Purely Joyful Movie!

One of my all time favorites.

Admirable film.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Ironically, in the film The Gunfighter, the man known as "the fastest draw in the West" only fires his gun once in the beginning of the movie, and the camera doesn't capture it. Gregory Peck plays the title character, Jimmy Ringo, and even though he asks the surrounding witnesses, "Did you see that?" after the shooting, the audience is left to answer, "No!" Ringo is a real-life figure that many people tried to challenge, but he maintained his reputation of having very fast fingers. In the movie, he defends himself in a bar fight, and the dead man's three brothers try to find him and get revenge. In the meantime, Ringo goes back to his hometown, tries to hide from the locals, reconnect with his wife, and meet his son. It has the same feel as other real-time adventures, like High Noon, because Ringo tries to beat the clock, knowing the men are on his tail. I actually found this film much more exciting than High Noon. The tension is high, the acting is good, and it's more than easy to root for Gregory Peck.Gregory Peck's former partner, played by Millard Mitchell, has turned his life around and become town marshal. When the two men reunite, they have great chemistry together. The entire town is set against Peck—they don't want an outlaw in their midst—but Mitchell knows he has good intentions and tries to help him out. My favorite scene is when Peck talks to a few ladies, including Disney voice actress Verna Felton, and they don't know who he is. They're talking about what a bully Jimmy Ringo is, and Peck tries to defend the outlaw without being obvious that it's him. It's very funny, and also a little nerve-wracking, because what will happen if he's discovered? Find out by watching The Gunfighter!

When I started watching this one, the beginning seemed very much like the typical Western of the 19050's. It was in a bar and some young punk decided he wanted to take on Ringo, the man reputed to have the fastest gun. He takes him on, and he loses. Then Ringo has to take it on the run as 3 brothers wanted to avenge the death of their youngest, even though he had created his own demise. That is where this movie changes. Ringo (Gregory Peck) has a place to go and a purpose to go there. He sets the 3 brothers after him on foot and heads for that place. It is a town, where his wife and son live, only he does not know where in town they are, or their names. Peck is absolutely brilliant as Ringo, and his character raises this way above the usual Western. Ringo is a character who wants to escape his reputation, but he can't. It seems he has a lot of help with a top notch support cast. Millard Mitchell is great as his friend, the Sheriff of the town Ringo's wife live in. He does everything he can do to protect Ringo but urgently try to get him to leave his town.Karl Malden is brilliant as the saloon keeper who gives him shelter and food and tries to help him leave too. Henry King who directs this had recently finished 12 O'Clock High which was also great with Peck. This next movie may not be as famous as the former, but it is every bit as good. Helen Westcott is Ringo's wife, though her role becomes more profound in the later part of this one. For anyone who likes Peck, this is above the average western, way above. The ending is a bit predictable, yet it is done so well and with a couple of extra twists, that the viewer is totally pulled into the story long before it ends.

Almost a classic western. Was all set up for it. Had the interesting back-story, the bad guy trying to be a good guy, the tension - will he survive?, the bad guys breathing down his neck. However, unfortunately this was eroded by sentimentality, and a strong feeling of inevitability about the outcome. The ending also wasn't entirely satisfactory.Solid performance by Gregory Peck in the lead role (then again, he doesn't give bad performances). Good support from Millard Mitchell, as the Marshall. Karl Malden, in an early-career role, is a touch irritating as the hyperactive barman.Overall, a good western, but could have been a GREAT western.

The Gunfighter is surely one of the great classic Westerns of the late 1940's/early 1950's era. Yours truly saw it in 1950, when it was new, with my family in the local small-town theater. It made as powerful impression then as is possible on a 6-year old kid, and it gets better and better with subsequent viewings for the fading old geezer.Tautly and skillfully directed by old studio veteran Henry King, and filmed in stark black and white, this hour and twenty-five minute picture moves along at a brisk pace with nary a wasted scene, all along building suspense while painting intense character studies. Gregory Peck, as the title's badman, and Millard Mitchell as his lawman friend, both turn in overpowering performances, with fine support coming from Jean Parker, Karl Malden, Helen Westcott, and Skip Homeier. The Gunfighter is tough, tense, poignant, gritty, authentic, dramatically engaging, and first rate in every way. The story by William Bowers and William Sellers drew an Acedmy Award nomination. The movie was well received by critics but not by the paying public for some reason. Yet it is now widely, and deservedly recognized as an all-time classic Western.That being said and without detracting from its formidable merits, The Gunfighter was hardly the first "adult" or "mature" Western, as pundits on this forum and elsewhere keep saying. To think so, you must practically ignore most of the "A" Western pictures produced in the 1940's. Does Red River (1948) with its tough, brutal, overbearing antihero and its grand epic story seem to you to have been made for children? No, and neither were any of the "A" Westerns of the same era. "Adult" can't mean sexual situations here, because there was no hanky-panky in The Gunfighter. But there was a plenty in Duel In The Sun (1946), Peck's first Western and a text book example of the way Old Hollywood movie makers knew how to steam your eye glasses without really showing much! And if show and tell is required, get a load of Marlene Dietrich's outfit in the opening scene of The Spoilers (1942). Some very immature types think "mature" means displaying a nihilistic attitude. If that's you, check out Lust For Gold (1949 -- see my review). You can wallow in its angst and love it! But that wasn't the attitude The Gunfighter had anyway. If "mature" requires a dark, brooding, doom-laden, noir-type story, take a gander at early Robert Mitchum opus Pursued (1947), or Ramrod (1947). Are we talking a concentration on character development, adult, even sexual situations, complex dramatic development, try Canyon Passage (1946), Whispering Smith (1948 -- see my review), or The Sea Of Grass (1947 -- see my review). Below is a partial list of others embodying more or less the same "mature", "adult" approaches to the Western genre.Yellow Sky (1948), Abilene Town (1947), Station West (1948), Honky Tonk (1941), Silver River (1948), Barbary Coast (1935), Cimarron (1931), Dakota (1945 -- see my review), San Antonio (1945 -- see my review), California (1946 -- see my review), My Darling Clementine (1946), Flame Of Barbary Coast (1945), Blood On The Moon (1948), Colorado Territory (1948), and of course Stagecoach (1939). And many others.The Gunfighter was following an established tradition, not setting a new one. But it is a fine example. A true classic from the waning days of Old Hollywood's Golden Era! In a few years, they wouldn't be able to make 'em like this one any more.