THE GUNFIGHTER (1950) ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Henry King
Gregory Peck, Millard Mitchell, Helen Westcott,
Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Skip Homeier,
Anthony Ross, Richard Jaeckel, Verna Felton
A gunfighter drifts from town to town, hounded by the law and challenged by every hot-shot kid with a six-gun. He'd like to stop drifting and settle down and not be a target everywhere he goes, but he can't escape his past or his reputation. He's Jimmy Ringo, "the fastest gun in the West," and he's doomed. A relatively low-key frontier drama, really a study in gunslinger psychology, that in a vague way reflects film noir, while anticipating an era of darker, more complex westerns that would follow in the decade ahead. Peck gives one of his best performances in the title role. Millard Mitchell plays his partner from the old days, now a town marshall. Karl Malden's a bartender with a sharp eye for business. Richard Jaeckel and Skip Homeier play young punks who don't think Peck looks all that tough. (They're wrong about that.) There are parallels to "High Noon", and it clocks in at a quick 84 minutes, thanks to Barbara McLean's editing and the efficiency of Henry King.
