Wed 17 Jul 2019
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: JOHNNY GUNMAN (1957).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[9] Comments
JOHNNY GUNMAN. Will Kohler Productions, 1957. Martin E. Brooks, Ann Donaldson, Johnny Seven, Woodrow Parfrey, and Carrie Radisson. Written & directed by Art Ford.
Well… it’s different.
An independent effort from 1957, Johnny Gunman unfolds a tale of gang war over a single night, and with that premise and the title I was expecting some action. Maybe a lot of action. But this is quite literally all talk.
The story? Johnny G, aspiring Gang Boss (Martin E. Brooks) meets failed writer (Ann Donaldson) and they kill time till his confrontation with a rival aspiring gang boss.
When I say they kill time, I mean they talk it to death. All allocution. Nothing but natter in the absence of action. Conversation commences and gab goes on, declamation and discourse dominate the drama, challenged by chatter, overcome by oration. It got to the point where I was staring in disbelief at a film that made Andy Warhol’s Empire look like Kill Bill.
If I were guessing, I’d say this was written with an eye toward Playhouse 90 or some such, influenced by Gore Vidal’s Billy the Kid, with the intention of injecting Significance into a genre piece. Somehow it ended up as the B&W equivalent of Creation of the Humanoids: an arty, low-budget sub-basement film, probably destined for the bottom of a triple-bill or maybe as filler in a burlesque show.
That’s a pity, because there are glimmers of talent here. The acting is generally good, if a bit intense, the camera work threadbare but inventive, and the script…..
Well, there are moments where all that talk is almost believable. Unfortunately those moments are buried in an avalanche of other moments where I just wished they’d shut up and shoot somebody.
Maybe words are like any other commodity: when there aren’t many, they seem very special, but when they glut the market, they lose their value. Whatever the case, Johnny Gunman strives to sound important, but finally achieves only self-importance. And that ain’t even close.
July 17th, 2019 at 11:41 am
I’ve not seen this, but would like to do so. Art Ford, the director, was a popular New York City disc jockey, mainly at the great radio station, WNEW. Hosting the Milk Man’s matinee. His theme began,
Ford, at Ford at Four….the milk man’s knocking at your door. Great fun.
July 17th, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Looks like JOHNNY GUNMAN is easily available on DVD, in a two-for-one package with THE CANDIDATE, the one starring Mamie Van Doren and June Wilkinson that came out in 1964. (I don’t get the connection, if any.)
July 17th, 2019 at 6:55 pm
I did some research on Art Ford a while back:
https://bookthemdanno.blogspot.com/2015/04/art-ford.html
July 17th, 2019 at 7:05 pm
Wonderful! Thanks for sharing all the work that went into that post!
July 17th, 2019 at 7:08 pm
There is a broken video link in that blog post, here is a good link for the same clip:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G6rc2ZUkl0I
July 17th, 2019 at 7:32 pm
At least I had heard of Johnny Seven and Woodrow Parfrey.
July 17th, 2019 at 7:46 pm
Not I. Neither one.
July 18th, 2019 at 2:32 am
FYI:
Johnny Seven and Woodrow Parfrey were charter members of the Oh …Him! Society.
Unless you memorized TV Guide listings, you wouldn’t know their names, but you saw their faces dozens (maybe hundreds) of times.
Johnny Seven’s best-known(?) gig was as the Extra Cop on Ironside for most of that show’s run.
Woodrow Parfrey was on everybody’s show at one time or another (watch enough MeTV and you’ll see him 10 times a week or more).
In the movie Charley Varrick, Parfrey’s the scared-spitless bank teller who catches the heist that starts the proceedings.
That’s just one; many more await you …
July 18th, 2019 at 6:59 pm
From Wikipedia:
John Anthony Fetto, II, known professionally as Johnny Seven, was an American character actor who appeared in 26 films and approximately 600 television shows[1] during his career, which spanned more than 40 years.
Woodrow Parfrey was an American film and television actor from the 1950s to the early 1980s. … Though usually a supporting player, he played many focal television guest-star roles, mainly in the late 1960s when fantasy and spy shows relied heavily on distinctive guest players.
Withe such distinctive names, you’d think I’d remember them, but I don’t. Not even seeing photos of them helps. I’m going to have to see them in performance!