You won't be disappointed!

Just so...so bad

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

Producer: Grant Whytock. An Admiral Pictures production, released through Columbia. Copyright 1 May 1964 by Admiral Pictures. No New York showcasing. U.S. release: April 1964. U.K. release: 10 May 1964. Australian release: 10 April 1964. 7,918 feet. 88 minutes. Censored to 86 minutes in Australia.SYNOPSIS: Clint Cooper, who left his home town after being forced into a duel in which the sons of a powerful rancher were killed, decides to return and claim his right to his father's ranch and to Helen Reed, his schoolteacher sweetheart. On the way he learns that a large gang plans to rob the town bank. When he arrives he finds that most of the townsmen have left on a cattle drive but he agrees to help Scotty the sheriff, an old friend of his, and a few elderly men remaining in the town, defend the town against the gang.NOTES: This movie was filmed in Techniscope which was an anamorphic projection system developed by the Technicolor company. Scenes were photographed in CinemaScope proportions by using a wide-angle lens that threw two images instead of one on a single frame of standard 35mm film stock, thus saving companies half the cost of raw film. In processing, each wide-angle image was anamorphically squeezed on to a single frame. The prints look identical to CinemaScope prints and are projected in the same way. Despite the 50% reduction in camera frame area, the prints were claimed to be nonetheless sharp and well defined.COMMENT: Villain Ted de Corsia is not nearly as appealing in the first half of this low-budget western, as he is in the second half where he shares a delightful scene in a saloon with heroine Merry Anders. Indeed most of the action in the film also takes place in the second half and while this is attractively photographed (the townsfolk against the yellow flames of the barricade), the people generally, with the exception of Audie Murphy, are not photographed half as well. Miss Anders, particularly, suffers from this unattractive lensing.Musician Richard La Salle has obviously been listening to Jerome Moross' score for "The Big Country", but I liked it anyway!The film does have one really unusual feature in that the script kills off the second lead before the big action finale. Frank Ferguson does not altogether make the happiest of substitutes.

Dating from 1964, the latter Audie Murphy western is a routine B filler littered with continuity errors (most notably, the church building in which all the windows are dark from the outside but inside the lights are on full pelt), stunt doubles and poor tactics (when attacking the town the villains don't decide to use dynamite to destroy the barricade until about half of them have been killed in a pointless full-frontal attack). It does have a high body count and Ted De Corsia overacts enjoyably in a role he previously played only 4 years before in Noose for a Gunman. (this film is a remake of that from the same production company).With these 1960s colour B westerns it is noticeable how ridiculously clean everything is. One guesses the film was shot on standard TV sets during the season break.I was intrigued by the member of outlaw De Corsia's band who seemed to be at least 70 years old. This guy says nothing the whole time and must have been cast because he was a friend or relation of someone. His moment of fame comes when the outlaws lay siege to Murphy who is in a hotel. Throughout the sequence, this OAP stands next to De Corsia gurning, looking around for no obvious reason and pointing his gun at his boss.

This is the third time this story by Steve Fisher has been done. The first time was "Top Gun" starring Sterling Hayden done in 1955 in black and white, and then done again as "Noose for a Gunman" in 1960 starring Jim Davis, who later became Jock Ewing on "Dallas" (Ted DeCorsia even played the same role as in "The Quick Gun" with John Dehner taking the main villain role in "Top Gun"). All three are good if you like the old fashion type westerns, which I do. They were simple, your kids and grandkids could watch them, and they always had a good ending. Need more of them today. To me, Audie Murphy will always be a hero on the battlefield (The most decorated soldier in WWII including the medal of honor)and on the screen.

This is basically the same story as the 1960 film, Noose for a Gunman. Same writers, Steve Fisher & Robert E. Kent. Same production co., Robert E. Kent Productions. Ted de Corsia even plays the leader of the gang of 'bad guys' in both films. I prefer Noose for a Gunman over The Quick Gun, it seems to play out better. Along with that, Noose for a Gunman has quite a few of the best character actors: Jim Davis, Barton MacLane, Leo Gordon, Harry Carey Jr.,Lane Chandler, John Hart & Kermit Maynard. Lyn Thomas plays the female interest in 'Noose'. Noose for a Gunman is filmed in beautiful black & white, while The Quick Gun was in color. There is only four years between the two films, which seems like a short period of time for a remake/re-telling of the same story. This is not a bad film, but you should see them both to get the 'Big Picture'.