FIVE GUNS WEST
US, 1955, 78 minutes, Colour.
John Lund, Dorothy Malone, Touch Connors (Mike Connors) Jonathan Hayes.
Directed by Roger Corman.
Five Guns West was the second film made by celebrated producer Roger Corman. It is his only western. It resembles the many westerns made as second features during the 1950s, especially those made at Universal Studios. John Lund and Dorothy Malone appeared in some of those films – Dorothy Malone appearing with Jeff Chandler at this time in Pillars of the Sky (and the next year she was to win a best supporting actress Oscar for Written on the Wind).
The film focuses on the Confederacy in the last year of the Civil War and the need to pardon criminals in order to boost troops. John Lund appears as a Confederate officer who goes under cover with a group of pardoned criminals so that they can meet a stagecoach, capture a man with Union information as well as a store of gold for the Confederacy.
Lund assumes leadership with some resentment from the other members of the group. They travel through difficult terrain, come across a homestead where Dorothy Malone looks after her uncle. There are various tensions, attacks until the coach arrives. The stagecoach is captured and the quarry taken into custody. However, the stand-off then begins, finishing, inevitably with the deaths of the other five and Lund and Dorothy Malone surviving.
Roger Corman was to go on to direct a number of B-budget and B-grade films over many years, encompassing many genres.
1.The popularity of this kind of western in the 1950s? Interest still?
2.The western settings, the use of the landscapes, the mountains, the homestead, the stagecoaches? The musical score?
3.The situation: the Confederacy, the highlighting of the criminals, their crimes, the pardon, their being given a mission, Devon Sturges leading them?
4.The characters, Sturges and his leadership, emerging that he was a Confederate officer, his control of the group, his treatment of Sharlee, trying to protect her, falling in love? The attack on the stagecoach, the taking of Jethro, the information? The build-up to the confrontation between the members of the group? Billy Candy and his attack on Sharlee, John Candy and his attack? The bond between the two brothers? Billy and his impatience, his death? John Candy’s death? J.C. Haggard, the older wiser man, the confrontation with Clinton, his deciding to leave? Clinton and his manner, the gambler, his final confrontation, wanting the money, death? John Candy and his crawling under the house, the shooting, Sturges outwitting him? Outwitting Clinton?
5.Sharlee, the outpost, her uncle and his drinking? The hard work? The confrontation with the group, Sharlee shooting? In the house, going out, trying to find more information, the various men and their attacks on her, Sturges rescuing her? The dance? Sturges taking her home? The final siege? The happy ending?
6.The conventional ingredients of a popular kind of Civil War western?
