Samuel Fuller, who wrote and directed most of his movies, was one of those filmmakers whose movies were rarely as good as they could have been. That was chiefly because he rarely got a chance to work with "A- List" actors, or with sufficient amounts of time and money. Almost all of his films were intended to be "B" movies or "Second Features", intended to be completed on a budget. Nevertheless, most of his films have a very individualistic style unlike anybody else's.
"Forty Guns" is a case in point. Fuller did get Barbra Stanwick to work with, and she was always a great actress. However, she was past her prime as a leading lady, this being well over a decade after her great roles in films such as "The Lady Eve" and "Double Indemnity". Here she does a great job in a sort of dress-rehearsal for her later long-running role in the 1960s television series, "The Big Valley". However, this being a Sam Fuller movie, the character she plays as Jessica Drummond is a long way from that of her later character, Victoria Barkley. In "Forty Guns" Stanwick plays an "Alpha Female", ruling absolutely over the surrounding countryside with the aid of her own private army of gunmen.
Into her realm stray Barry Sullivan and his two younger brothers, characters obviously inspired by those of the Earp brothers. While passing through town they immediately run foul of Stanwick's younger brother. Played by John Ericson, he is a spoiled punk who, backed up by Stanwick's gunmen, shoots the elderly and myopic town marshal just for kicks and then commences wrecking the whole town merely fun of it. Putting a stop to the mayhem, and the perpetrator in jail, earns the brothers the thanks of the townspeople and the enmity of Stanwick.
Fuller, who began as a writer, was nothing if not an iconoclast. He loved nothing better than to turn clichés on their heads. He does that here in several places, in a particularly jarring manner. The initial confrontation between Sullivan and Ericson ends in a completely unexpected manner. A confrontation between Stanwick and Sullivan at her home morphs into a bizarre scene in which she admires his pistol in a suggestive manner. There is also a wedding scene that, likewise, suddenly goes off in a completely different and unexpected direction.
Finally, without giving too much away, the ending reverses another movie cliché in a particularly shocking manner. While not wishing to give away the ending, it must be noted that rumor has it that, back in 1957, the "Powers-That-Be" at the studio were appalled with Fuller's ending. In fact, even today it would be considered pretty shocking. As a result they compelled Fuller to literally "tack on" a new ending that neither fit, worked, nor even made any sense. See the movie and you'll understand what I mean.
I rate this one only at seven solely because of the obviously tacked-on ending that doesn't work, and which succeeds in nearly ruining what could have been a really superior western.
"Forty Guns" is a case in point. Fuller did get Barbra Stanwick to work with, and she was always a great actress. However, she was past her prime as a leading lady, this being well over a decade after her great roles in films such as "The Lady Eve" and "Double Indemnity". Here she does a great job in a sort of dress-rehearsal for her later long-running role in the 1960s television series, "The Big Valley". However, this being a Sam Fuller movie, the character she plays as Jessica Drummond is a long way from that of her later character, Victoria Barkley. In "Forty Guns" Stanwick plays an "Alpha Female", ruling absolutely over the surrounding countryside with the aid of her own private army of gunmen.
Into her realm stray Barry Sullivan and his two younger brothers, characters obviously inspired by those of the Earp brothers. While passing through town they immediately run foul of Stanwick's younger brother. Played by John Ericson, he is a spoiled punk who, backed up by Stanwick's gunmen, shoots the elderly and myopic town marshal just for kicks and then commences wrecking the whole town merely fun of it. Putting a stop to the mayhem, and the perpetrator in jail, earns the brothers the thanks of the townspeople and the enmity of Stanwick.
Fuller, who began as a writer, was nothing if not an iconoclast. He loved nothing better than to turn clichés on their heads. He does that here in several places, in a particularly jarring manner. The initial confrontation between Sullivan and Ericson ends in a completely unexpected manner. A confrontation between Stanwick and Sullivan at her home morphs into a bizarre scene in which she admires his pistol in a suggestive manner. There is also a wedding scene that, likewise, suddenly goes off in a completely different and unexpected direction.
Finally, without giving too much away, the ending reverses another movie cliché in a particularly shocking manner. While not wishing to give away the ending, it must be noted that rumor has it that, back in 1957, the "Powers-That-Be" at the studio were appalled with Fuller's ending. In fact, even today it would be considered pretty shocking. As a result they compelled Fuller to literally "tack on" a new ending that neither fit, worked, nor even made any sense. See the movie and you'll understand what I mean.
I rate this one only at seven solely because of the obviously tacked-on ending that doesn't work, and which succeeds in nearly ruining what could have been a really superior western.