James Hitchcock This is yet another film based upon one of the classic Western plots, the one about the fearless lawman or gunman who helps the inhabitants of a town or a group of homesteaders stand up against a gang of lawless desperadoes, often in the pay of a corrupt local rancher or other powerful business interests. I have come to think of this as the "Dodge City" plot, after one of the earliest well-known films to feature it, but there are many other examples, including "My Darling Clementine", "Gunfight at the OK Corral" and the various other retellings of the Wyatt Earp story, "Destry Rides Again", "Shane", "High Noon", Howard Hawks' "Rio Bravo" (and its remakes) and several Clint Eastwood films such as "High Plains Drifter" and "Pale Rider". This film was originally released in the United Kingdom as "The Trouble Shooter", although when it turns up on British television these days it is generally referred to by its American title "Man with the Gun". (I understand that it is also sometimes known as "Deadly Peacemaker", making it a rare example of a film with three official titles). It is set in a nameless Western town which is being terrorised by a gang of gunmen hired by Dade Holman, a wealthy and powerful cattleman who hopes to force the local people out so he can acquire their property cheaply, and opens with a striking image of one of the bad guys shooting a little boy's dog in front of the child. The townspeople decide that enough is enough, and call in Clint Tollinger, a gun for hire with a reputation as a "town tamer". The film then narrates how Tollinger goes about his task. A complication is that Tollinger is the former lover (or possibly the former husband) of Nelly Bain, the manageress of the local "dance hall". This, in fact, appears to be a euphemism for the local brothel, but this is never spelt out clearly. Prostitution may have been a fact of life in the Old West, but in the fifties there were some facts of life which the censors insisted remain hidden from public view. Robert Mitchum made a number of Westerns throughout his career, although they were not always among his best films; he tended to be at his best in film noir, playing characters who were, if not outright villains like his Max Cady in "Cape Fear", at least morally ambiguous. He brings something of this quality to Tollinger, who is referred to as "the man in grey", the implication being that if he is not quite as black as the villains he is not as white as the driven snow either. Although he has been deputised by the town marshal, this is one film where the dividing line between an officially appointed lawman and a hired gun is a thin one. Tollinger has about him something of the ruthlessness which characterises his opponents, and his methods, such as setting fire to the town saloon, are not always ones which the law would sanction. The film does not, however, seriously call into question the "shoot first, ask questions later" philosophy of law enforcement in the way in which Michael Winner was later to do in his revisionist Western "Lawman". Tollinger may sometimes go over the top, but he is nevertheless the hero and his opponents are the bad guys. The film ends with the town well and truly tamed and the audience are left to conclude that peace and justice do indeed grow out of the barrel of a gun. In the fifties such a moral was not thought to be in any way exceptionable; indeed, it is a common philosophy in the cinema, and one not confined to the fifties or, for that matter, to Westerns. It is a philosophy which underlies just about every "tough cop" movie from "Dirty Harry" onwards, and most war films except those with an explicitly anti-war message. The trouble with "Man with a Gun", at least when seen from a modern perspective, is that it is likely to leave the viewer with a sense of déjà vu. In 1955 the "strong man with a gun" theme might have seemed slightly fresher than it does nowadays, but even then this film might have struck many people as an inferior imitation of "High Noon". Mitchum plays his part well, but none of the other acting contributions are particularly memorable, and this film is far from being the best on its particular theme; I would rate all those listed in my opening paragraph considerably higher. The basic plot became so well-known (and, indeed, such a cliché) that Mel Brooks chose it as the one to send up in his satirical spoof Western "Blazing Saddles". Richard Wilson's film strikes me as being the sort of thing that Brooks was aiming at. 6/10

huwdj This is an OK film. Yes, each cliché arrives on schedule, each caricature is present and correct, mostly with the recognisable face of a character actor you cannot quite name. Never mind, this is a western. Generally speaking most westerns conform to a formula that pretty much approximates a morality play. Whatever the ingredients good, in the form of a rugged individual, will overcome bad. The women may be innocent and young, world weary and embittered or careworn and wise (or desperate) but most, will love with the hero and one will ride off with him. Robert Mitchum, 'The Town Tamer', is as effective as always. Jan Sterling with the severely styled makeup and hairdo, over sized eyes and turned down mouth is oddly beautiful. Angie Dickinson is strikingly pretty in a small part. The fat baddie appears in child size buggy and duly meets his fate along with and his evil henchman. There are no surprises but it's a satisfying film for a lazy afternoon.

zardoz-13 "The Night of the Hunter" actor Robert Mitchum plays a tough town taming gunfighter in "Al Capone" director Richard Wilson's modest, but deceptive black & white, 83-minute western "Man with the Gun." Just about everything about this Sam Goldwyn Jr. production looks thoroughly ordinary, but the screenplay by N.B. Stone and Wilson contains layers of subtext that aren't immediately discernible with an initial viewing. Nobody gives a bad performance and the burly Mitchum is agreeably gruff and credible as Clint Tollinger. Westerns about town taming heroes were a dime-a-dozen when "Man with the Gun" came out in 1955. Wilson's freshman effort lacks the epic, widescreen grandeur of Edward Dmytrky's "Warlock" (1959) with Henry Fonda, Anthony Quinn, and Richard Widmark. Instead, "Man with the Gun" compares more favorably with the Sterling Hayden oater "Top Gun." Things get off to a quick start in "Man with Gun." Vicious gun tough Ed Pinchot (veteran heavy Leo Gordon of "Tobruk") rides into Sheridan City and shoots a dog on the street that is annoying him. The entire town is in an uproar over the shooting because it will frighten their customers. Later, a stranger in gray, Clint Tollinger (Robert Mitchum), appears in town on a horse with a loose shoe. He mends the shoe at Atkins Stable where he learns how to find Nelly Bain (Jan Sterling of "Ace in the Hole") who supervises the saloon girls. This arrangement is a little odd for a western. Nelly doesn't allow men in the door to see her girls and they are only available when they are dancing over at the Palace Saloon. An unsavory New Orleans bred hoodlum, 'Frenchy' Lescaux (Ted de Corsia of "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral"), runs the saloon for his partner Dade Holman. 'Frenchy' has a taste for the finer things in life and a $2-thousand chandelier hangs in the Palace. Tollinger and Nelly are old acquaintances and Tollinger has been following her. When he tries to contact Nelly, Nelly's maid (Maidie Norman of "Tarzan's Hidden Jungle") refuses to allow him to visit her—on Nelly's orders. Tollinger decides to stick around Sheridan City for a couple of days. While Tollinger is boarding his horse at Atkin's Stable, he runs into Doc Hughes (Florenz Ames of "The Deadly Mantis") and Doc is surprised to see him."You might call him a town doctor, too," Hughes confides in Saul Atkins (Emile Meyers of "The Line Up"), about Tollinger. "Ponca was a mighty sick town. Clint operated on it. The patient lost a lot of blood, but lived." A wealthy rancher, Dade Holman (Joe Barry of "Bell Book & Candle"), and his trigger-happy minions, particularly Ed Pinchot and Jim Reedy (Claude Atkins of "Merrill's Marauders"), have the town under their thumb. One dance hall girl remarks that they "have painted the town bright yellow." Nevertheless, a hot-headed young man, Jeff Castle (John Lupton of {"Rogue's March"), refuses to back down from Holman's gunslicks. He drives them off his property where he is building a house on land that he owns. Holman is dead set against Castle putting down roots. Meanwhile, the rebellious Castle feels that he must prove his masculinity to his childhood sweetheart Stella Atkins (Karen Sharpe of "The High and the Mighty") and she worries constantly about his welfare. After the town council agrees to hire Tollinger for $500, our hero establishes a midnight curfew for the saloons and prohibits the wearing firearms in the city limits. Naturally, 'Frenchy' Lescaux objects to these ordinances, but he willingly surrenders his knife to Tollinger. To give his actions some measure of legality, Tollinger is deputized by the local lawman, Marshall Lee Sims (Henry Hull of "Jessie James") who fixes him up with a contract with a non-intervention cause. Tollinger prefers to act alone and act fast because he feels that time is not on his side.The problem with Richard Wilson's "Man with a Gun" is that there is really nothing new, but he stages everything smoothly enough. In fact, if you look closely, most of everything occurs on sets that have interiors. People walk into and out of buildings and nothing appears to have been lensed on an interior soundstage which gives "Man with the Gun" a sense of authenticity. John Lupton has the best role and Emile Meyer is uncharacteristically cast against the grain as an honest, upright citizen with a daughter. The subplot about Tollinger following Nelly Bain around to learn about his daughter Beth and the failed relationship between Nelly and he is dramatic enough but rather lackluster. We learn that Clint Tollinger learned about guns early when his father was gunned down in cold blood in his own house and the house was burned while young Clint hid in the bushes. The irony here is that Tollinger's father never owned a gun.The chief problem is that we hear a lot about the lead villain, but we don't see him until the last five minutes of this dusty little oater. The Holman character doesn't stick around long either and he never utters a word. Holman's henchmen fare no better. For example, Joe Reedy tries to kill Tollinger with a derringer concealed in his sombrero, but the wily gunfighter is far ahead of him. In other words, the villains resemble ten-pins in a bowling ally with Mitchum's savvy gunfighter knocking them down with minimal effort. The shoot-out at the end isn't as good as the shoot-out with Reedy. The bad guys try to catch our hero in a cross-fire and he outsmarts them. The plotting of the last shoot-out, especially a mysterious tin-horn whiskey peddler role in it, gives it some depth. This city slicker fellow devises his plan based on Tollinger's gallantry to the women folk of Sheridan City. Angie Dickinson shines in a small role as a dance hall girl named Kitty. Essentially, Wilson remade "Man with a Gun" in 1962 in color with Yul Brynner in "Invitation to a Gunfighter."

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Very good western.This was the first time writer Richard Wilson directed a film, also this was a first for Samuel Goldwyn Junior as a producer. It is a pleasure to see a very young and pretty Angie Dickinson as a saloon girl. Robert Mitchum comes to this town dominated by outlaws and is hired as a town tamer, but people are worried that he will go too far, also about the harm that he will do to the town´s businesses. There are some similarities in the story with "Warlock" which was made in 1959. This film keeps a very fast and exciting pace, it really keeps you on the edge.