Man with the Gun (1955)

★ 6.1 1h 23m IMDb
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A stranger comes to town looking for his estranged wife. He finds her running the local girls. He also finds a town and sheriff afraid of their own shadow, scared of a landowner they never see who rules through his rowdy sidekicks. The stranger is a town tamer by trade, and he accepts a $500 commission to sort things out.

Man with the Gun

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Cast

Robert Mitchum
Robert Mitchum as Clint Tollinger Died 1997 · Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American film actor, author, composer and singer. He was ranked #23 on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest male Amer...
Jan Sterling
Jan Sterling as Nelly Bain Died 2004 · New York City, New York, USA Jan Sterling (born Jane Sterling Adriance; April 3, 1921 – March 26, 2004) was an American actress. At her most active in films during the 1950s, she received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting...
Karen Sharpe
Karen Sharpe as Stella Atkins Age 91 · San Antonio, Texas, USA Karen Sharpe (born September 20, 1934) is a retired American actress of film and television best known for her major role in the television series Johnny Ringo (1959-1960)..
Henry Hull
Henry Hull as Marshal Lee Sims Died 1977 · Louisville, Kentucky, USA ​From Wikipedia Henry Watterson Hull (October 3, 1890 – March 8, 1977) was an American character actor most noted for playing the lead in Universal Pictures's Werewolf of London (1935). The film flop...
Emile Meyer
Emile Meyer as Saul Atkins Died 1987 · New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Emile Meyer (August 18, 1910 – March 19, 1987) was an American actor (born in New Orleans) usually known for tough, aggressive, authoritative characters in Hollywood films from the 1950s era, mostly i...
John Lupton
John Lupton as Jeff Castle Died 1993 · Highland Park, Illinois, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. John Rollin Lupton (August 23, 1928 - November 3, 1993) was an American film and television actor. Upon graduation from New York's American Academy of Dramatic...

Audience Reviews

John Chard 7/10 Jan 25, 2017
Robert Mitchum is......Man With The Gun.

Clint Tollinger arrives in a small town looking for his estranged wife and news of his daughter, tho he finds her, the chance of any sort of reconciliation is very slim. Whilst here, the sheriff and the important townsfolk learn of Tollinger's reputation as a pistol specialist town tamer. As they are living in fear of a mysterious landowner who is stripping the town from them bit by bit, they hold a meeting that chooses to hire Tollinger to rid the town of it's unsavoury elements.

Man With The Gun seems to be either a forgotten piece or a vastly under seen one, for at the time of me writing this, it has just over 200 votes and a paltry 9 user comments written for it on IMDb. It's a shame on either score because although the production values scream out that this is a "B" movie Western, this is a fine entry in the Western genre. That the piece takes on a rather standard plot theme of an harangued town turning to an avenging dark angel, probably hasn't done the film any favours over the years, I myself read the synopsis and thought it's just another in the line of similarly themed pictures. Yet I was pleasantly surprised to find a darkly dramatic picture boasting many enjoyable moments, both technically and as a functioning story.

Robert Mitchum is in the lead as Tollinger, perfectly cast, he strides thru the picture like some brooding menace. We often talk about the screen presence that John Wayne and Charlton Heston had (justifiably of course), Mitchum is right up there with the best of them. One sequence here sees him standing in the shadows at the back of a room as a meeting takes place, we don't see his face, but we can feel that piercing brood staring out at us! The rest of the cast are very much in Mitchum's shadow, so really it's solely with the big man that the films acting credentials are high. Perhaps it's unfair to single out Ted de Corsia for a kick? but Man With The Gun's minor failings are with its villains, and sadly de Corsia is lacking any sort of villainesque menace.

The score from Alex North is excellently layered (fans of Spartacus will certainly be pricking their ears up) and the cinematography from Lee Garmes is highly impressive when one realises that the majority of this picture was shot on the studio lot. Directed and co-written by first time director Richard Wilson, Man With The Gun holds few surprises for the genre, but it's dark in tone, violent and above all else, highly watchable. 7.5/10
Wuchak 7/10 Apr 24, 2021
_**Well done town-bound Western with Robert Mitchum, albeit in B&W**_

A gunman (Robert Mitchum) strolls into town in the Old West and is hired as a town-tamer. Henry Hull plays the aged and cautious marshal while John Lupton and Emile Meyer appear as citizens. Leo Gordon and Claude Akins are on hand as heavies.

"Man with the Gun" (1955) is a quality town-bound Western with Robert Mitchum towering as a laconic righteous gunfighter. The stock plot is standard, but the cast, the writing, the performances and the convincing town set make it compelling.

Another highlight is the stellar cast of women, including Jan Sterling (Nelly), Barbara Lawrence (Ann), Karen Sharpe (Stella) and Angie Dickinson (Kitty), all stunning.

The only issue is the lack of color unless you don't mind B&W. I had no problem acclimating.

The film runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot at Samuel Goldwyn Studios in West Hollywood, California.

GRADE: B+

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