Hostile Guns (1967)

George Montgomery is Gid McCool, a lawman assigned the job of taking inmates to Huntsville prison.

Tab Hunter is Mike Reno, a hot-headed young man he hires as a deputy, hoping he’ll turn out to be as much of a man as his dad.

Their cargo includes Hank Pleasant, a killer with a date with a hangman’s noose; R.C. Crawford, a railroad executive who professes his innocence; Angel Dominguez, a sheep thief hoping to learn how to cook while in jail; and Laura Mannon, a pretty middle-aged woman sentenced to three years for killing her lover.

McCord knows the trip won’t be easy. He figures Pleasant’s relatives are sure to try to free him somewhere along the route to Huntsville.

What he hadn’t counted on was the presence of Laura Mannon, or her ability to turn the head of his younger deputy.

He should have: McCord and Manon were once lovers.

George Montgomery as Gid McCool, trying to talk young Mike Reno into being his deputy in Hostile Guns (1967)

Tab Hunter as Mike Reno, the rowdy youth McCool recruits as his new deputy in Hostile Guns (1967)

Review:

Montgomery and Hunter give it their best, but the focus here is on the interplay between the lawmen and their captives. And this script isn’t “Stagecoach” and the film isn’t being directed by John Ford. At one point, the love talk between Montgomery and Yvonne DeCarlo is simply groan-worthy.

John Russell plays Hank Pleasant’s brother, a man who thinks freeing him from Montgomery will be “easy as hot pie.” Shame he and his friends are among the most inept bushwhackers the West has ever seen. And the mix of action shot outdoors and on indoor stage sets is so mismatched it’s jarring.

This marked one of three A.C. Lyle productions featuring Yvonne DeCarlo, still fetching in her mid-40s. Tab Hunter was in his mid-30s when the film was released, but still stuck in a coming-of-age role similar to his first Western appearance in “Gun Belt” 14 years earlier, also with Montgomery as his mentor.

Yvonne De Carlo as Laura Mannon, a former acquaintance of McCool’s, now traveling in his prison wagon in Hostile Guns (1967)

Leo Gordon as Hank Pleasant, a convicted killer bound for Huntsville Prison in Hostile Guns (1967)

Directed by:
R.G. Springsteen

Cast:
George Montgomery … Gid McCool
Yvonne De Carlo … Laura Mannon
Tab Hunter … Mike Reno
Brian Donlevy … Marshal Willett
John Russell … Aaron Pleasant
Leo Gordon … Hank Pleasant
Robert Emhardt … R.C. Crawford
Pedro Gonzales … Angel Dominguez
James Craig … Ned Cooper
Richard Arlen … Sheriff Travis
Emile Meyer … Uncle Joe Reno
Don “Red” Barry … Ed Johnson
Fuzzy Knight … Buck
William Fawcett … Ollie Jensen

Runtime: 91 min.

John Russell as Aaron Pleasant (right), determined to free his cousin Hank from Gid McCool in Hostile Guns (1967)

Robert Emhardt as R.C. Crawford and Pedro Gonzales as Angel Dominguez, aboard McCool’s prison wagon in Hostile Guns (1967)

Memorable lines:

Mike Reno; “If all the ugly people was thrown in a heap, you’d be on top.”
Uncle Joe: “I always liked the top.”
Reno: “You’re meaner than a grizzly with ticks in his ears.”
Uncle Joe: “I’m a grizzly bear alright.”
Reno: “You ain’t got no more milk of human kindness than a tarantula. And if you moved into his teepee, even a drunken, dog-lovin’ Indian would move out cause he couldn’t stand the smell. Uncle Joe, you stink … I want my money.”
Uncle Joe: “Now you’re going too far.”

Gid McCool:, to Mike Reno “Heard a lot of lead whistle while your pa was at my elbow. So I’m putting a stack of chips on the proposition that you’re not all big mouth. That there’s a streak of man in you.”

Angel Dominquez: “I will sing you a song so sad, it will make you happy.”

Hank Pleasant to R.C. Crawford: “If they liberate us, I’m going to put you out of your misery. A bullet in your big fat mouth.”

George Montgomery as Gid McCool, taking one two more prisoners for Sheriff Travis (Richard Arlen) in Hostile Guns (1967)

Emile Meyer as Uncle Joe Reno, the mean-spirited guardian Mike Reno breaks from in Hostile Guns (1967)

Don ‘Red’ Barry as Ed Johnson and Brian Donlevy as Marshal Willett, dealing with a ill-tempered gambler in Hostile Guns (1967)

George Montgomery as Gid McCool, knowing trouble likely lurks on the trip to Huntsville in Hostile Guns (1967)