Touches You

The Worst Film Ever

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The Four Guns To The Border that are in the title is an outlaw gang headed by Rory Calhoun with George Nader, Jay Silverheels, and John McIntire as members. They're returning to Calhoun's home town where he was run out of years ago by sheriff Charles Drake. Calhoun's ex-girl friend Nina Foch wound up marrying Drake.Calhoun's not going there for any revenge though giving Drake a beating does have its satisfactions. He's going to challenge Drake quite publicly and while he and Drake are fighting, the other three can rob an unguarded bank. It works, but then the outlaws meet up with old time outlaw Walter Brennan and his daughter Colleen Miller who are besieged by renegade Apaches.They met up with Brennan and Miller earlier. Of course the young ones Calhoun and Nader get their hormones in an uproar. But Brennan's not having any daughter of his taking up with no outlaw.Four Guns To The Border is a good no frills western with some of its plot taken from Three Godfathers. The outlaws prove to have more character than they realize. A good ensemble cast is gathered for this which as another viewer observed has no real good or bad guys. Or to put it another way the line of demarcation between the good and the bad isn't all that clear.As good a film as Four Guns To The Border is, it's kind of story was being found on the adult westerns popping up with increasing regularity shortly.

I've always been a Walter Brennan fan, ever since first seeing him as Grandpa McCoy in the late Fifties popular TV series. Based on that, one can easily assume his characters would be the stereotypically 'aw shucks' good old country boy types, but catching him in his earlier Westerns shows a surprisingly different side. In "Four Guns to the Border", Brennan's Simon Bhumer is an aging former gunfighter who's still pretty handy with a six-gun, evidenced by his quick pull on outlaw Bronco (George Nader) in that scene at Greasy's cabin. He'd still be doing the same thing as Will Sonnett a decade later in another of his many TV series roles.For a Fifties Western, this one actually gets pretty racy in scenes between star Rory Calhoun and Brennan's screen daughter Colleen Miller. Not exactly beautiful, she has a way of steaming things up with Calhoun in the barn following a rough liplock earlier to set things in motion. Various states of undress and getting soaked in the rain has a way of doing wonders for her figure as well.The story itself finds Ray Cully (Calhoun) and his gang planning a bank robbery with Cully providing the distraction for his men by facing off against a former friend and partner, now the sheriff of Cholla (Charles Drake). I'll be adding their one on one to my list of best Western movie brawls, as they really mix it up with the town folk uniquely positioned around them so as not to miss any of the action. I would have liked the story to more clearly define their prior relationship; did they have their falling out over Mrs. Flannery (Maggie Foch) or his having become a lawman? All you knew was Cully had a grudge against Jim Flannery and he was itching to get it out of his system.Inevitably, the outlaws and the Bhumers cross paths more than once; Lolly (Miller) wasn't going to let her man get away. During the Apache attack, keep an eye on the Indian Cully shoots at the top of a rocky outcrop; he gives a slightly noticeable push with his legs as he goes over the cliff. Heading for the finale, I thought sure Cully would ditch Miss Lolly, but she won out in the final showdown when Sheriff Flannery showed up one last time.Rounding out the cast are Cully's sidekicks Dutch (John McIntire), Bronco (George Nader) and the always reliable Jay Silverheels as tracker Yaqui. Silverheels is a lot more colorful here than his better known character Tonto. Adding to his persona was an amusing attempt at using a Spanish accent, which sounded different every time he spoke. Too bad though, none of the gang made it to the end of the picture.

This is a very enjoyable movie, though you wouldn't know it from its low (5.8) user rating. I guess that rating is due to its rather friendly disposition -- no evil bad guys, no murders, not so much action. There is a lot of amiable camaraderie amongst the protagonists, and maybe the theme of the movie (good women civilizing their menfolk) doesn't turn most Western fans on.However, if you disregard this movie, you are missing a superior B-Western (or mediocre A-Western). It was directed by a TV and movie actor familiar to most of us, Richard Carlson, who acted in over 100 productions, including "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" and "King Solomon's Mines." Among the film's many pluses are: ¶ a surprisingly superior cast beginning with Rory Calhoun. As one reviewer said, "the rest of the cast is first choice with the a young Colleen Miller and remarkable supporting actors (the Best of Universal's contract actors) : Walter Brennan, John McIntire (in only a handful of scenes) and Charles Drake." ¶ By far, the best actor and scene in the movie is from Nina Foch. Calhoun and Drake used to be friends and hellions in town. Both apparently were friendly with Koch, who ended up marrying Drake, who became sheriff. Calhoun moved away, but continued as an outlaw. The best scene in the movie is when Calhoun returns to town to stage a fist fight with sheriff Drake as a diversion while his gang robs the bank. Great are Calhoun's reminisces with Koch, and Koch's breaking up of the fistfight. ¶ the entire production was competent and pleasant -- cinematography, scenery, color, music, direction, acting, etc.

This dull shoot-'em-up, a typical run-of-the-mill, cowboys 'n' Indians, robbers vs.posse oater, has one remarkably fascinating aspect: a bare-bones plot punctuated by surprisingly sexual imagery, much of which can be interpreted as homoerotic. Some scenes are steamingly obvious in their depiction of passion, and others are so gratuitously injected that they can only be seen as surreptitiously symbolic. (There's even a totally irrelevant pussycat with kittens). The creators must have had a bang-up good time foisting such a naughty piece on mid-fifties audiences, and modern viewers should have just as much fun ferreting out each and every nuance! Fans who favor peeking below the Production Code will have a ball!