Seven Guns to Mesa (1958)

Well the town of Mesa might have had 643 living in it at some point but by the time this disparate group of stagecoach travellers arrive, there isn’t a soul to be seen. Even the saloon is all liquored out! Except, they quickly discover that “Papa” (James Griffith) and his gang are holed up awaiting a gold shipment which they plan to divert. Things don’t look great for the passengers as he doesn’t really want any witnesses, but then the lone rider “Trey” (Charles Quinlivan) shows up and you just know that he is going to put a spoke in things. He’s a cool customer, though, is old “Trey” and is swiftly playing the thugs against each other whilst trying, increasingly shirtless, to protect the damsel in distress that is “Julie” (Lola Albright). The rest of this plays out pretty much as expected, but I did think that Griffith turned in a decent enough effort as the baddie whilst the others very much went through the motions. There’s a paucity of real action until the end where, again, you don’t need the tea leaves to see the conclusion and the dialogue, well really, the less said about that the better. Standard afternoon drive-in fodder - no better nor no worse.