Day of the Evil Gun

Presumed dead, aging Gunslinger Warfield (Glenn Ford) returns to Adamsville to find that wife Angie and two young daughters have been kidnapped by the Apaches. Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) is the man giving out the news and also claiming Angie was to marry him after giving up on Warfield ever returning. An uneasy alliance forms as the two men set off to find the missing girls.

Directed by Jerry Thorpe and scripted by Charles Marquis Warren, Day Of The Evil Gun is a low budget mixture of more notable genre pieces. Tho the production value is low, it is however boosted by two enjoyable lead performances and the story is never less than interesting as our duo run into a number of feverish like encounters. In fact the film very much feels like a spaghetti Western at times, such is the odd ambiance that accompanies the men on their perilous odyssey. Fine support comes from Dean Jagger & John Anderson, while Harry Dean Stanton also weighs in with an appearance.

No great film by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly one that has a little more to it to keep it above average. 6/10

Since the first time that l'd watched this picture in early 80' l found it a real classic western on a low budge, but strong enough to put it in a high ground, Ford and Kennedy are fantastic in great shape if consider their ages, deserve a look in the river's fight sequence, Dean Jagger's role of an insany man is outrageous fine, the desert's scene when Nico Minardos come out is another unforgetable scene and quite unique in this genre, the desert landscape became another wall to be overcame, without forget Anderson & Stanton soldier's renegades on the desert's border town, the official release stop a long waiting for this charismatic picture!!

Resume:

First watch: 1981 / How many: 6 / Source: TV-Cable TV -DVD / Rating: 8.

Good western with Ford playing a gunman trying to put his guns down and come home to the wife and kids. Upon arrival at the homestead he finds his family has been taken by injun raiders. This leads to his searching for them in a harsh land where he must battle not only the redskins on their own turf but Army deserters, a gang of cutthroat Mexican outlaws, and a man he must ride with who is close to losing his mind. Lots of action and gunsmoke.

I like Glen FORD and consider this western a minor classic. Pretty unknown and still waiting to be recognized even by movie buffs this little gem has definitely not yet the reputation it deserves.

"Directed with lazy assurance" as the TIME OUT FILM GUIDE correctly writes, by veteran director Jerry Thorpe, and played with laid back gusto by all involved, this western offers a very grim and dark view on the "old west", more influenced by the Italo-western (which was in full bloom in the later 60ies) than the classic US-flick. Gunfighter FORD, aged, bored, tired and with "have-seen-it-all" eyes, comes back home just to find his wife and 2 small daughter carried away by Apaches. Arthur KENNEDY claims his wife was about to marry him and after an incredibly tough fist-fight they team up (unwillingly) to rescue them.

What follows is an odyssey through some very bizarre situations, staged with the aforementioned lazy assurance, situations, which one does not happen to see in many other US-western: everything is dark, depressing, cynical and void of any sympathy. Whereas THE SEARCHERS had some hope underneath, this is more than 10 years later and the characters, scripted by veteran scriptwriter Charles Marquis Warren, are driven by the urge to do what has to be done, but equipped with little hope. FORD plays the "lost character" in an old west with dark cynical humor, one of his best later performances. Kennedy is fine, too, and also very worth mentioning is the character played by Nico Minardos, whom you would more expect to find in any Quentin Tarantino movie than in a B-western from the later 60ies. Great rough music by Jeff Alexander! All in all a very watchable outing, made by experts, each of whom must have had a dozen or more western to his credit at the time, when they teamed up to put DAY OF THE EVIL GUN on celluloid.

Watch out for this and don't miss it, it's very well worth a viewing !

Make movie available on DVD as you can't buy this excellent movie on any format. Anyone who likes westerns should not miss this one. The psychological roles that Ford and Kennedy play make this movie definitely different and spellbinding for the viewer. What's interesting about this movie is the apparent role changes that take place between Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy. They switch from Ford as a reforming gunslinger to Kennedy a mild family man turning the opposite direction. The movie lived up to my expectations of both actors. I missed this movie when it was first released in 1968 and can not find it available in any format. So far, catch it on TV if you can in your area.