Five Guns West (1955)

The Dirty Five.

Five Guns West is directed by Roger Corman and written by R. Wright Campbell. It stars John Lund, Dorothy Malone, Mike Connors and Jonathan Haze. Filmed in Pathecolor with cinematography by Floyd Crosby and music by Buddy Bregman.

Desperate for men during the last days of the war between the States, the South found it necessary to offer pardons to outlaws to carry out special assignments. Strange dark figures rode under the flag of the Confederacy.

Well the central idea of the story formed the basis of better films to come further down the pipe, but outside of Malone's perky performance, there's not a great deal to sing about here. Corman was a master of the cheap production and he does well to keep this from total damnation, but excitement is rare, there's a lot of wood propping up the acting and the predictability of it all renders the finale a damp squib.

Its worth in the history of independent American cinema is at least notable, and once the film reaches the stagecoach station and Malone enters the fray; thus the ruffians have something to get in a pickle about, the pic just about holds interest. But come the end you realise it's the sort of Western that achieves the minimum it can to get released and is quite simply the first rung of the ladder for one Roger Corman. 4/10

Five ex-cons on a mission for the Confederacy

Near the end of the Civil War in Texas, five hardened convicts are pardoned to participate in a dangerous mission to apprehend a traitor and a gold shipment. Mike “Mannix” Connors plays one of the ne’er-do-wells while Dorothy Malone is on hand as one of two people living at the stage stop. John Lund co-stars.

"Five Guns West" (1955) is a B Western, known for being the directorial debut of trailblazing Indie filmmaker Roger Corman. It’s not bad and thankfully shot in color. But the geography is disingenuous and the early reference to 1867 is laughable in light of the fact that the Civil War ended in 1865.

There are similarities to the earlier "Hangman's Knot" (1952), but it’s different enough to stand on its own, although it lacks the budget and isn’t as good. The movie focuses on the bickering social dynamics of the five former convicts and which one will get the woman.

The film runs 1 hour, 17 minutes, and was shot at Jack Ingram Ranch (in Woodland Hills) & Iverson Ranch (in Chatsworth), both in northwest Los Angeles.

GRADE: C+