That was an excellent one.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I'm guessing that B picture director Edward L. Cahn who was of the grind them out school of film making was stuck for a plot and in Gunfight he just remade a film he did five years earlier called Gun Brothers with Buster Crabbe. I can't believe there was such a demand for a remake.James Brown late of the Rin Tin Tin show plays a soldier fresh out of the army and looking for his brother who says he has a cattle ranch and he wants to go 50/50 with him. But Gregg Palmer is the leader of a notorious and murderous outlaw band who hold up the stagecoach carrying Brown and pretty Joan Staley going to work in the local saloon that they're headed for.In a short time Brown discovers what Palmer does for a living and the rest of the film is a conflict between the brothers each can't quite trust the other. But blood does prove thicker than water.Staley sings a pretty song and that's the highlight of Gun Fight. In fact though there's a lot of gun play there's no real gunfight in the sense of two guys just reaching for the weapons and shooting it out face to face.Gun Fight is definitely made on the cheap and the kind of thing you routinely saw on shows like Gunsmoke.

Gun Fight doesn't exactly have great production values. Nor does it have a well known cast. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen any of these actors in anything else (if I have their roles were inconsequential). It doesn't boast a great script, or great direction, either. So what does it have?Well, it's got a fairly good story (nothing especially original or outstanding, but a good, solid storyline) and a cast that is honestly doing their best to give good performances. It also has a short running time (69 minutes), so it doesn't drag at any point. Ultimately, Gun Fight is an anachronism in filmmaking circa 1960 (when it was filmed). It plays out more like a Western from 1941 than 1961 (when it was released). The style of storytelling (the direction, acting, dialogue, and plotting) is a much closer match to what Hollywood was putting out in the early 40's than in the early 60's, so it was already outdated when it was released. And yet, there is an earnestness about the movie that makes it hard to completely dislike or dismiss. No one will ever confuse Gun Fight with the great Westerns of the pre-Spaghetti Western era, but it isn't quite as bad as many people make it out to be.Gun Fight is mildly diverting and somewhat entertaining for fans of the genre who are looking for something new that they haven't seen before. It isn't far removed from the kind of Western that a Poverty Row studio might have made in the 40's, and maybe that's part of it's charm. With the right expectations Gun Fight can deliver an entertaining one hour and nine minutes. With the right expectations...

Had this been a grainy 1930's Western with someone like Buck Jones or Tom Mix in the lead it might have been almost interesting. As it is, I can't believe stories as bad as this were being made as late as 1960. Can you think of anything goofier in a Western flick than having the nominal hero Wayne Santley (James Brown) and his girlfriend Nora Blaine (Joan Staley) stand at a distance to simply watch a sheriff's posse take down brother Brad's (Gregg Palmer) gang in a shootout at their cabin? And what's the deal with the Trading Post - there's a nicely furnished room in back of the merchandise area that no one seems to be living in, just waiting for a couple like Wayne and Nora to show up? I don't know about you, but it looked to me like the actor playing Brad Santley was in pain throughout the story by the grimaced expression on his face most of the time. He probably had good reason with the tortured script that had him for and against his brother as the picture progressed. There's an anomaly, there wasn't much progress in the film at all to speak of, and only true Western movie addicts should give this one a try, and then only if you want to catch former 'Rin Tin Tin' TV hero, Lieutenant Rip Masters once again.

This movie was a remake of the Buster Crabbe, Ann Robinson western titled "Gun Brothers". It was as bad or worse than the original, which was probably a remake of an earlier B-Western. Anyway "Gun Fight" was made almost word for word and scene for scene from "Gun Brothers" with James Brown and Joan Staley taking the Buster Crabbe and Ann Robinson roles. Gregg Palmer (who appeared in a lot of John Wayne's later westerns after gaining about 70 lbs and a beard) took the role that Neville Brand had in the original, and doing a fair job, as he did in "The Creature Walks Among Us" sequel to "The Creature From the Black Lagoon". Ron Soble's character was played by Michael Ansara (T.V.'s "Cochise") in the original. Worth watching if you remember James Brown as Lt. Rip Masters in the "Rin Tin Tin" T.V. series.