The Fastest Gun Alive (1956)

the audience applauded

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

Fantastic!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I like Glenn ford so right there we score high. Then, add a good story, a western, guns, saloon, whiskey, horses, bad guys, good guys, and a bank robbery and you got yourself a Western as good as it gets. Realize that there are so many stories of the wild west and this be one of them. I always enjoy seeing these because they remind me of how cities came to be step by step. For instance they had no fire codes, setbacks, sidewalks, curbs or gutters so a fire could wipe out an entire town. They probably did too. That's how our codes came to be. I also look for one other thing that in all my years I have only seen twice in a Western i.e. horse dung in the streets. They just always clean that up for the cameras. Me, I think it is a take-away from the realism. This movie has some good suspense, drama and some thrill moments. Notice too how everyone knew everyone else and when these cities grew larger, that didn't change. Today, the cities are so large that we rely on separate communities to maintain close ties and even then, we eliminated the front porch on the way making everyone just really stay in or in their backyards. The 50's churned out some quality Westerns and pics in general this being one of them. Recommend some beef jerky or a small dinner with a tasty drink while watching. Mount-up and lets ride!

Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford had already co-starred in Convicted and Human Desire. For their third and final pairing in The Fastest Gun Alive, MGM gave them a whole flock of familiar character faces in support who are too numerous to mention. The two play a pair of men of whom destiny put on a collision course. Broderick Crawford is a swaggering psychotic gunfighter who kills frequently to preserve his reputation as The Fastest Gun Alive. As the film opens he picks a fight with another fast gun, Walter Coy, and outdraws him with lightning speed. A later bank robbery by Crawford and his two sidekicks Noah Beery, Jr., and John Dehner puts a posse on their trail. To get fresh horses they stop off in a small town that doesn't even have a sheriff. It's also where Glenn Ford and wife Jeanne Crain operate the general store.Unknown to everyone else the mild mannered Ford is also a fast gun, taught by his father who was a legendary sheriff. But Ford is a man with issues, different than Crawford's, but the issues that both these men have are what drives this film to a conclusion. When Crawford hears about Ford being a fast gun he feels compelled to see if it is true.Glenn Ford did a series of excellent westerns in the Fifties and his career was heading toward its apex. He and Crawford are just wonderful in their contrasting characters. The editing in The Fastest Gun Alive is particularly noteworthy, especially in a church scene similar to the one in High Noon where all those familiar movie faces get to etch some good characterizations with only a few lines.The Fastest Gun Alive is an absolute must for Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford fans.

There was a time when Westerns pretty much ruled the movie screens. And many (perhaps even most) were pretty forgettable. There were occasional great Westerns (e.g., "Rio Bravo"), and others that were at least significantly above average. This is one that is quite above average.I have to get one gripe off my shoulders first, though. Russ Tamblyn. Fine performer particularly remembered for "West Side Story". But even at a barn dance, his dancing here was really out of place...despite being very good. Whose bright idea was this??? As I was watching this film, it occurred to me that it is almost the reverse of "High Noon". Here, Glenn Ford is reluctantly forced into a confrontation by a gun fighter who always seeks out those faster that he. And where are the people who are pushing our hero into a confrontation? In a church.Except for a gunfight at the beginning of the film, and the one climaxing the film, this is more a psychological Western. Why is Glenn Ford so gun shy when he's clearly the fasted gun alive? The cast here really is very good. Glenn Ford was a dependable leading man. Perhaps just under the level of actors like Cary Grant and Clark Gable. But he rarely let us down in any role, and he certainly didn't here. He carries the film and is why it's better than the average 1950s Western. Jeanne Crain is always a pleasure to watch, and she balances the need to be a forceful wife who will not tolerate her husband's addiction to guns, without being an unreasonable nag. Broderick Crawford is the primary villain here...the role he was best at. This film followed on the heels of his success in the syndicated television series "Highway Patrol". As a couple of our reviewers pointed out, he seems a bit chubby to be so fast on the draw, but he knows how to be menacing. As mentioned earlier, Russ Tamblyn is fine here, but totally out of place in the plot. Allyn Joslyn (whom I usually remember as one of the bad angels in "The Horn Blows At Midnight") is the loud mouth here, and is quite good at it. John Dehner is fine as another of the bad guy trio. I was a little sad to see one of my favorite character actors as the third bad guy, and he was rather wasted here -- Noah Beery, Jr.If you've become wary of Westerns, as I have, I recommend this one to you. It's clearly above average and has a good story with more drama than the typical shoot-em-up cowboy flick.

A remarkable western that tells a moral story - a villain with pride (the superb Broderick Crawford) goes head to head with the quiet shopkeeper with a secret and pride (the excellent Glenn Ford) - a worthy surprise ending awaits! Perhaps the scene stealer is the performance by John Dehner portraying Crawford's sidekick.Ford plays the 'Fastest Gun' and he demonstrates this to the local men when he has a little too much to drink. The exhibition is quite spectacular - and worthy of the 'Fastest Gun Alive'.Crawford's villain is a little unhinged over his desire to prove that he is the fastest on the draw. Eventually his villainy becomes even too much for his sidekicks who choose to leave him when his obsession threatens a whole town.Just before showdown time it is revealed that Ford has never drawn against another man and then comes the finale ...!A western to watch without interruption.