The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)

INFORMATION FROM IMDb

Plot Summary
Whenever it becomes known how good he is with guns, ex-gunman George and his wife Dora have to flee the town, in fear of all the gunmen who might want to challenge him. Unfortunately he again spills his secret when he's drunk. All citizens swear to keep his secret and support him to give up his guns forever -- but a boy tells the story to a gang of wanted criminals. Their leader threatens to burn down the whole town, if he doesn't duel him.
Written by Tom Zoerner

Cast
Glenn Ford... George Temple / George Kelby, Jr.
Jeanne Crain ... Dora Temple
Broderick Crawford ... Vinnie Harold
Russ Tamblyn ... Eric Doolittle
Allyn Joslyn ... Harvey Maxwell
Leif Erickson ... Lou Glover
John Dehner ... Taylor Swope
Noah Beery Jr. ... Dink Wells (as Noah Beery)
J.M. Kerrigan ... Kevin McGovern
Rhys Williams ... Brian Tibbs
Virginia Gregg ... Rose Tibbs
Chubby Johnson ... Frank Stringer
John Doucette ... Ben Buddy
William 'Bill' Phillips ... Lars Toomey
Christopher Olsen ... Bobby Tibbs (as Chris Olsen)
Paul Birch ... Sheriff Bill Toledo (Yellowfork)
Florenz Ames ... Joe Fenwick
Joseph Sweeney ... Reverend
Dub Taylor ... Nolan Brown (uncredited)
and many more...

Directed
Russell Rouse

Writing Credits
Frank D. Gilroy ... (screenplay) and
Russell Rouse ... (screenplay)
Frank D. Gilroy ... (story "The Last Notch")

Produced
Clarence Greene ... producer

Music
André Previn

Cinematography
George J. Folsey

Trivia
unknown

Goofs
Anachronisms
In a street scene, tiny cars moving along a highway can be seen in the background.
In another scene, power lines and a pole can be seen.

(at around 1 min) Where the posse is debating how to proceed, contrails are clearly visible in the sky.

Factual errors
Glenn Ford's pistol is already cocked while in his holster. A professional gunfighter would never do that because of the very likely possibility it would go off as soon as it was touched.

Both the tombstones of Harrold and Kelby are dated November 7, 1889. This is just after church and after the gunfight. November 7 1889 was on a Thursday not a Sunday.

Revealing mistakes
George Temple explains to the men in the bar how a real gunslinger wears his gun low so his hand rests on the butt. Then when he goes and gets his own gun and straps it on, it's riding high enough on his waist so that his fingertips can almost touch the bottom tip of the holster and his hand is below the butt of the gun.

Memorable Quotes

Filming Locations
Red Rock Canyon State Park - Highway 14, Cantil, California, USA

The Fastest Gun Alive is a 1956 Western film starring
Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, and Broderick Crawford.

Production
Russ Tamblyn, who later co-starred in West Side Story (1961), performs a dance routine during a hoe-down early in the film that includes a "shovel" dance, i.e. dancing on shovels used as stilts.

Roderick "Rodd" Redwing was Glenn Ford's gun coach and technical advisor for this film. Gun tricks were developed by Rodd Redwing with help from Jim Martin, a four-time California Fast Draw record holder.

Demonstrating his prowess with a gun, the Glenn Ford character asks a citizen to hold a glass of beer away from his body and, upon the count of three, let it drop. He shoots it before it hits the ground. The scene is shot from behind the glass of beer with Ford facing directly into the camera, but is actually the result of trick photography. (This scene later came back to haunt Ford when, while in the service and on the pistol range, he was forced to prove his "fast draw" skill by an instructor who had seen the movie. Ford once recounted during a The Tonight Show interview how he had to stand there for hours until he succeeded in drawing his pistol and hitting the target.)[citation needed]

Reception
Box office
According to MGM records, the film earned $2,246,000 in the US and Canada
and $1,289,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $1,292,000.

Critical response
When the film was first released, The New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, praised the film and the actors, writing, "Although it is more concerned with mood and motivation than with gunplay, The Fastest Gun Alive, which crashed into the Globe yesterday, emerges as an engrossing and, on occasion, a comic and tricky adventure...Although it takes a mite too long to reveal the reasons for his actions, Glenn Ford's characterization of a man driven by fear and a desire for a peaceful life is both sensitive and forceful...John Dehner does a-professionally smooth and funny job as one of his callous sidekicks; Jeanne Crain adds a tender and compassionate stint as Mr. Ford's understanding wife, and Leif Erickson, Allyn Joslyn, Rhys Williams, J. M. Kerrigan, Chris Olsen, the child actor, and Russ Tamblyn, who contributes an acrobatic dance reminiscent of his chore in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, weigh in with competent performances as Cross Creek's leading lights."

Recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz praised the film, writing,
"Though the story gets lost for too long in too much psychological explaining,
it redeems itself with a fine action-packed tense ending.
Rouse does a nice job keying in on the reactions of the townsmen,
stages some fine action sequences and the performances are solid (especially by Ford and Crawford).

User Review

Amusingly cast, first-rate western...
25 August 2007 | by moonspinner55 (las vegas, nv)

Quote from MOON

In the small western town of Cross Creek, shy, antisocial shopkeeper Glenn Ford is hiding a secret past. Selling dresses and candy all day proves to be a bore, which leads Ford to some showing off in front of the saloon with gun feats that amaze the locals; unfortunately for Ford, lightning-fast gunslinger and bank robber Broderick Crawford (!) is just outside of town and soon learns of Ford's prowess. Quick, compact western is marvelously well-done, with beautiful cinematography by George Folsey and a tight script (by Frank D. Gilroy, based on his short story, and director Russell Rouse) underlined with a touch of sardonic humor. Crawford, looking like Fred Flintstone in a cowboy hat, is raffish and wily as the brutish villain, though fast-on-the-draw seems a bit of a stretch. Still, the movie is written in such a way that we don't want to quibble, and Ford's unhappy nervousness is something we can relate to (he has some charming moments as well, such as when he compliments wife Jeanne Crain on her earrings). Russ Tamblyn has a lively dancing sequence where he struts his stuff on shovels, and the finale--while probably not realistic--is certainly a crowd-pleaser. *** from ****