Five Guns West (1955)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Good concept, poorly executed.

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

Blistering performances.

Done on a dental floss budget Five Guns West tells the story of the Confederate Army recruiting five outlaws and pardoning them from sentences of death to help recover several thousand dollars of gold bullion. It's kind of a different slant on the plot of the much bigger budgeted Virginia City. We learn that the Confederacy is much interested more in getting their traitorous agent back to stand trial as he has a lot of contacts to give the Union and pretty much blow up their spy system.The five recruited are Michael Connors, John Lund, Paul Birch, R. Wright Campbell, and Jonathan Haze and they're about what you would expect from outlaws. The mission is to intercept a stagecoach at a particular station that will be carrying the agent and the gold. That station is operated by Jack Ingram and his niece Dorothy Malone. Remember these guys are outlaws and haven't been with a woman in a while. As that line from Casablanca would read transfered here, Dorothy constitutes a second front all her own.There are a couple interesting twists in this film involving the characters and the film was Roger Corman's directorial debut. If Corman didn't have a penchant for other genres he might have made some more interesting westerns like Five Guns West.

Five Guns West (1955) ** (out of 4) Fairly typical Western has the distinction of being the first film directed by Roger Corman. In the film, John Lund, Mike Connors, Bob Campbell, Jonathan Haze and Paul Birch play convicted men who are given a shot at a full pardon if they sneak into Union territory and hold up a stagecoach carrying $30,000 in gold. If you've ever seen a movie dealing with outlaws given a shot at redemption then you've pretty much already seen this thing. There's certainly nothing Oscar-worthy here but at the same times it's decent enough to serve well as a 78-minute time killer. I think what works in the film's benefit the most is the cast. Again, there aren't any major names in the bunch but all five men make for good performances and the characters are so detailed that you'll have no problem liking them. It was great fun seeing Campbell and Haze playing the brother team. The two are so good together than you can easily believe they are brothers. Most Corman fans will recognize Haze from countless future films including A BUCKET OF BLOOD. Dorothy Malone plays the female who works at the stagecoach office where the men end up staying. She's not too bad here even though that Southern accent is constantly going in and out from one scene to the next. The film really doesn't contain any new twists on the old story and this here is the biggest problem. Going in its easy to tell who will end up doing what and everything plays out just like you'd expect it to. For the most part the film is all dialogue as the men just sit around waiting and waiting for this stagecoach to show up. They talk, threaten one another, talk some more and continue to wait for the coach to show up. With the low budget you sort of expect this but Corman does keep everything at least moving at a good pace.

Mediocre story about 5 southern prisoners given pardons in exchange for intercepting a Confederate spy using an alleged gold shipment as an inducement. John Lund is the good guy while all the others are the bad guys. This has some good acting concerning the participants involved, but the story is ridiculous and the premise is wildly implausible. Why trust a bunch of criminals to do this kind of a job? Good grief!This is Roger Corman's first attempt at the directors chair and it shows, but at least he filmed it outdoors instead of on cheap Hollywood soundstages. Maybe he couldn't afford it. Or the box lunches, for that matter. (laughs) It also has Dorothy Malone as the love interest who not too long afterwards, would earn an Oscar for WRITTEN ON THE WIND. Talk about a career jump!3 out of 10

This early film by Roger Corman was a promising start to what turned out to be an extraordinary career as a director and producer. It demonstrated his ability to tell an interesting story without much to work with. The story was interesting, it moved right along, and there was a bit of a surprise at the end.