Sat 26 Jul 2014
A Western Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: FURY AT GUNSIGHT PASS (1956).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[10] Comments
FURY AT GUNSIGHT PASS. Columbia, 1956. David Brian, Neville Brand, Richard Long, Lisa Davis, Percy Helton, Morris Ankrum, Wally Vernon. Written by David Lang. Directed by Fred F. Sears.
Whence this film?
A stylish, well-paced and intelligent western, written and directed by talents whose careers could be charitably described as “undistinguished.†Writer David Lang was responsible for a long, long list of forgettable B-movies followed by work on every low-budget television series known to man; and as for director Fred F. Sears, well, he started out acting in “Durango Kid†movies, moved on to directing them, then continued directing, sort of. The same year as this film he made probably his best-remembered movie, Earth vs. Flying Saucers, and the next year followed it up with The Giant Claw — a film equally memorable for all the wrong reasons.
Perhaps we’ll never know what burst of creative inspiration produced Fury at Gunsight Pass, but it’s a film well worth catching, filled with smoothly tracking and complex camerawork, vigorous shoot-outs, complex characters and a story that stubbornly refuses to settle into any familiar pattern.
David Brian (looking unsettlingly like William Boyd in his western garb) and Neville Brand are co-leaders of an outlaw gang planning to rob a bank in the small town of Gunsight Pass. Of the other outlaws, the only actor you might recognize is perennial side-kick Wally Vernon, but they do a fine job of looking nasty, even when just sitting around, and when they go into action they more than fill the requisite boots. Turns out the local undertaker (the indefatigable Percy Helton) is inside man on the job, and it further develops that Brian plans to double-cross Brand and take off with the loot.
Well, he’s not the only one with a hidden agenda, as things fall apart in spectacular fashion, the loot walks off, the townspeople capture the bad guys, then the bad guys capture the townspeople, and the whole thing gets resolved amid a furious and very cinematic dust storm.
David Brian was never the most electrifying of actors, but he puts in a nice turn here, the wheels of deceit clicking very audibly on his face, and Neville Brand is as engagingly unpleasant as ever. David Long (you may remember him from the “Ma & Pa Kettle†flicks, or as the leading man in House on Haunted Hill, or even from Nanny and the Professor) is too pretty to take seriously at first, but he manages a very creditable Hero part stacked against long odds. The other actors, including Morris Ankrum, that grand old man of Sci-Fi movies, lend what is generally known as Solid Support.
But it’s the tricky plot and assured direction that carry the day here, keeping the movie constantly on the move, twisting and turning where and when one least expects it, and finally ending up with a very satisfying and unpretentious bit of film-making where you might not expect to find it.
July 26th, 2014 at 9:13 pm
I’ll admit I watched the first 15 minutes or so of this, but stopped watching. I didn’t foresee it going anywhere but after reading your review I want to go back and watch it in full
July 26th, 2014 at 11:04 pm
I saw this film a few years ago and gave it a high rating. I see I made one comment, “Film has a great sand storm.”
Regarding Percy Helton, he is one of my favorite character actors. Once you see him in action with his distinctive voice, you can never forget him. He was great at playing crooks who whined and complained. Appeared in over 300 movies I believe with his best part being an almost starring role in WICKED WOMAN starring the great Beverly Michaels.
Because I’m always talking about Percy Helton in westerns and film noirs, one of my friends calls me Percy and I sign my emails to him using the name of Percy.
July 27th, 2014 at 8:37 am
Wheeler Winston Dixon’s book “Lost in the Fifties: Recovering Phantom Hollywood” (2005) has a chapter on Fred F. Sears.
This book looks at low budget film and TV of the 1950’s. Professor Dixon’s thesis is that such films offer a drastically different vision from the familiar big budget films.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen little of Sears’ work.
***
Richard Long is a favorite – perhaps because I’ve never seen any Ma and Pa Kettle films!
Long was directed by Orson Welles in “The Stranger”: a distinguished film by any standards.
Long was an old-school leading man, whose speciality was combining comedy, suavity and warmth with enough grit to be believable as a hero. He is charming as a suave private eye in “Bourbon Street Beat” a TV series that should be revived. Long would be right at home in such contemporary comedy mysteries as “Castle” and “White Collar”.
He also excelled in “The Big Valley”. “Nanny and the Professor” is one of the best family shows of its era.
July 27th, 2014 at 8:56 am
Have only seen a little of the work of writer David Lang.
Best so far: the episode “The Trade” (1959) on “The Rifleman”.
This benefits from direction by the great Joseph H. Lewis.
July 27th, 2014 at 1:59 pm
I should also point out a protracted continuity error in this movie: At one point in an extended gun battle, Wally Vernon is pinned down by gunfire and passes the loot to Percy Helton. We cut to other shooting,then cut back to Wally and the bag’s back beside him. Cut away and back again and it’s gone, until the next cut, when it reappears.
Walker, the scene where Percy Helton Gets It in this film is one of the most imaginative bits ever.
July 27th, 2014 at 10:50 pm
Jon tells me that the movie will be shown on Encore’s western channel this week. I’ll be sure not to miss it this time. The DVR is already set to record.
July 28th, 2014 at 5:05 pm
Steve, check the opening scene for a camera move worthy of Ophuls. Then later on, check the bit where Percy Helton gets his.
July 28th, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Long’s detective from BOURBON STREET was the only part of that series to survive as his character moved to 77 SUNSET STRIP for a season. The pilot for BOURBON STREET BEAT was, of course, based on a Paul Pyne novel by John Evans (Howard Browne).
Long never got another role as prestigious as THE STRANGER, mores the pity, because he was a capable leading man.
He ended his career as Barbara Stanwyck’s lawyer son on BIG VALLEY.
David Brian could be better than here, he’s very good as the psychotic gangster boy friend in A WOMAN’S FACE, and again opposite Crawford in FLAMINGO ROAD and THE DAMNED. But he did so many villains similar to this they do blend together after a while.
I mostly remember him as a kid from MR. DISTRICT ATTORNEY on television.
July 29th, 2014 at 8:44 am
Brian was also Mr. District Attorney on the radio, too, which is how I remember him more. I think I’ve seen some of the TV shows with Brian available on DVD, but a quick search of the Internet this morning turned up only one episode, and it may not have been with Brian.
LATER. Looks like it is one with Brian. See
http://www.amazon.com/Halls-District-Attorney-Third-Yesteryear/dp/B000HC99Q2/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1406641304&sr=1-3
July 29th, 2014 at 11:39 pm
David Brian is not in A Woman’s Face and in fact was not in the film industry when that was produced. He was however co-starred with Joan Crawford as a cross between Joe Adonis and Frank Costello in The Damned Don’t Cry. Her character, based on Virginia Hill works well until the conclusion, which rather than a cop-out, is simply vulgar and stupid in its way of underestimating the public by way of a pointless and contrived shoot out. And, in my opinion, Brian’s gangster was not at all psychotic in that film, simply a big time gangster with ambitions beyond ‘his hood.’
Re Fury At Gunsight Pass, which seemed to start well before petering out, Brian was marvellously watchable in his performance, which is not something I thought re Richard Long, a competent dull performance, certainly not the hero but a kind of insipid audience identification figure. I did find him charming in Tomorrow Is Forever playing Claudette Colbert’s son, a film with fine support from George Brent and Orson Welles, that just happened to introduce the adorable Natalie Wood to the world in 1946.