Ghost Town (1956)

Sadly Over-hyped

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.

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

A low rent western that is better than it should be. The story is nothing new and it has been seen many times before. We have the usual group of stagecoach passengers holed up in a ghost town to escape an Indian attack. The stoic hero, the rustic side-kick, the preacher, the drunk, the prim and proper lady and of course the two timing gun selling villain. While obviously shot on a shoestring budget, it does have a couple of points in it's favor. First, we have the producing team of Howard W. Koch and Aubrey Schenck. These two made a whole string of decent programmers such as, Big House USA, Shield For Murder, Fort Yuma, Crime Against Joe and Desert Sands. They knew exactly how to get the most out of their limited budgets. Second, the film is shot by Oscar winning cinematographer Joseph Biroc. Biroc shot films as varied as, It's A Wonderful Life, Cry Danger, Flight of The Phoenix, The Towering Inferno, The Grissom Gang, Bye, Bye Birdie and Unzana's Raid. The film is not a world beater by any means, but it is not a waste of time either.

This movie was shown on TCM and I am fortunate to have got to watch it even though I did miss the first first few minutes. The movie is 77 min long and was not made at too much of an expense. This was common in the 1950s when these type of movies were made to be shown as part of double features that were popular on Saturdays at that time. Usually one of the movies of a double feature was a western so no doubt this was what this western movie was for. However, you make 100s of these type of movies you are bound to have a few gems and this one is one of them. It is not a great movie classic but it is a good movie that the entire family can enjoy. The movie involves stagecoach passengers having to hold up against an Indian attack in a ghost town and the stress brings out flaws in some of them. It is a good psychological western but it also has enough action and suspense to satisfy the typical western fan. It was a TCM premier the other day so it is very likely we will get some more chances to see it again sometime in the future. And that parting shot at the end is fantastic.

Ghost Town is a mediocre independently produced western for United Artists with a cast of B picture names and competent character actors, all of whom have done considerably better.The passengers of a stagecoach plus some others whom they've come across, crossing the plains have to seek refuge in a ghost town to escape attacking Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. Generally these are a pretty scurvy lot, in fact if the Indians do wind up killing them all, it won't be any great loss to civilization.They've even got an Arapahoe Chief in their number who his tribe wants back real bad.Best of the group are miners John Smith and William Phipps. Worst of them is Kent Taylor, one real bottom feeding human being. Still you don't wind up caring whether any of them make it out.This western was doing the bottom of double features back in 1956 while the audience impatiently waited for the main feature to play. It would have to be better than Ghost Town.