The Gunfighter (film)

This article is about the Western film of 1950. For other uses, see The Gunfighters (disambiguation).

The Gunfighter
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Henry King
Produced by	Nunnally Johnson
Written by	William Bowers William Sellers
Starring	Gregory Peck Helen Westcott Millard Mitchell Jean Parker Karl Malden
Music by	Alfred Newman
Cinematography	Arthur C. Miller
Editing by	Barbara McLean
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s)	June 23, 1950
Running time	85 minutes
Language	English

The Gunfighter is a 1950 western film starring Gregory Peck, Helen Westcott, Millard Mitchell and Karl Malden (resuming his film career after a three year hiatus). This film was directed by Henry King. It was written by screenwriters William Bowers and William Sellers, with an uncredited rewrite by writer and producer Nunnally Johnson, from a story by Bowers and screenwriter and director Andre de Toth.

Plot

Notorious but aging gunfighter Jimmy Ringo (Gregory Peck) tries to avoid the trouble that goes with a reputation as the fastest draw in the west. However, when a cocksure young man named Eddie (Richard Jaeckel) draws on him, Ringo has no choice but to kill him. Ringo is warned to leave the area because the deceased has three brothers who will be sure to seek revenge. Sure enough, they pursue him, but he takes them by surprise, disarming them and driving off their horses.

Ringo then stops to wait in the nearby town of Cayenne where he occupies a corner of the largely empty saloon for most of the remaining film. It is only revealed later that he is hoping for a chance to see his wife and young son whom he has not seen in eight years. The local barkeeper, Mac (Karl Malden), remembers him from the past in another town and alerts Sheriff Mark Strett (Millard Mitchell), who turns out to be an old friend of Ringo's. Strett also knows Ringo's wife Peggy (Helen Westcott), and tells Ringo she has changed her surname to hide their past life together. Urging Ringo to leave town as quickly as possible, Strett nevertheless agrees to go and ask Peggy to come and see him. She declines, still fearing the notorious and hotheaded nature of Ringo's younger days that drove them apart.

While waiting, Ringo also has to deal with Hunt Bromley (Skip Homeier), the young local would-be gunslinger, and Jerry Marlowe (an uncredited Cliff Clark), a semi-retired man who mistakenly believes Ringo killed his son some years before. Ringo also meets another friend from the past, a bargirl named Molly (Jean Parker), who eventually persuades Peggy to come and talk to her husband. Meeting at last, Ringo tells his wife that he has changed, that he wants to settle down somewhere where people do not know him, possibly out in California, and asks her to leave with him. She refuses, but agrees to reconsider in a year's time if he will remain true to his word. Ringo also gets acquainted with his son at last, although he does not tell him of their relationship.

By now however, Ringo has spent too long in town. The three brothers are still trailing him and arrive, but are captured before they can ambush Ringo. Then Bromley seizes his chance; while Ringo has his back turned making preparations to leave, Bromley shoots him down. As Ringo lies dying he tells the sheriff to say that he, rather than Bromley, drew first. When Bromley starts to say that he doesn't want Ringo's help, Ringo rejects Bromley's words, informing his killer that he will soon know how it feels to have every hotshot and two-bit gunfighter out to get him in turn. An angry Strett immediately tells Bromley to leave town, and punctuates his order with a severe beating which he tells him is "just the beginning" of what he's got coming to him for killing Ringo.

The film closes with Peggy Walsh attending Jimmy Ringo's funeral, making her way through the crowd around the church door with her son to reveal, quietly but with pride, what the townsfolk have never known - that she is Mrs Jimmy Ringo. Thus, despite his death, the gunfighter finally achieves what he sought in coming to the town - his wife's forgiveness and reconciliation.

Cast

• Gregory Peck as Jimmy Ringo.
• Helen Westcott as Peggy Walsh
• Millard Mitchell as Marshal Mark Strett
• Jean Parker as Molly
• Karl Malden as Mac
• Richard Jaeckel as Eddie
• Skip Homeier as Hunt Bromley
• Kim Spalding as a clerk (his first role)
• Anthony Ross as Deputy Charlie Norris
• Verna Felton as Mrs. August Pennyfeather
• Ellen Corby as Mrs. Devlin
• David Clarke as Second Brother
• Alan Hale Jr. as Brother

John Wayne wanted to play Ringo. The story was purchased by Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures for Wayne. But Wayne refused to work for Cohn, who had mistreated him nearly twenty years earlier when Wayne was beginning his career. Cohn therefore sold the project to Twentieth Century Fox.

Reaction

The film was nominated for a WGA Award for Best Written American Western. Writing for the New York Times, Bosley Crowther noted in his June 24, 1950 review:

"The addicts of Western fiction may find themselves rubbing their eyes and sitting up fast to take notice before five minutes have gone by in Twentieth Century Fox's The Gunfighter, which came to the Roxy yesterday. For suddenly they will discover that they are not keeping company with the usual sort of hero of the commonplace Western at all. Suddenly, indeed, they will discover that they are in the exciting presence of one of the most fascinating Western heroes as ever looked down a six-shooter's barrel."

Bob Dylan Brownsville Girl

Bob Dylan referenced scenes from The Gunfighter several times in his song Brownsville Girl, co-written by the playwright Sam Shepard. It appears on Dylan's 1986 release Knocked Out Loaded and begins:

"Well, there was this movie I seen one time,

About a man riding 'cross the desert and it starred Gregory Peck.

He was shot down by a hungry kid trying to make a name for himself.

The townspeople wanted to crush that kid down and string him up by the neck."

"Well, the marshal, now he beat that kid to a bloody pulp

As the dying gunfighter lay in the sun and gasped for his last breath.

Turn him loose, let him go, let him say he outdrew me fair and square,

I want him to feel what it's like to every moment face his death..."

A mixture of desert-related travels, dreams and desires, the song returns to the Gunfighter-related theme several verses later:

"Strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content.

I don’t have any regrets, they can talk about me plenty when I’m gone.

You always said people don’t do what they believe in, they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent.

And I always said, 'Hang on to me, baby, and let’s hope that the roof stays on.'"

"There was a movie I seen one time, I think I sat through it twice.

I don’t remember who I was or where I was bound.

All I remember about it was it starred Gregory Peck, he wore a gun and he was shot in the back.

Seems like a long time ago, long before the stars were torn down."

"Brownsville girl with your Brownsville curls,

Teeth like pearls shining like the moon above

Brownsville girl, show me all around the world,

Brownsville girl, you’re my honey love."

Copyright © 1986 by Special Rider Music

Peck paid tribute to Dylan's words when Dylan received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997

See also

• List of American films of 1950

External links

• The Gunfighter at the Internet Movie Database
• The Gunfighter at the TCM Movie Database
• The Gunfighter at AllRovi