The Fastest Gun Alive—Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, Broderick Crawford, John Dehner, Russ Tamblyn, Noah Beery, Jr.
This Film is a real humdinger of a Western from 1956
Broderick Crawford is great as the criminal leader and a psychopath who must continually show that he is the fastest gun around.
Glenn Ford is superb as the introverted shy storekeeper with a lightning fast draw.
The Supporting cast also adds good depth and character.
A blind man near the start of the film issues the warning to us “no matter how fast you are there’s always somebody faster” That really sets the scene for the film.
‘The Fastest Gun Alive’ proved to be one of the Box Office hits of 1956 – although it has been made on a minor budget
ABOVE: This would be a great DVD pack to have in any collection.
The Sheepman 1958
Glenn Ford had a remarkable run of top class Westerns from 1956 to 1958 – with ‘ The Fastest Gun Alive’ followed by ‘3:10 To Yuma’ and then this one ‘The Sheepman’ – These were about as good as any actor could hope for.
This is one of the 1950’s best westerns and ideally cast – it is certainly one of Glenn Ford’s best roles. He and Shirley MacLaine have screen chemistry. Familiar faces Edgar Buchanan, Mickey Shaughnessy,and Slim Pickins are around to add to the Western flavour.
Leslie Nielsen plays Ford’s rival for Shirley’s affections. Pernell Roberts – later of Bonanza Fame is a slimy villain.
Director George Marshall was an old hand at combining comedy with action and The Sheepman proved that.
I’s sure that the Trailer to this film BELOW – will make you want to see the film again – that’s assuming you have seen it before as many of us will have done
The Sheepman still holds up well today and will appeal to anyone who is a fan of western’s,comedies,or just plain entertaining movies. It’s good, clean, old fashioned fun and a prime example of one of those kind of films”that they just don’t make anymore!” More’s the pity
I put a comment on here a few days ago about my memories of THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE and I’ve just noticed it’s disappeared. What happened to it?
David, I genuinely don’t know is the answer. Because we get quite a bit of spam on here at times I did delete quite a few a day or two ago but as I look in that folder there does not seem to be one from you which could have been inadvertently deleted. Please could you send it again. We certainly need all the comments we can get – and yours are always interesting ones. Neil
Released on the ABC circuit in mid-December, 1956, most people would have seen THE FASTEST GUN ALIVE in 1957, when it became a big Box Office hit. I went to see it as a 10 year old in May, 1957 and it became one of my all time favourite Westerns. Andre Previn’s heart-wrenching score captured perfectly the angst that the character played by Glenn Ford was feeling. However the odd decision to have a barn dance scene halfway through sort of interrupted the drama and seems only to have been included in order to give Russ Tamblyn an excuse to go through one of his happy go lucky dance routines. At any rate, it had nothing to do with the story. Glenn Ford had, by this time already starred in two excellent Westerns, Columbia’s first release in CinemaScope, ROUGH COMPANY (U.S. title “The Violent Men”) and another Columbia CinemaScope picture, JUBAL.
David, Thanks for your comment. The Fastest Gun Alive certainly hit the jackpot although I didn’t much care for the staging of the final gun fight but it did leave us with that twist in the tale at the end – a very satisfying ending. I loved the scene where the villagers watched as Glenn Ford demonstrated his prowess when one of the townsfolk dropped a glass of ale at his bidding, and before it touched the ground, Glenn had drawn and shot the glass to pieces. The way that was filmed was impressive. Wished it had been in Colour though. Wonder if it has been colorised / Neil