Forty Guns

Forty Guns is an odd Western from Samuel Fuller, a hero to many directors of today. According to one source, the film was panned in America but praised in Europe, and that makes sense.

Shot in CinemaScope, yet in black and white, the film is a chance for Fuller to show off his technical virtuosity, but since he is also the screenwriter he must share the blame for a pretty dreadful script that is by turns no better than a B-picture and a psychosexual drama.

Forty Guns stars Barbara Stanwyck as a ranch owner and power of Cochise County, Arizona. In am impressive opening shot, she and her men, whom she calls the "dragoons" and give the title its name, ride along a trail, passing a small wagon containing three men. They are the Bonell brothers, the oldest of whom, Barry Sullivan, is a legendary gunfighter. The next oldest is Gene Barry, another top gun but a much more laconic fellow, and the youngest is Robert Dix, whom the older brothers are putting on a stage to join their father in California. Dix wants to be a gunman, but Sullivan wants him to be a farmer.

The Bonells are in town to bring in one of Stanwyck's men on a federal warrant. She controls all of the political power in town, including a weak-willed sheriff, Dean Jagger (in a role very similar to the one he played in Bad Day at Black Rock). Stanwyck's brother, John Ericson, is a no-good type who constantly shoots up the town and instantly becomes Sullivan's enemy. Things get complicated when Stanwyck and Sullivan become attracted to each other, sharing a special moment holed up in a shack together while a tornado rages across the plains.

The film was released in 1958, when Westerns were ubiquitous in movie houses and television. This one doesn't offer much new. Sullivan makes a good steely-eyed gunslinger who is proud to say he hasn't killed anyone in ten years. Barry is amusing as a Dean Martin-type who fancies the daughter of the local gun shop owner (Eve Brent). When they share a clinch Barry says, "I've never kissed a gunsmith before." Fuller also lets us see Brent from Barry's point of view when he stares at her through the barrel of a gun.

There's a lot of weirdness going on. Jagger is revealed to be in love with Stanwyck, but is constantly emasculated. During one scene that is full of Freudian implication, Stanwyck asks to hold Sullivan's gun. "It might go off in your face," he tells her. Hmmm.

I don't know too much about Fuller, other than that directors from Scorsese to Tarantino worship him. This spring I saw one of his films, Pickup on South Street, that is a minor classic. Forty Guns misses the mark.