging on to the fading embers of a genre that was at the time moving in another direction. It's directed by R.G. Springsteen and co-written by Steve Fisher, Sloan Nibley and James Edward Grant. It stars George Montgomery, Yvonne De Carlo, Tab Hunter, Brian Donlevy, John Russell and Leo Gordon. Music is by Jimmie Haskell and the Techniscope/Technicolor photography is by Lothrop Worth.

Plot has Montgomery as Sheriff Gid McCool, who is tasked with escorting a wagon of prisoners through the plains. Tricky since one of the prisoners has cohorts desperate to break him free, while another one is an old flame!

Tab Hunter is in the cast to bring down the average age of the cast, many of whom are going through the motions and are clearly in it to pick up a late in their career pay cheque. It's very much indicative of an A.C. Lyles production, the mixture of airy location shooting and crude rear projection work is most disconcerting. Brian Donlevy is front page billed but is in the film for two minutes, while the stunt doubles are ridiculously evident - which via the splicing are actually insulting. On the plus side there's a nice print available which showcases the good use of colour, and Gordon provides some good grumpy villainy, but it all trundles towards the inevitable climax, which all things considered isn't worth the wait. 5/10