Gun Battle at Monterey (1957)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Quite often us Western fans will see the cast list of an old 1950s Western and reasonably expect it to at the very least be a time waster. So instantly we (yes it's the Royal we) notice that Sterling Hayden and Lee Van Cleef star in it, and Ted de Corsia on villain duties as well, and feel quite confident. While when you got a title proudly promising a gun battle it's not outrageous to expect maybe just a little bit of bang bang bangery.That Carl K. Hittlemen's film doesn't deliver any goods is not really his fault, he's a director for hire working with a lazy screenplay and a cast who know it's a lazy screenplay! Cleef escapes criticism, but it's really not a badge of honour to shine in this sea of mediocrity, but he at least makes time spent with the pic tolerable: Just! Come the hopelessly weak finale you are unlikely to care or consider this as being worth another look in some alternate future. Key word is lazy, so this is an appropriately lazy review. 3/10

Hayden made a number of cheap Westerns at a time (late '50's) when Drive-in's were a booming business and in need of fare. Unfortunately, none are very good, including this one, though a number of talented people were involved in each. As could be expected, most suffered from poor production values and sub-standard scripts, leaving the talent little to work with. That's very much the case here. As others point out, only Van Cleef looks motivated. And too bad that great bad girl Mary Beth Hughes (Cleo) is not given more to work with. No need to repeat negative points made by others, except for two observations. Note that the film has two directors listed. According to IMDb, this was Franklin's only directorial effort, which suggests producer Hittleman didn't like what he saw and so took over the directing himself. Thus the film lacks an experienced director's hand. Also, the ending is indeed startling for a picture of this type. It's so abrupt and unexpected, it's almost like the company suddenly ran out of film and had to wrap up immediately. Certainly, nothing else in the production shows the kind of imagination or nerve that would produce such a startling break with convention. Too bad this remains the only good reason to stick around for this surf-to-turf oater.

You know that a western—or any movie for that matter—is in trouble when its title has nothing whatsoever to do with its storyline. "Gun Battle at Monterey" qualifies as an uneven, below-average oater about revenge that never delivers its titular fireworks. Ostensibly, this low-budget, black & white, Allied Artists' western turns out to be a lesson in good citizenship. You see, the hero changes his mind in the end about the fate of a two-timing outlaw because his pretty girlfriend persuades him not to sink to the outlaw's level. Not only is "Gun Battle at Monterey" unconvincing in its reversal ending, but also co-directors Sidney Franklin, Jr., and Carl K. Hittleman of the abysmal "Kentucky Rifle" leave out important scenes that would have bolstered the quality of their western. Sterling Hayden, Ted de Corsia, and Lee Van Cleef deserved a better script than the one that Jack ("The Narrow Margin") Leonard and TV western scribe Lawrence Resner contrived.This lackluster western opens with bearded Max Reno (Ted de Corsia of "Captain Pirate") and Jay Turner (Sterling Hayden of "Top Gun") riding off the beaten trail down onto the beach at Monterey to hide out in a cave with the loot that they have stolen from the Monterey Express Company. Incredibly, we never learn how much they hauled off from the hold-up. Reno boasts about his foresight in having found the cave a month before the robbery. Nevertheless, Jay isn't impressed by Reno. According to the Leonard & Resner screenplay, Max met a penniless Turner in Monterey and offered him $5-thousand dollars to help him rob the express company. Early on directors Franklin and Hittleman establish Jay as a decent sort of fellow who strayed onto the wrong side of the law through circumstances not entirely of his own making. When Jay demands his money and refuses later to stick on as Max's partner, Max puts three bullets in his back. Jay plunges into the ocean and washes up on the beach long after Max has hightailed it with the loot to greater pastures. A Mexican girl, Maria Salvador (seasoned television actress Pamela Duncan), takes pity on poor bullet-riddled Jay and nurses him back to health despite her father's fears about Jay. Meanwhile, Monterey authorities find Jay's vest with two bullet holes in it on the beach (yes, the two bullet holes don't match the three shots fired) and they add murder to Max's robbery charge.Four weeks or thereabouts elapse before Jay recuperates sufficiently to hit the trail after Max, and it takes our determined protagonist around a year to locate the double-crossing dastard. During that time, Max has done well for himself. He rides into Del Ray and wins ownership of a saloon when its proprietor, Abbot (Fred Sherman of "The Left-Handed Gun"),cannot pay off his gambling losses. Reluctantly, Abbot agrees to take Max on as a partner, but they quarrel over importing dancehall girls. Abbot complains that he won't lower his standards. Abbot's right-hand gunman, Kirby (Lee Van Cleef of "Barquero"), stands by and watches Max badger Abbot into a gunfight. The town sheriff Claude Mundy (Charles Cane of "No Name on a Bullet") accepts Max's plea that he shot Abbot down in self-defense. By the time that Jay rides into Del Ray masquerading as somebody else entirely, Max has the town in his hip pocket. Max is initially suspicious when Jay appears and takes sides with the downtrodden citizens, especially a crusading journalist that Kirby had earlier beaten up. Max sends one of his girls, Cleo (Mary Beth Hughes of "Design for Scandal"), to see if she can root the truth out about Jay. Eventually, Jay beats up Kirby and throws him in the hoosegow. The honest citizens of Del Ray hire him as their deputy sheriff but are shocked when he refuses to let them lynch Max. Instead, Jay takes Max back to Monterey to pick up the reward on him, and watch him hang for his murder. Nobody ever got a solid description of Jay during the robbery so he can ride confidently into town and turn Max over to law without any worry. The interval between the time that they leave Del Ray and reach Monterey is a pre-journey of hardship in the tradition of Sergio Leone's later "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Finally, once Jay has turned in Max, he rides back to Maria. She convinces him that he is doing the wrong thing, so he goes back to town and gives himself up. Maria assured him that she would wait for him. Max roars with laughter at Jay's decision to turn himself in and forgives him for his deception. Angrily, Jay punches out Max and the movie ends."Gun Battle at Monterey" suffers from the use of obvious back projection that undercuts a romantic scene on the beach between Jay and Maria. Presumably, the thunderous sounds of the tide crashing on the shore must have drowned out every attempt to record the dialogue on the location, so the filmmakers repaired to the quiet confines of the studio. When Franklin and Hittleman venture out onto the actual desert or beach locations, this oater looks both scenic and rugged. Unfortunately, the villains aren't much of a challenge as Jay gets all too easily out of a scrape with two gunman who have him digging his own grave. This otherwise disposable 69-minute western earns some points for its scenes along the Monterey beach that anticipated similar scenes in Marlon Brando's later revenge western "One-Eyed Jacks." Lee Van Cleef gives a persuasively pugnacious performance as Max's right-hand gunman, while Ted de Corsia is given enough evil things to do to qualify as a thorough-going villain.

This western begins with a robbery masterminded by Max Reno (Ted de Corsia) aided by his new partner, gun expert Jay Turner. Turner asks for his share from the voluble Max, who pays him off then shoots him in the back. He is saved by Maria Salvador. Reno plays cards in Del Rey; breaking the house, then he forces a partnership onto the saloon's owner, planning to import "soiled doves", build a stage, cheapen the place. When the other objects, Reno shoots him and Kirby (Lee Van Cleef), becomes his new aide; the sheriff, a reformed drunk, goes along with Reno for the money. Maria, (Pamela Duncan) nurses Jay, and falls in love with him;. He thinks only of revenge and rides off, searching every town. Finding Reno's new place, he sees Reno's gunhands dragging bundles of the latest issue of a newspaper; the editor objects but Van Cleef hurls him into the dust. Hayden rescues him and introduces himself as John York. Reno knew him so short a time, he cannot be sure if he is Jay Turner when he enters the saloon. Reno says he is saving half this place for his partner, but York still plays dumb and takes a room. Cleo, his smartest girl, beloved by Kirby, is sent to find out about the man; She sees the scars in his back. But he says, "Tell him I'm York". She does. Reno lets Kirby, who fancies himself a gunhand, try to kill him. York plays cards, badly, to show he is not the expert card player Turner was; then Kirby challenges him. York beats Kirby up. When he goes for a gun, he disarms him. Reno disowns him, so Kirby goes for Reno and is pistol whipped. York drags him through the town to the lockup. The crowd has the Sheriff make him deputy. Reno's men abduct York to kill him. York digs his grave under two guns, but the two men drink so he is able to clobber both. Soon he finds Kirby has killed the drunken sheriff. Kirby could go with Cleo but he heads for the saloon, to kill Reno. York enters, and by a fast draw, kills Kirby, then talks the mob out of a hanging. The Editor backs him, reminding them they want Reno gone. York promises he will take him to hang. Reno is furious when he hears the real plan later --Turner is taking him back to Monterey to die--for the murder of his partner! That night, Reno tries to kill him with a rock; Turner sends him into the desert and picks him up later. giving him just enough water to go on. "It's a long way to Monterey", Reno sneers. In Monterey, Turner turns Reno over to the law. Reno tries to say York is Jay Turner; but this is the sheriff who had found his bullet-riddled jacket. Turner goes to Maria. She tells him when he explains his action, that what he has done is wrong, that they cannot build a life together on such a lie. He finally understands, turns himself in to the sheriff and joins Reno in a cell. Reno says "I forgive you for everything." "You're a big man, Reno," Turner says. "And smart too," Reno insists. He notes he would have had the girl turn them in--for the reward! Turner laughs with him, then slugs him on the jaw and settles in, to serve his sentence and return to Maria. Cinematography for this attractive B/W western was done by Harry Neumann; the directors were Sidney Franklin and Carl L. Hittleman. The script was by Jack Leonard and Lawrence Reisner. Robert Wiley Miller did music with "Shenandoah" as the main theme, with art direction by David Milton, sets by Joseph Kish. Sterling Hayden is strong, but Ted de Corsia, radio's most versatile actor, does award-level work as Reno. Young Lee Van Cleef is handsome as Kirby. Mary Beth Hughes makes the most of her role as Cleo; Pamela Duncan is sincere as Maria. Charles Cane as the drunken sheriff, Fred Sherman as the murdered saloon owner, I. Stanford Jolley, Mauritz Hugo, Pat Comiskey, and Byron Foulger all do fine work. Tight, memorable, a satisfying narrative by my lights, the makers can be proud of this film.