Man With The Gun

Man With The Gun (those old movies had some generic titles) is a tidy 1955 Western, directed by Richard Wilson and starring Robert Mitchum. On the surface it's a standard story about a man cleaning up a town of its evil aspects, but below the surface there's a subtext about political power that largely goes unscratched.

Mitchum rides into Sheridan City. He's looking for his wife (Jan Sterling), who is now running a cathouse. He has a reputation as a "town tamer," a man who, for a fee, will get deputized and run the bad elements out. Turns out Sheridan City is run by a ruthless land baron who has his hired guns dictate how things are, with killings and robberies. The city council hires Mitchum to take care of them.

And he does. He has no fear and his quick with a gun. But what largely goes unsaid is how he goes about it. He basically becomes the law, unilaterally deciding that guns will be banned in town and instituting a curfew. He cleans the town up, but at what cost? For instance, violators of the gun ban would be shot.

If you don't want to contemplate that, Man With The Gun is a fairly standard shoot 'em up. There's a bit of a romantic entanglement, as a young woman (Karen Sharpe), engaged to a man who is trying to build a house (John Lupton) starts to take a shine to Mitchum. But I couldn't help but see the darker overtone, and wonder how intentional it was. In one scene Mitchum closes down the local saloon, goading the owner to attack him and thus killing him, and then setting the place on fire.

Mitchum is of course terrific in the kind of role he specialized in--the man of few words but deadly calm in adversity. Also in the cast is Henry Hull as the old grizzled marshal, who was best known for his starring role in Werewolf Of London. Angie Dickinson appears uncredited as one of dance hall girls.