SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Johnny Concho is directed by Don McGuire who also co-writes the screenplay with David P. Harmon. It stars Frank Sinatra, Keenan Wynn, William Conrad, Christopher Dark and Phyllis Kirk. Music is by Nelson Riddle and cinematography by William Mellor. It has become something of a forgotten Sinatra movie, courtesy of distribution issues and a general apathy towards Sinatra's performance in the title role. One glance at the few reviews that exist out there in the internet world shows it to be very much a quintessential divisive movie. There doesn't appear to be any middle ground, folk either like it plenty or loath its very existence. I fall into the former camp. Plot has Sinatra as Johnny Concho, a man firmly trading on his brother's fearsome reputation as one of the Wests' most deadly pistoleers. So much so that although his brother, Red Concho, doesn't even live in the town of Cripple Creek, Johnny is able to do as he pleases; win at cards without showing his hand, stay rent free in the best room at the hotel and etc. However, this all changes when gunmen Tallman (Conrad) and Walker (Dark) ride into town and announce that Tallman has gunned down Red Concho and that they are here to run the town whilst exposing Johnny for the coward he is... Congratulations, you just bought yourself a $300 rat. Sinatra for the most part here has Concho as a thoroughly dislikable man, it's actually a bold performance from Old Blue Eyes, he's up there inviting all sorts of negative reactions, either as an emotional bully or as a spineless goon, he's working hard to convince and although he's clearly wet behind the ears for a Western portrayal (it was his first go at an Oater), he gets the required impact to make the story work. If you have seen enough Westerns over the years then you can probably guess how everything will turn out. This is a psychological Western, one that most likely had ulterior motives as per the thematics regarding events that surfaced in America during the 1950s, but it doesn't break any molds or redefine the psychological Western. But what it does do it does very well, most notably in the way director McGuire (adaptation writer, Bad Day at Black Rock) gets quality turns out of Conrad and Wynn. The Wynn factor is annoying because he simply isn't in the film enough, but what we do get is truly hard as nails. He's playing Barney Clark, a reformed gunman - cum - preacher, who as it happens is the one to put a spine in Johnny's back with some tough love. Every scene Wynn is in positively crackles with testosterone, brought to us via the Lord's work of course! You will hanker for more of the character for sure, but enjoy what we have at least. Then there is Conrad, turning in a wonderfully sedate lesson in villainy. There's no histrionics and no shouting, just quiet speaking, cigar chomping menace, and of course he's quick on the draw, which always helps if you want to hold a town in the palm of your hand! Sinatra is not just playing second fiddle here, he's at the back waiting to be cued in by Wynn and Conrad. This doesn't make Johnny Concho a bad film! It does make it far from being a Sinatra essential viewing for his fans, but for Western fans this is well worth taking a look at if you can snag it. Cool ending as well! 7/10

I've always liked Johnny Concho and I wish this film were out on VHS and DVD. Frank Sinatra gives one of the most unusual performances in his career in this one.When we first meet Frank in the film's title role, he's the brother of a notorious gunfighter who's out of town at the moment. The brother strikes terror in the heart's of the town and Frank takes full advantage of that to bully the townspeople safe and secure in his shadow. Only Phyllis Kirk has any feeling for him. She's the daughter of storekeeper Wallace Ford and Dorothy Adams.Two other gunmen arrive William Conrad and Christopher Dark and it turns out Conrad has killed Sinatra's brother and he's coming to his town to take over. They humiliate Sinatra and run him out of town. Kirk follows him.Overnight Sinatra turns from punk into coward and becomes a man searching for some kind of backbone. It's a well acted performance, almost as good as his Oscar nominated role in The Man With a Golden Arm. Pity for some reason this has not been seen for years.Two other performances of note are Keenan Wynn as former gunfighter turned preacher who helps Sinatra find what he needs to stand up to Conrad and Dark. And then there is Conrad in what I believe was his career role on screen. He's a villain of incredible malevolence, pure evil incarnate walking and talking on the silver screen.However what I like about Johnny Concho is the climax an unforgettable one where Conrad and Dark are dealt with. Let's just say I believe Johnny Concho was MGM's answer to High Noon and a primer for what you do when evil causes a break down in all law and order.

Frank Sinatra was far from the ideal actor for westerns. He was a great actor, From Here to Eternity and The Man with The Golden arm are a proof of that, but he did not have the physique of a western hero, you identified him as an urban guy. But he tried to do his job well in Johnny Concho, the fact that the film was a failure at the box office was not his fault. I blame it on two factors: a) the story was too unusual, specially in the fact that Sinatra behaves more like a villain than as a hero throughout the movie. In a genre where people kind of expected a certain pattern, to break away from it the film has to be very good. b) the story is not convincing, it is hard to believe that a whole town will allow Sinatra to do anything he wants just because they are afraid of his brother. Also when a man shows him a special holster that will open sideways so he has not to draw the gun you wonder that if that will make him invincible, why all the gunfighters have not adopted it? I think that this film should not have been withdrawn, because any film with Sinatra is worth seeing, and in spite of its shortcomings it is still enjoyable

Mercifully, there's no video of this wannabe western that a stay-afloat vehicle for Big Frank at a time when his career was floundering. The story of a weasel who lives on the reputation of his big gun brother and who gets run out of town by bad guys only to return to rally his townfolks with a new found courage must have been written by a back-room writer. All in all, this show stinks. The story is basically boring, ill-conceived and so naive that it can offend your intelligence. I must depart complete from the other reviewer who found it "...underrated..." The critics slammed it at the time and deservedly so. You'll have to catch it on the last show, if you up late and having a bout of insomnia. But, if you can sit through it, you've more fortitude than most of my movie buff friends.