Lack of good storyline.

A lot of fun.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I had some initial hopes for this film, mainly because of an above average cast for a Universal western. If it had been made in the 40s or 50s it might have received a far better treatment but by the late sixties, it was looking too much like the tired old rehash of so many far better earlier westerns. Every cliché in the western book is endlessly paraded and bashed to death in this ponderous, out of its depth work. The script wallows in its 1969 new found grittiness, sex is added and talked about in keeping with the so-called new 'adult' approach to screen writing ~ not because it helps the story, but simply because now they could.... With two directors involved, it's fully understandable that no-one would want their names associated with the final product...so out they trundle 'Allen Smithee' to cover their tracks. Richard Widmark was worthy of a far better picture but at this point in his distinguished career I suppose offers were getting a little thin. The support characters (while mostly played by fine actors) are just about all cardboard copies of numerous other 'town verses lawman' westerns, but here they're tending to look rather ridiculous.There are several hints the sheriff has dirt on just about every member of the town council, but no advantage is ever taken of this angle, it all just dies away as another cliché on the way to the very obvious end.Some nice photographic angles, and a curious music score are the only relief to the general boredom on offer. Lena Horne is wasted within a thankless set dressing role. John Saxon is good as usual, but again his is an underdeveloped character. I dare say this was made with television in mind, as the claustrophobic TV back-lot look kills off any real atmosphere. For westerns that offer a good insight into the end of the old west, best try two earlier Universal International productions; "Lonely are the Brave" in '62 and in the mid 50s another 'little' western that managed to present a good script within a small budget; "A Day of Fury" with Jock Mahoney. Seems there remains a lot of easily pleased western fans out there, so if not overly discerning this may still offer varying degrees of interest. A friend kindly gave me a DVD of this movie for Christmas and while the Umbrella release has good image and sound quality it's being marketed under the six shooter 'classics' banner. As we constantly see with cable TV, the word 'CLASSIC' is bandied around very loosely and is to be taken equally as loosely!. If only they knew.....

"Death of a gunfighter" belongs to the crepuscular western genre which would become prominent in the seventies with such works as "the shootist" .The hero (masterfully played by Richard Widmark as brilliant as ever) is definitely a man of the past ;twenty years go ,when he began his job of a marshal ,the street was not safe and the way of the gun was the only one .Now,the town longs for respectability,for a "modern" Police .The unsung hero has not realized that history is a jet plane : there are photographs in the rooms and the first automobiles (like in Sam Peckinpah's " ballad of Cable Hogue") will pretty soon leave the horse-drawn carriages far behind .The title speaks for itself :the marshal's fate is sealed as soon the movie begins .The old people are blasé or tired .there are two young lads ,one of them an orphan is excited by his employer's daughter ,and although she throws him a line twice,he can't make up his mind to go all the way;the other one ,after a tragic loss,thinks he can take laws in his hands and become a gunfighter like his enemy.The atmosphere of the movie is gloomy : it begins with a woman in mourning and ends the same way.A priest is saying prayers in the saloon as a man is dying.A wedding is to take place after a funeral.This is not your average action-packed western ,it looks like a dirge

In continuing to review African-Americans on film and television in chronological order for Black History Month, we're now at 1969 with Death of a Gunfighter with Lena Horne in her only straight role though you do hear her recording of the song, "Sweet Apple Wine" in the beginning and end credits. Though she's billed above the title with Richard Widmark, her role of Claire Quintana is very much a supporting one that's mainly there as one of the few people who stands by Marshal Frank Patch (Widmark) as the townspeople are fed up with his violent ways of dealing with justice. Also among the supporting cast are Michael McGreevey as Dan-a young man who also likes the marshal, Darleen Carr-sister of The Sound of Music's Charmian Carr-as his girlfriend Hilda, Jacqueline Scott-probably best known as Richard Kimble's sister Donna on "The Fugitive-as the widow, Laurie Mills, of the first man killed by Patch at the beginning of the movie, Harry Carey, Jr. as Rev. Rork, John Saxon as county Sheriff Lou Trinidad who tries to get Patch to get out of town peacefully, and, in a nice surprise from his later role as Archie Bunker, Carroll O'Connor as the bar owner, Lester Locke, who bides his time in letting other people get Frank before he himself tries. Many of the cast I just mentioned and lots of others I haven't contribute great tension as the film chronicles the last days of the Marshal. Horne acquits herself nicely with her few scenes and it's nice seeing her and Widmark kiss at their wedding especially when one knows that Widmark played a racist opposite Sidney Poitier in his movie debut, No Way Out (1950). Love the music score, by Oliver Nelson, and direction especially many of the close-ups. That direction, by the way, was credited to one "Allen Smithee" which is the name used when the real director doesn't want his own name used. In this case, they're Robert Totten-who had "creative differences" with Widmark, and Don Siegel-who had filmed the actor previously in Madigan. This marked "Smithee's" feature film debut. All in all, Death of a Gunfighter was another pleasant surprise for me.

A Western that shows how the "West growed itself up and got itself civilized".Richard Widmark gives what is probably his last great performance as a Sheriff whose way a doing things don't sit right with the "powers-that-be" personified by town merchant Carrol O Conner.This movie ,like Invitaion to a Gunfighter made some years before it reveals just how gutless and desperate the power-brokers are when there's no one to do their bidding.The film still holds up (even with the much mentioned two directors)though it has that "back-lot"look to most of it.John Saxon has a brief but memorable piece of work in this must see film for western fans or good movie fans.