I didn't plan to watch this film but found it channel surfing as it was starting. It caught my attention because as it opened you could see three people though a window of a bank talking, but couldn't hear what they were saying. This scene led into one where four outlaws were making plans to double cross their other four partners. For a 1956 black and white, low budget film, it had a lot of interesting sub-plots. I enjoyed the movie quite a lot, due I think, to the many strong character actors. Nothing great, but worth watching if you like the old shoot-them-up Western films.
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The most interesting in this western is that there is no real lead hero, as we can see in other movies of this kind. There are many characters and some subplots, thanks to an intelligent script. It seems that it's difficult to say who the good guys are in this film where honesty seems very rare. It reminds me some Universal western of this period, bringing unusual plots, agreeable for a change. And not always predictable miles ahead. Produced by Wallace Mac Donald and not Sam Katzman, maybe this explains that.
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boblipton2 June 2019When bandits steal $35,000 from the bank and kill Charles Hanford, Richard Long's father, they claim Hanford was in on it with them. The town shuns Long. When the bandits escape and discover the money isn't were they hid it, they take the town hostage.
It's a fine B western directed by Fred F. Sear. At first it looked like a slightly souped-up V episode, but the large number of extras, effects, and tough script put an end to that impression.
Sears had begun in the theater. After the War, he started working at Columbia as an actor and dialogue director. He took up directing in 1949 and directed fifty movies. An fantastically fast worker, this is one of nine movies he directed in 1956. He is credited with five movies released in 1958, even though he had died the previous year at age 44! -
dougdoepke15 July 2014An outlaw gang plots a bank robbery. Trouble is there's a double-cross in the works, plus a timetable and a wedding to contend with. Then too, not all the people in town can be trusted. So how will it all work out.
Money, money, who's got the money. $35 thousand stolen from the bank, but lost in the shootout that follows. This is a better-than-average western. Frankly, I had few expectations when I saw pedestrian Fred Sears as the director. He rarely adds anything on screen to the scripts. Here, however, he appears engaged with some good staging, especially in and around Vaszquez Rocks. Though I don't buy one guy (Brand) sticking-up a whole posse. And get a load of that windstorm, enough to blow Hollywood off the map, but it does add a lot to the climax. Note how there's even dust in the interiors—a good touch from somebody. I wonder if the big wind-blown cast got hazardous duty pay-- they deserved it. Anyhow, there're a number of sub-plots and lots of characters, plus a few twists, especially that overturned buckboard at the end. So bring your scorecard. Then too, no film with the great Neville Brand can afford to be passed up. -
Well you can tell some thought was put into this Fifties Western. For starters that's a pretty cool sounding title, and with those impressive rock formations just outside the town of Gunsight Pass, it actually had something to do with the story. The picture holds up rather credibly with it's misdirection and misunderstandings among the town folk and the double cross concocted by Whitey Turner's (David Brian) half of the outlaw bunch against the nominal gang leader Dirk Hogan (Neville Brand) and his men. When a wedding in town is delayed by the dalliance of the presiding Judge, the planned robbery goes off track, as bank president Charles Hanford (Addison Richards) is forced to open the bank safe, while his partner (Joseph Forte) peering through the shaded window mistakenly believes Hanford is in cahoots with the bad guys.
There are a few puzzlers though, and when they intrude on the story I have to wonder how they got by the writers. With the bank robbery under way, the citizens react forcefully by taking it to the outlaws and a wild shoot out occurs. But right after Dirk and his men arrive to bail out the gunmen trapped in the bank, Sheriff Meeker (Frank Fenton) can't seem to get a response for his call to form a posse and go after the robbers and the money. By this time banker Andy Ferguson (Forte) has poisoned the town's opinion of the elder Hanford, while his son Roy (Richard Long) is unable to convince them his father would not have been a conspirator. But then, almost out of nowhere, someone steps forward to volunteer for the posse, and instantly the sheriff has the dozen men he needed!
An interesting element here relative to the robbery is the participation of the funeral director Boggs (Percy Helton). He's in it so he can skip town and dump his shrew of a wife (Katherine Warren)! During the shoot out he grabs the satchel of money from bandit Okay, Okay (Wally Vernon), but gets shot himself while peering out a window to view the gunfight. Later on, with larceny in her heart, his wife finds the money quite accidentally, but because of the town's confusion over what happened, she figures she has clean sailing out of town with the loot. Bad decision there.
Over all, the pluses outweigh the minuses for this adventure and it's interesting to see how the movie plays out against the backdrop of the story twists every few minutes. It has a little over a one hour run time but actually rises above the norm for a traditional B Western. Be ready for one shocking element when Neville Brand's character heads off the good guy posse heading out of town with the captured bank robbers. He sets up a trip rope to take out the first couple of riders; the PETA folks would have gone ballistic over that stunt. -
jromanbaker6 June 2023It is clear that Sears made sci-fi horror films and that can be seen in a gun battle amid open coffins, and the body count is high. Richard Long and Neville Brand are excellent in their roles, on opposing sides in a long drawn out fight for some ' lost ' bank money. The ringleader of the gang that want the money is played by David Brian and he too gives a good performance. A woman is a catalyst in the film, but other than that there are few female actors in the story. It is the final twenty minutes or so of the film that its originality truly shows and no spoilers as to why that is. I urge viewers to be aware of this underrated Western, and it sometimes turns up on a UK television channel. I firmly believe that it should be given an outing on DVD.
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chipe24 July 2014This is one surprising damn good Western. So glad I watched it after seeing countless other routine B-westerns. It's not even close to a classic superior Western, but in a little over an hour they packed in a clever, tense, noir, imaginative, surprising, twisting, exciting package. You will be at the set-of-your-pants and glued to your TV throughout.
The beginning was believable. Then there was a furious gun battle (lots of shots fired, hardly anyone hit). Towards the end it got less believable but quite nasty and twisty.
***spoilers*** Just to give three examples of the cleverness of the story: (1) the banker was forced at gunpoint to hand over the money from his safe, but his miserable partner, who saw this through a window, mistakenly thought the banker was in cahoots with the bank robbers and was voluntarily handing over the money. The robbers later killed the banker, but to escape a hanging charge, the killer agreed with the partner that the banker was part of the gang and was shot during his part in the robbery (not an innocent murdered). This caused great consternation to the hero, the banker's son; (2) one of the robbers happened to snatch the satchel of stolen money, then hid it, and then was shot dead during the shootout with the townspeople. A big part of the movie was not only searching for the money, but wondering who had made off with it. And (3) in a search for the missing money, which was supposed to be in a satchel, the falling-out gang members fought each other over the finally-found satchel, but it was then found to be empty at the time!
The unrealistic parts included: (1) gang leader Neville Brand holding up and disarming the posse single-handily, and (2) the gang (of only several members) holding-up at bay the entire town of dozens of people (including many able gunmen).
The best and shocking part of the movie is how practically the entire town turned here and there vindictive, selfish, greedy, cowardly, dishonest, lynch-crazy, etc. Everyone seems to be antagonistic to and betraying the others. Half of the outlaw gang is out to double-cross the other half to the bank robbery. Then in a clever way, the bank loot disappears in the middle of the robbery shoot-out, and when the dust clears the robbers and the townsfolk are looking for the loot and accusing each other of absconding with it. One henpecked husband is planning to desert his intolerable wife. One bank partner is falsely accusing his other partner of being part of the bank robbery. Some townspeople won't join a posse to find the loot, but insist that others do. Some won't help because it is not their money. Many townsfolk want to lynch the captured robbers.
The movie was very well written and put together, with many sub-plots and different characters -- a good huge cast for such a low-budget black and white B-western. See it! -
coltras3524 March 2023A group of bank robbers ride into Gunsight Pass. The robbery goes awry, part of the gang is captured, but the money isn't recovered. The men of Gunsight Pass quickly become a mob, ready for a lynching. As the prisoners are being escorted out of town (to avoid the vigilantes), the rest of the gang (lead by Neville Brand) ambushes the posse, frees their cohorts and returns to town to locate the loot. With a windstorm raging, they announce they'll start shooting civilians - one every 30 minutes - till the money is handed over.
An action-packed western with an interesting plot. What's unique that there isn't a main hero - not unless you count Richard Long - and it's just the town folk vs bank robbers. It's a well-made b western with some good suspenseful touches. The finale in the wind storm is a nail biter.
David Brian and Neville Brand are appropriately shifty as double-crossing bank robbers. Percy Helton and Katharine Warren are impressive as the crooked undertaker and his wife. Morris Ankrum is terrific as the town doctor. -
Flaming_star_6930 August 2005Howdy: This one was good or average, I ought to say, but better than 99% of the spaghetti westerns.
A gang of outlaws are going to rob the bank at 1 p.m. which is when the wedding ought to be over and most people lulled into nothing-ville from the after wedding party. But the wedding is running late. When they do rob it, and only four of them do because they are going to betray the others before they arrive in town, they get caught. They escape, of course, and are chased by a posse that resembled more the keystone cops than a real posse. (Example: When they are chasing outlaws and they arrive at the spot where the outlaws went into the rocks, they turn around and don't even bother to check the ground for horse tracks.) The characters were unreal and unbelievable. Yes, it was a low budget black and white job so what can we expect. Or can we expect more? After all, other westerns like The Ox-Bow Incident and High Noon were also black and white and those were excellent. But they had such greats as Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda and this one only had some "almost" greats.
Anyway, I video taped it and will watch it again when it rolls around as I watch my video tapes in order. And I will enjoy it because it is a western and I am a lover of westerns--even if they are severed with spaghetti. -
mlbroberts23 April 2020The last half or so of the film takes place in a sandstorm in a town, which makes it extra exciting. The plot is pretty riveting and kept me glued the whole time. Neville Brand and Richard Long are the standouts in the cast, not as stodgy in acting style as sometimes movies in the 50s and earlier were. Unexpectedly enjoyable shoot-em-up, well worth the watch if you're into that genre.
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grafxman20 September 2014I'll try not to give away too much of this excellent and original plot. I watch a lot of westerns and they often follow a familiar plot. The plot of this western has a plot unlike any western I've ever seen. Do you know what a MacGuffin is? Hitchcock coined the phrase. You can do a Google search for it but the MacGuffin is basically something in the film everyone else wants. Often used in spy thrillers in the form a black briefcase it can actually be almost anything or even anyone. I suppose it could even be stretched to include the criminal in a crime mystery. I don't recall seeing it used much in westerns. In this film it's used to GREAT effect. The bad guy (WWII hero Neville Brand) wants that MacGuffin so bad he resorts to extraordinary measures to get it. Factor in a wind storm and things really get cooking. There are no Indians, no salon girls, no cute rancher's daughters or wild stallions in this excellent movie, just a strong, original plot.