From my favorite movies..

Best movie ever!

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Glenn Ford is "The Fastest Gun Alive" but bad guy Broderick Crawford thinks he is and that's about all you need to know. Russell Rouse's western may be predictable but is also so single-minded, so concerned with nothing other than Ford's ability to draw a gun quicker than anyone else, that it actually exerts quite a grip. It's not particularly well-written or directed, (Rouse was never a name to conjour with), but it has a fine cast, (as well as Ford and Crawford, others involved include Jeanne Crain, Russ Tamblyn, Allyn Joslyn, Leif Erickson and John Dehner), and is superbly photographed in black and white by 13 time Oscar nominee George J. Folsey. It may not be one of the great westerns but it certainly is a good one.

I like Glenn ford so right there we score high. Then, add a good story, a western, guns, saloon, whiskey, horses, bad guys, good guys, and a bank robbery and you got yourself a Western as good as it gets. Realize that there are so many stories of the wild west and this be one of them. I always enjoy seeing these because they remind me of how cities came to be step by step. For instance they had no fire codes, setbacks, sidewalks, curbs or gutters so a fire could wipe out an entire town. They probably did too. That's how our codes came to be. I also look for one other thing that in all my years I have only seen twice in a Western i.e. horse dung in the streets. They just always clean that up for the cameras. Me, I think it is a take-away from the realism. This movie has some good suspense, drama and some thrill moments. Notice too how everyone knew everyone else and when these cities grew larger, that didn't change. Today, the cities are so large that we rely on separate communities to maintain close ties and even then, we eliminated the front porch on the way making everyone just really stay in or in their backyards. The 50's churned out some quality Westerns and pics in general this being one of them. Recommend some beef jerky or a small dinner with a tasty drink while watching. Mount-up and lets ride!

In a movie made previously, "The Gunfighter" (1950), the point is made that having a reputation as a gunslinger is a curse, because there is always some punk who wants to prove he is faster. This is the premise of "The Fastest Gun Alive." Through most of the movie, we believe that George is trying to give up his gunslinging ways because his wife Dora has insisted on it, and therefore he is pretending to be just an ordinary citizen. When his need for respect leads him to show off his skills with a gun, word gets out, and Vinnie, another gunslinger, comes looking for him. The townsfolk plead with Dora to release George from his promise to her, so he can kill Vinnie, who is terrorizing the town. That is when we find out that she does not care if George kills Vinnie or anyone else with his gun. The problem is that George is a coward who has never been in a gunfight, and she is simply tired of running from town to town whenever George starts showing off and word gets out that he is fast on the draw. This is such a reversal from the usual story of the gunfighter with a guilty past who wants to hang up his guns that most people forget about this twist ending when they think about the movie years later.

This is a mediocre "B" Western that feels like a really long episode of "Gunsmoke". It is not without merit, however.Here's what was good:Glenn Ford puts in a brooding performance has a retired gunfighter who is struggling to adapt to domestic town life.Jeanne Crain looked very attractive as his wife.Solid supporting cast with Broderick Crawford and John Dehner.Clever twist endingHere's what kept it from being better:Felt more like a stage play than a movie.No location shooting. Strictly back lot.