Well, it's been a minute since I posted about a western about these here movie bloggin' parts, hombre.
So get ready to reach for your shootin' irons, ya mangy varmit.
'Cause I a reckon...
It's....Movie Time!
Original released on June 23, 1950, It's The Gunfighter directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck.
We've covered the work of Gregory Peck before in Gentleman's Agreement. There the enemy was anti-semitism.
Here, the enemy is any young punk who aims to take out the fastest, deadliest gunfighter in the West.
Meet Jimmy Ringo, famous throughout the West as the fastest gunfighter there is.
Which makes him the target of every eager gunslinger who wants to make their rep as "the man who shot Ringo".
Idling into a saloon to rest a spell and have a drink, a weary Ringo would rather not have to prove his rep.
A cowboy named Eddie is young, reckless and stupid enough ti think maybe Mr. Ringo should.
Eddie draws first but Jimmy Ringo is faster. He shoots and kills Eddie.
Now every damn body in the saloon saw...
- Jimmy Ringo minding his own damn business.
- Eddie NOT minding his.
- Ringo giving this kid every chance not to do something stupid.
- Eddie drew first.
- Ringo shot him in self defense.
Nonetheless Eddie's three brothers reckon they need to take revenge against Ringo
Ringo rides out of town while the brothers follow in pursuit.
So Ringo rides to the town of Cayenne and settles into a corner of the local saloon.
Marshall Mark Strett moseys into the bar to have a chat with Jimmy Ringo. Strett and Ringo are friends going aways back but Strett still suggests Ringo needs to be on his way.
His mere presence has a way of causing trouble.
Ringo is of a mind not to leave Cayenne anytime soon. He aims to see his wife Peggy and their son. It's been 8 years and Ringo wants to set things right.
Strett says that Peggy has gotten on with her life and may not want see Ringo.
Meanwhile, there are those plotting against Jimmy Ringo.
Local merchant Jerry Marlowe who blames Ringo for killing his son.
And local thug Hunt Bromley who, like Eddie, is another young stupid punk aiming to be "the man who shot Ringo".
And speaking of Eddie...
His three brothers are closing in on the gunslinger, having learned he's in Cayenne.
What happens next is... well, not a whole lot, a lot of talking and waiting but the tension is palpable as the clock ticks and tocks the minutes by as the vengeful brothers draw nearer to Cayenne but Ringo holds his ground, determined to reconcile with his wife and spend time with his son.
Marlowe's revenge plot is stymied without RIngo having to kill him. Ringo swears to Marlowe he did not kill his son. It's Ringo's curse to remember every man he has ever killed and Marlowe's son was not among that number.
Mark Strett and his deputies intercept and arrest Eddie's brothers.
Peggy does relent to meet with Ringo who wants her to come with him to California or South America where he can leave his gunslinging life behind him. Peggy is almost amenable to the idea but just not right now. If Ringo can stay out of trouble for a year, she might consider it.
Then Hunt Bromley makes his move, successfully getting the drop on Jimmy Ringo by shooting him in the back.
Strett beats the unholy crap out of Bromley then sends him the hell out of Cayenne.
It won't be long before "the man who shot Ringo" will meet his own lonely and deadly fate by the gun of another young punk looking to make a name for himself.
The Gunfighter was loosley based on the alleged exploits of an actual western gunfighter named Johnny Ringo, a distant cousin of the outlaw Younger family and enemy of Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers.
The original ending had Marshall Strett arrest Hunt Bromley but studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck was extremely unhappy with this resolution. So the ending was re-written to have Brumley exiled and living with same gunfighter's curse that claimed Jimmy Ringo.
The studio hated Gregory Peck's period authentic mustache. But by the time they found out about it, too much of the film had been shot and it was too late to have him shave it and do reshoots.
When The Gunfighter underperformed at the box off, Spyros P. Skouras, head of production at Fox, told Peck "That mustache cost us millions".
I guess audiences wanted their Westerns to have less mustache and more shoot 'em up action. While The Gunfighter does have bursts of violence at the beginning and the end, most of the film is relatively quiet, contemplative even but fraught from the building tension from the action that's NOT happening but could if and when time runs out.
The Gunfighter hangs on the powerful performance by Gregory Peck, the archetype of the grizzled gunslinger who is incredibly proficient at what he does but living under the weight of remembering everyone he's ever killed and the incessant clock that reminds him his time is finite.
Variations of the tale of Jimmy Ringo have played out in a lot of subsequent films, relegating the plot to an overworn trope, a cliche. Hell, it's a story ripe for parody in Gene Wilder's Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles.
But The Gunfighter did it first and with a strong story, direction and cast, perhaps did it best.
