Review of No Name on the Bullet

When John Gant (Audie Murphy), a legendary assassin rides into town, everyone wonders who his target is, especially those with enemies and/or with guilty consciences. The film has a bit of a 60s TV-western look and I didn't find the well-spoken and neatly dressed Gant to be a particularly menacing-looking killer (although I was constantly reminded that he was, as the script was a bit heavy on the town-folk's terror of this apparently unbeatable gunman), but otherwise the story is interesting and the cast competent. Gant's character is interestingly ambivalent. His MO is to provoke his target and then claim self-defense in the subsequent murder trial suggesting that, despite being a contract killer, he had some principles (although whether picking a fight with someone you know you can beat is honourable is debatable). There is a lot of discussion with the upright and ethical town doctor (Charles Drake), who provides a counterpoint to Gant's philosophy, about the inevitability of death and the morality of making decisions about who lives and who dies (like Antonius Block in 1957's 'The Seventh Seal', the good doctor gets to play chess with Death personified). As the townies are well aware of Gant's strategy and his skill with a Colt, an obvious counter-measure is to not be drawn into a fight. This begs the intriguing question, can Gant goad anyone into what is likely a suicidal draw (the nefarious Jack Wilson's mocking of poor-old Stonewall's southern honour and the subsequent one-sided gunfight/murder was one of the best scenes in 'Shane' (1953)). Although a bit pat, denouement of this Jack Arnold directed B-oater is quite good and makes the somewhat slow middle-act worth sitting though. Too bad the film was too short to expand on the interesting ideas on which the storyline touched.