No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Audie Murphy plays John Gant, a notorious killer for hire who shows up in Lordsburg.

Problem is, no one knows who he’s been hired to kill.

But the good folks in town are mighty anxious about the situation. The banker, saloon keeper and other top businessmen all fear Gant’s been hired by old enemies.

Three partners in a rich mine start to mistrust one another, fearing Gant might have been hired to trim the number of partners who will share in the bounty.

One man commits suicide. Two gun each other down.

As for Gant, he’s sipping coffee, watching the mayhem around him with a detached sense of humor and saying little about his true mission.

The one honest man he meets — Charles Drake as Dr. Luke Canfield — tries to figure Gant out and later tries to coerce him to leave town.

Gant will have none of it. Turns out, he’s been hired to kill someone pretty close to that very same doctor.

Audie Murphy as Joe Grant, checking into the Lordsburg hotel and causing paranoia in the process in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Charles Drake as Dr. Canfield, trying to convince Joe Gant to leave Lordsburg in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Review:

Neat and unique plot makes for one of Murphy’s better Westerns, co-starring one of his good friends, Charles Drake, who appeared in a couple of his better films.

It’s also interesting because war hero Murphy was usually the hero in most of his films. Here he plays a cold-blooded killer, who will go out of his way to make sure the people he’s been hired to kill fight for their life.

You see, that way, he can always claim he killed them in self-defense.

And while he’s seen as the evil influence, he points out at one point that he’s done nothing but show up in town. It’s the evil the town leaders have done over the course of their lives that cause them to fear his presence.

Joan Evans as Anne Benson, discovering papers that indicate why her dad might be Joe Gant’s target in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

R.G. Armstrong as Asa Canfield, father of Dr. Canfield in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Directed by:
Jack Arnold

Cast:
Audie Murphy … Joe Gant
Charles Drake … Dr. Canfield
Joan Evans … Anne Benson
Virginia Grey … Roseanne Fraden
Warren Stevens … Lou Fraden
R.G. Armstrong … Asa Canfield
Will Bouchey … Sheriff Hastings
Edgar Stehli … Judge Benson
Simon Scott … Reeger
Karl Swenson … Stricker
Whit Bissel … Pierce
Charles Watts … Sid
John Anderson … Chaffee
Jerry Paris … Harold Miller
Russ Bender … Storekeeper

Runtime: 77 min.

Will Bouchey as Sheriff Hastings, wounded and unable to do anything about the killer who’s come to town in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Edgar Stehli as Judge Benson, ill and wondering what brought Joe Gant to Lordsburg in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Memorable lines:

Gant to Dr. Canfield: “Did you ever consider you might be wasting your life? Everyone dies. All you can do is prolong their miserable lives.”

Sheriff Hastings: “Gant’s like a disease that they haven’t found a cure for.” He holds up his gun. “Except for this. He’s supposed to be better with this kind of medicine than anyone.”

Caulfield: “Are you trying to tell me the men you killed deserved to die?”
Gant: “Let’s say, most of them.”
Caulfield: “Even if I admit there are men walking around who have done things deserving of punishment, I wouldn’t grant you or anyone else the right to punish them. That’s up to the law.”
Gant: “Take two men. Say they have robbed and lied and never paid. The man who one of them has robbed comes to me and says, ‘Kill that man that robbed me.’ And I killed him. The other man becomes ill and would die, except for a physician who returns him to health, to rob and lie again. Who’s the villain in this piece? Me or the physician. Don’t look as though I’m insane. You think about it.”

Gant to Canfield: “You and I may be the only two honest men in town.”
Canfield: “Don’t compare us. We’ve got nothing in common.”
Gant: “Everybody dies.”

Whit Bissel as Thad Pierce and Karl Swenson as Earl Stricker, trying to strike a deal with Joe Gant in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Warren Stevens as Lou Fraden, trying to force Joe Gant into a showdown in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Virginia Grey as Roseanne Fraden, resigned to a bleak future with hotheaded husband Lou in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Joan Evans as Anne Benson with her ailing father, Judge Benson (Edgar Stehli) in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Simon Scott as saloon owner Hengry Reeger, one of the men wondering whether he’s Joe Gant’s target in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

John Anderson as Ben Chaffee, convinced his former partners have hired Joe Gant to kill him in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Charles Drake as Dr. Canfield and Joan Evans as Anne Benson, discussing the newcomer to town in No Name on the Bullet (1959)

Audie Murphy as Joe Gant, a notorious gunman who always gets his prey to put up a fight in No Name on the Bullet (1959)