Man or Gun (1958)

Macdonald Carey is Maybe Smith, a down-on-his-luck cowpoke who finds a flashy holster and six-gun half buried in the desert, straps it on and staggers into the town of Dutch Flats, on foot.

Two loudmouths in the saloon taunt him because of his unkept appearance, prodding him into a gunfight he tries to avoid. The loudmouths wind up dead, and Maybe Smith has a new friend, saloon owner Fran Dare.

Her dad built the saloon, but she’s ashamed of what Dutch Flats has become, a wide open town where women and children dare not walk the streets after dusk. And she blames the town’s wide open nature on Justin Corley and his hot-headed sons.

So she and fiance Mike Ferris hatch a plan — lure the Corleys to town, one by one, and have Maybe Smith gun them down. It works better than one might expect and folks in these here parts are baffled by Smith’s success with his six-gun. They even begin to wonder if it has magical powers.

But trouble lurks around the corner. Smith’s got his eye on Fran as more than just a business partner, throwing Ferris into a jealous snit. Now he, Justin Corley and Corley’s riders are all after Smith, and it might take more than a magical gun to get him out of this mess.

Review:

And a mess is just what this Western is, which goes to figure since the plot revolves around a gun suspected of having powers all its own.

It’s downright silly at times. In some instance, characters know things before they should. In others, you have to wonder what they’re thinking.

Maybe Smith, for instance, comes to realize what Fran is doing, using him as her gun, putting him constantly in danger in hopes he’ll kill off her enemies. Yet he’s still quite content to wind up in her arms.

Sheriff Jim Jackson offers a neat touch though. He’s an aging sheriff more than willing to let gunmen work things out on their own and take a report from the survivors after the fact. He also has a pet dog who advises him on checker moves, which often backfire.

Directed by:
Albert C. Gannaway

Cast:
Macdonald Carey … Maybe Smith
Audrey Totter … Fran Dare
James Craig … Pinch Corley
James Gleason … Sheriff Jackson
Warren Stevens … Mike Ferris
Harry Shannon … Justin Corley
Jil Jarmyn … Indian girl (Mrs. Corley)
Robert Burton … Deputy Burt Burton
Ken Lynch … Buckstorm Corley
Karl Davis … Swede
Julian Burton … Billy Corley
Carl York … Jack Corley
Harry Klekas … Dodd
Mel Gaines … Diego
Ron McNeil … Nick
Larry Grant … Jake

Runtime: 79 min.

Title tune: “Man or Gun”
plays over opening credits

Memorable lines:

Maybe Smith, about his newly found gun: “I didn’t know I was selling.”:
Buckstorm Corley: “I didn’t ask if you were selling. I told you I was buying.”

Fran Dare to Maybe: “I like you, mister. You try to stop a fight. Doesn’t happen often in this town.”

Justin Corley: “All I know is when you’re dead, you’re dead a long time.”