As Good As It Gets

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The eminent, mad Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote of UFOs that there was something out there, but what it was, was a mystery. As such they permitted us to project our own thoughts and emotions onto them. They provided us with a kind of Rorschach ink blot test. We could interpret them according to our social values.Many routine Westerns provided us with the same opportunities. The Westerns generally stuck with the conventions -- a clip on the jaw and the recipient is unconscious for as long as the plot requires. But within that framework we could explore our problems in model form. It's like playing around with a toy instead of facing the real thing.For instance, it might not be such a hot idea to deal directly with racism. Why bleed the box office returns from the traditional South? But, hey, Indians can serve as stand-ins for African-Americans, as in "The Searchers" (1956). Movies designed for audiences with the Great Depression fresh in mind could use "big business" as the heavy. We could even win the Vietnam war with Rambo. This movie, "The Quiet Gun" (a generic title if there ever was one) explores social issues common to the late 1950s -- divorce, adultery, prudery, racism, lynching, conformity, gossip, and the impartiality of the justice system. No African-Americans, though, just a "half-breed" Indian.It's not a bad little film, though it does seem almost flamboyantly dated now. (Living in sin?) Forrest Tucker is a professional and competent actor and it shows. Lee Van Cleef, of the ophidian eyes, is what he is. Jim Davis plays a somewhat sympathetic victim for a change. Some of the minor parts are just terrible. What were the town fathers in real life -- the producers' uncles or something? It's inexpensively shot on a ranch set. No spectacular vistas here. And it's in black and white, which isn't necessarily bad. If the script lacks sparkle, and if Hank Worden replays his goofy dumb role yet again, the movie still is watchable and has something to offer us, as if it had been recently exhumed from a time capsule.Not at all terrible.

Forrest Tucker gives an interesting understated, "quiet" performance, Lee Van Cleef chews up the scenery, and the (usually unwelcome) comic relief works (surprisingly) well. Also, decent plot twists and neat little affectations - like Forrest Tucker always rolling cigarettes and his tobacco pouch hanging out of his jacket pocket. Highly recommended for lovers of: adult westerns B-Westerns 50s Westerns

"The Quiet Gun" is surprisingly harsh in its depiction of the average folk of an average western town. Average -- in this case -- translates to racist, violent and none-to-bright. Sheriff Carl Brandon has to stand up to assorted black hats (including the ubiquitous Lee Van Cleef) as well as the dunder-headed locals. Forrest Tucker is good as Brandon and Hank Worden adds his usual stumbling, bumbling hijinks as Samson, the town moron with a heart of gold. A lot of westerns would have let the townsfolk redeem themselves heroically at the end, but this movie sticks to its guns. In the final scene Brandon stands alone to face the villains. "The Quiet Gun" is a nasty little tale with the courage of its convictions.

Twentieth Century Fox created a subsidiary in the mid 1950s to release films it deemed not good to enough to release under its banner. Regal Pictures, like Fox, released most of its films in wide screen, using "Regalscope," which appears technically indistinguishable from Cinemascope. Ironically, most of Regal's output was as good or better than the B movies from Fox. "The Quiet Gun" is no exception, with fine performances from Forrest Tucker and Jim Davis and some surprising plot twists which lift this movie from the humdrum. Tucker plays a sheriff who must reluctantly pursue his friend (Davis), after Davis kills a busybody "district attorney" in self defense. Mara Corday and Kathleen Crowley provide the eye candy and Hand Worden plays the comic relief in a role similar to that of Walter Brennan in "Rio Bravo".ENCORE's WESTERN CHANNEL shows the movie in full screen, which is a shame. Several effective scenes are undercut by the aspect ratio conversion. Still, "The Quiet Gun" is worth watching, if only to see Lee Van Cleef with a full set of hair. I rate it a "6".