Thursday, May 02, 2019

Movie review - "Shotgun" (1955) **

The main point of interest for this western is that it was co written by Rory Calhoun. Calhoun was one of the smarter 50s heart throbs, parlaying what could have very short career into a lifetime go at it. He found a decent run with Westerns in particular - he wrote and produced as well as star.

He co wrote this one but doesn't star in it - it was made by Allied Artists and Calhoun was under contract to Universal. The star is Sterling Hayden in a Calhoun-style role. I'm not a big fan of Hayden - love his personal story, but on screen I find he mumbles.

Still he teams well with Yvonne de Carlo, even though De Carlo is dressed more frumpish than usual. It was like she aged overnight on screen.

Both play people with Pasts - De Carlo has been Around, and so has Hayden. They are travelling across country chasing bad people.

A lot of this consists of two or three handers - Zachary Scott comes along well and is smarmy. He's less effective outdoors.

This is okay. Director Lesley Selander knew what he was going - but doesn't do it terribly well. There's a bit of action, a name cast, nothing particularly special about it.

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