User Reviews

This movie is apparently an attempt by Mark Stevens to establish his actor/director/writer chops. It's not completely void of entertainment value, as Larry Storch's Mexican character Amigo (yes that's his name; 2 stars deducted for that alone) accent is hilariously bad, so you can be the judge if it was intended to be funny or unintentionally ended up that way. In any event, it's a low-budget, age-old story of a man, Luke Rand, seeking to avenge the murder of his parents & others at a way station they ran. What Rand doesn't know is that the murderer is his partner Weller's father, and that little fact isn't revealed to him until they come close to finding him, at which point they have a falling out, but wind up rejoining forces for a common goal (perhaps a little 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' thing going on). Also, Maureen Hingert as Tanana, does a good job as the widowed, wise, peacemaker-with-the-Sioux, now-interested in Weller, love interest, esp. The river scene & when she dispenses wisdom ('Some men have 2 faces').

There's another hilarious scene . . . When the vengeance seekers are trying to cross Sioux land, they meet face to face with the Chief & several braves. One of the braves tosses a spear at Rand, which he deftly dodges, then pulls out his six-shooter & blasts the hat/headdress off the spear-thrower, which causes the Chief (Eddie Little Sky) to burst out laughing. I doubt whether, in the entire history of the United States, anything even close to that actually happened, but it's funny nonetheless.

Trivia: George Selk, who played the livery stable man Moss Grimmick on 'Gunsmoke,' has a minor role. And the bartender is played by Bill Erwin, who later was on a 'Seinfeld' episode as cranky old man Sidney Fields. Weirdly, too, Erwin appeared in a 'Twilight Zone' episode as a man named Kramer.

"Gun Fever" reminded me of what might qualify as a pre-Spaghetti style western. The villainous Trench reminded me of Italian actor Livio Lorenzon, and Trench had all the earmarks of a laughing Spaghetti western outlaw. Larry Storch of "F-Troop" fame made a fantastically nasty Mexican. I've never seen him like this. One of John Lupton better roles as a conflicted son suffering from lung illness. His tragic character called to mind Doc Holiday. I cannot figure out if he lived because everybody was smiling at each other at the end. Mark Stevens got his money out of the wind machine. That was the windiest (not in dialogue) western I've ever seen. It made the campfire scenes different because you know that they were probably on a sound stage. Most of this revenge-themed looked like it was lensed outside a studio with few interiors. Trench had an interesting way of wearing his six-shooters on the front of his thighs. All told, "Gun Fever" ranks as an above-average, serious as all get out, black & white western. Any time a son sets out to kill his no-account father, that's heavyweight material. The wild kid who served as Trench's sentry atop the mountain looked like a Spaghetti western hero. The only scene I didn't like was the Indian wife going to skinny dip in the river or lake. I liked the laconic dialogue. This western knew when to leave something hanging. If it were a Spaghetti western, Trench would have assembled an army and his stronghold would be the final arena for half of the stunt men in Spain and Italy. I have several Mark Stevens' movies, but this is my first with him behind as well as in front of the camera.