GUN GLORY

US, 1957, 89 minutes, Colour.
Stewart Granger, Rhonda Fleming, Chill Wills, Steve Rowland.
Directed by Roy Rowland.

Gun Glory is a modest western based on a novel by screenwriter Philip Yordan, Man of the West.

Stewart Granger was ending his contract at MGM at this time, after appearing in many of their big-featured films of the early 1950s including The Prisoner of Zenda, Scaramouche, Bhowani Junction. Rhonda Fleming had been a leading lady with Paramount. Chill Wills portrays a preacher in a western town. Steve Rowland (in a not very convincing performance) is Stewart Granger’s son. James Gregory is the villainous cattle baron. There is an irritatingly over-the-top performance by Jacques Aubuchon as the crippled manager of the local store and adoptive father of Rhonda Fleming.

In many ways, the film is low key, Granger portraying a gunslinger who returns home to find that his wife has died and clashing with his son. Rhonda Fleming is the assistant at the shop and moves out to be the housekeeper for father and son.

James Gregory wants to send his huge herd of cattle through the town and is prepared to kill people who stand in his way. The stampede of the cattle after the mountain has been blasted by Stewart Granger is the spectacular moment of the film. The final shootout is modest and predictable in its way.

1. The popularity of the American western? From the 1950s? Later?

2. Widescreen colour photography, the western locations, the town, the ranch, the mountains? The musical score?

3. The title – and the novel called Man of the West? Tom Early and his reputation as a gunslinger? Wanting to give up the gun? Challenged for shootout by the cattle ranchers? His taking to the gun to defend his son? His son and the final shooting of the villain?

4. The basic plot: the people in the town, law and order, the gunslinger returning, the cattle baron and his wanting to go through the town, the preacher organising people to resist, sending out a posse to stop the cattle, their being ambushed? The son joining the posse and his being wounded? The return of the gunfighter, his putting dynamite in the mountainside, exploding it and stampeding the cattle? A final shootout in the house and outside it?

5. The character of the gunfighter, Stewart Granger’s style, his career, leaving home, returned, the death of his wife, alienation of his son? The encounters with Jo? Her coming to the ranch? The clash with his son, his leaving? The shootout in the town? The support of the preacher? The blasting of the mountain, the return home, the confrontation with the shooter? His letting Grimsell go?

6. Tom Early Jr? His resentment against his father? Attraction to Jo? Making a fool of himself? Telling his father off, his father leaving? Joining a posse, wounded? His shooting the gunfighter dead? The shock of his having killed someone? The reconciliation with his father?

7. Jo, adopted, in the shop, Tom Early buying the jewellery? The clashes with Sam? Her leaving, setting up house, reputation? Supporting Tom, her helping the son to come to terms with himself and his father?

8. Grimsell, the villain, cattle baron, his henchmen, ruthless? Yet his not wanting to be a murderer? His watching the final shootout – and being let go?

9. The preacher, his religious language, leadership in the town, the posse? His death, the Bible with him?

10. The popular ingredients of a 1950s western?