This western from 1957 was the second of two westerns that were shown on Sunday as part of channel 5USAs weekly western matinée, it was just another boring Sunday afternoon so I sat down to watch it,the storyline is like this, the Keough brothers, Bless(JEFFREY HUNTER),Will(FRED MACMURRAY)and Hade(DEAN STOCKWELL)run their dead father's ranch along with their mother.Bless,the middle child, has always had a fear of fighting, getting hurt and Rattlesnakes ever since he failed to prevent his father being killed by a Rattlesnake as a young boy. The boy's mother favours Bless over his two brothers and insists on treating him like a child, despite Will's attempts to turn him into a man, the mother wants to move to St Louis and take Bless with her, but she soon dies and Bless decides to remain on the ranch with his brothers. The brothers then begin a Cattle drive and Hade, the youngest boy becomes irritated with Bless' soft attitude on the trail but things soon come to a head after Hade is killed in a shootout with some rustler and Bless rides away from the trouble, Will and the other cowhands blame him for Hade's death and label him a coward, does Bless still have the chance to prove he is a man...
GUN FOR A COWARD is an alright western, but Universal have done a lot better, as far as westerns are concerned it's just above average, although it could have and should have been much better. It's a bit too story driven and feels like more of a moral drama than a western, there's too much boring dialogue and corny romantic scenes and too little action. Though there are a couple of impressive action sequences, the Cattle stampede and shootout with the rustlers was fantastic and superbly shot and the Saloon fight at the end between Bless and Will was excellent but could have been done a little better. The camera-work was magnificent,especially the shots of the Cattle moving across the plains, but the version I watched on TV was 1:33:1 full screen and this made various parts of the film appear washed out looking and faded which was a little disappointing, if you ever want to watch the film then watch it on another channel in it's original 2:35:1 cinemascope format as channel 5 have a reputation for widening their films. I did love the storyline and the premise about a man trying his hardest to prove himself, the film also have a towering, strong moral to it which was a huge bonus as I myself can relate to this. The film was brilliantly scripted and I particularly liked the way it ended, SPOILER ALERT, Bless finally proves himself by beating Will in a fight and then gets to lead a posse out against the rustlers.
GUN FOR A COWARD is certainly not a terrible film, it's a plausible and entertaining effort but just gets bogged down in too much dialogue and mushy scenes. The film's script, moral and cinematography build it up and make it worth watching and with a couple of exciting action scenes thrown it really isn't that bad, it's the perfect type of movie for a dull, quiet afternoon and I would be bold enough to say that it's worthy of a DVD release(a-hem Pegasus!).Overall, it's not the best western ever made, but it's far from the worst.7/10.
GUN FOR A COWARD is an alright western, but Universal have done a lot better, as far as westerns are concerned it's just above average, although it could have and should have been much better. It's a bit too story driven and feels like more of a moral drama than a western, there's too much boring dialogue and corny romantic scenes and too little action. Though there are a couple of impressive action sequences, the Cattle stampede and shootout with the rustlers was fantastic and superbly shot and the Saloon fight at the end between Bless and Will was excellent but could have been done a little better. The camera-work was magnificent,especially the shots of the Cattle moving across the plains, but the version I watched on TV was 1:33:1 full screen and this made various parts of the film appear washed out looking and faded which was a little disappointing, if you ever want to watch the film then watch it on another channel in it's original 2:35:1 cinemascope format as channel 5 have a reputation for widening their films. I did love the storyline and the premise about a man trying his hardest to prove himself, the film also have a towering, strong moral to it which was a huge bonus as I myself can relate to this. The film was brilliantly scripted and I particularly liked the way it ended, SPOILER ALERT, Bless finally proves himself by beating Will in a fight and then gets to lead a posse out against the rustlers.
GUN FOR A COWARD is certainly not a terrible film, it's a plausible and entertaining effort but just gets bogged down in too much dialogue and mushy scenes. The film's script, moral and cinematography build it up and make it worth watching and with a couple of exciting action scenes thrown it really isn't that bad, it's the perfect type of movie for a dull, quiet afternoon and I would be bold enough to say that it's worthy of a DVD release(a-hem Pegasus!).Overall, it's not the best western ever made, but it's far from the worst.7/10.