Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A gunslinger with a compelling and unique brand of personal honor arrives in the town of Pecos, New Mexico Territory, apparently in advance of a citizen who was sent on a mission to find one. I'm not quite sure what the film makers were trying to achieve with the appearance of the Dancer (Dal Jenkins) arriving by stagecoach, but the town folk certainly wouldn't have got their money's worth out of that Don Knotts-like character. The guy was afraid of his own shadow.Jules Gaspard d'Estaing (Yul Brynner) maintains that he's 'not human' while relying on a fast gun and an unusual insight into the human condition as he sizes up the residents of the small Western town. Hired to kill a returning Confederate soldier (George Segal) who threatens to shake up the existing order in the pro-Union town, 'Jewel' begins to realize that his intended victim has more integrity and courage than the folks who hired him. A not so subtle backdrop of racism against Mexicans in the divided town also works it's affect upon the Creole born gunman.Personally, if I were handling the script I wouldn't have had d'Estaing resort to a drunken rampage to bring the town to it's knees. I feel he would have had a more forceful impact if he'd taken on the town head on. However I found the exchange between Jewel and the citizens kind of interesting. When the sheriff (Bert Freed) drew down on him, Jewel shot the gun out of his hand, but when Crane Adams (Clifford David) did the same, he was shot dead for his trouble. It made me wonder if Crane's shooting was fatal because of Jewel's professed love for Ruth Adams (Janice Rule), or whether the shooting angle provided no other way to defend himself.I'm a little conflicted on Brynner's performance here. Perhaps because Jules d'Estaing was a conflicted individual himself trying to find his way in an unsettled West with a history of personal abuse and racism himself. I thought his characterization would have been helped if he took his own advice as given to Ruth Adams, and that was to smile once in a while.

I saw this western for the first time in 1996 and it struck me as being an excellent movie. Years later I saw it again in 2006 and still had the same view, I have since watched it 3 more times.This is without a doubt for me Yul Brynner's best film (from what I have seen). I am not really a fan of his, but in this movie he gives a truly commanding performance that stands out. From the opening moment you see him hoisting himself onto the roof of the moving carriage to sit at the front by the driver, until the ending where he makes Brewster (The town's crooked boss played by Pat Hingle) kneel and admit his ways, it is compelling viewing. The sexual tension between Brynner and Janice Rule simmers below the surface. The moral issues explored such as racism in the town are quite weighty although they are more implied than rammed down your throat. Also Union and confederate allegiance issues exist in this town even after the war is over.Matt Weaver(played well by a young George Segal) returns home from the war to find his house sold out from under him. Then he is wrongfully accused of murder and the town having been whipped up into a frenzy by Brewster, decide to hire a gunfighter to kill him. The job is eventually taken by Brynner, and there is an interesting twist where the tables are turned when the town feel the gunfighter is not earning his money.This film kept me fully entertained with its strong performances from the three leads and other decent performances too from the rest of the cast. Although this is not one of the all time great westerns it is certainly one not to miss and any western fan should seek it out. 7/10

One of those Westerns in which the townspeople come to wish they hadn't hired a gunslinger to do their dirty work. I had suspected that the version I saw on TV had been edited to squeeze into programme schedules, but this website gives the running time as 92 minutes and the TV slot (including commercials) was 105 minutes. One moment Matt Weaver has stormed into the night, furious that in his absence his home has been sold, the next he's become a feared outcast who's killed a man, instantly becoming such a threat to the townspeople that they have to hire a gunman. OK, the town has lost many of its men to the Civil War, but surely its citizens could muster enough courage and guns to do the job themselves? Brynner produces a sinister screen presence and dominates the cast, many of are low key. And several plot elements are understated; racism there may be in the town, but this is only evident when the hotel owner suggests that d'Estaing might be better suited seeking a room in the Mexican quarter; there's been many a better portrayal of a corrupt town boss than Pat Hingle's; and the lady to whom d'Estaing returns her pawned jewelry looks a bit too elegant to be down to her last dress.d'Estaing's drunken rampage through the town came as a shock; the place must have been typical of many of the postbellum period, and its racism, venality and corruption as portrayed in the film didn't seem to justify a hired assassin's rage. It would have been better had d'Estaing been exposed to more overt racism than a patronising suggestion that he finds accommodation in a Mexican establishment.No great surprises in the ending, but again it wasn't convincing when the Anglo-Americans united with the Mexicans in a gesture of respect.Take away Brynner and this would have been an extremely average Western.

Richard Wilson worked closely with Orson Welles as an assistant in "Magnificent Ambersons" and "Citizen Kane" also as an actor in "The Lady from "Shanghai". Considering he directed this film and wrote the screenplay with his wife, you certainly could expect a superior western like this one. Yul Brynner comes to a town dominated by a corrupt town boss and where there is also plenty of racism against the Mexicans. Even though the town fought for the Union most of the people behave as if they had opposite ideals. The irony is that George Segal who was the only Confederate is the most moral and open minded of them all. Brynner is paid to kill Segal, but he starts revolting against the corruption,and immorality of those who hired him.