The Stranger Wore A Gun is a Scott-Brown production produced for Columbia pictures and is in some respects a cut above several of the Westerns that Randolph Scott made. It was directed too by Andre de Toth, but it was far from his best.
De Toth was born in Austria-Hungary, where he was known as Sasvari Farkasfalvi Tothfalusi Toth Endre Antal Mihaly, and André De Toth is perhaps a bit more palatable to Hollywood. He fled to England before World War Two where he associated with Alexander Korda. He entered America in 1942 and made his first picture there in 1944. He did a lot of tough crime stories and did not scruple to make violent scenes.
Mercilessly critiqued, his work was loved by some. He enjoyed the Western genre and directed a total of eleven Western films, six of which were with Randolph Scott. They were mixed; some, like Riding Shotgun, 1954, were superb whereas others, like The Stranger Wore A Gun were mediocre.
Lester White, the man behind the lens, styled it in a lovely color and captured it in an okay manner. He worked on several second feature movies as well as television westerns, especially Rin Tin Tin and Roy Rogers Show, but nothing exceptional. The locations are Iverson Ranch and Lone Pine, and they are both very beautiful and appropriately western. Despite the fact that Mischa Bakaleinikoff’s original music was quite classic and outdated at times, for instance, during the equestrian pursuits, it was indeed quite quaint and demonstrates a resemblance to older 1930s holiday films. The galloping horses, for example, are accompanied by fast-forward filming. It is fortunate that they did not ‘ride’ those staged horses in the studio.
Jeff Travis (Randy) is a spy in Lawrence for Quantril during the Civil War, and that is how the story kicks off. At that time Quantrill, the Confederate guerrilla leader, was quite famous as he featured in a number of movies like Kansas Raiders in 1950 or Woman They Almost Lynched the same year as The Stranger Wore a Gun. In both pictures, he was portrayed by Brian Donlevy and, as well as on the page in Frank Gruber’s Quantrell’s Raiders (Quantrell was a frequent alternative spelling) also in ’53.
After winning the trust of the Lawrence family, Travis spins a web of betrayal. In this instance, Millican takes on the role of Quantrill, a greedy villain who repulses Randy and makes him switch from fighting for the guerrillas to the regular Confederate army (perhaps an allusion to Cole Younger). We witness the pillaging of Lawrence in 3D when a torch is being hurled at the camera as guns begin shooting, which also happens to be aimed at the audience. Later, any object that can be imagined is hurled at the camera, a chair, a jug, or the kitchen sink. Sadly, the majority of viewers at the time were only offered a 2D view of the movie and thus had a lot of perplexity in regards to what had occurred. De Toth was responsible for making the film that set the standard for all 3D movies, the House of Wax, and was released in 1953. He did have a few drawbacks though as he only had one working eye and was unable to visually experience 3D. It was simply a jarring thing in a way.
The scene now changes to the Mississippi after the war, having Travis becomes a card dealer on the riverboat. Glamorous gambler Josie Sullivan (Claire Trevor, her eleventh Western out of twelve, she was most famously Dallas in Stagecoach, and had also been courted by Quantrill in Dark Command in 1940) has an obvious sweet spot for him. In any case, when Yankees identify him as the spy from Lawrence, she bails him out. He dives off the boat and is headed for Prescott, Arizona, on Josie’s instruction.
The remaining part of the film, as well as most of it, is a stage line one since Randy manages to con his way back into the good graces of an honest father and daughter pair, this time the Conroys (Pierre Watkin and the rather timid Joan Weldon) but is unable to give them up. The Conroys’ stage is constantly ambushed by the villainous town boss Jules Mourret (George Macready) and his squad of thugs (Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and four others) and from this point on the plot is standard, although, believe me, I am not trying to say it is corny.
Mourret’s opponent, the Mexican bandit Degas has been portrayed rather clumsily by Alfonso Bedoya. It is obvious that he just learned his lines and speaks them frantically while grinning stupidly. Maybe one is bold enough to claim that the character was intended to be humorous, but if so, this is very unsuccessful. His group also consists of six guys. Didn’t anyone tell them they were supposed to have seven each? At least in Westerns, it is common knowledge that seven is the right number for posses and gangs. But then again, the budget was not waist-deep so maybe they economized a little bit in that area.
Tap Canutt, son of Yakima, is in town already, and Franklyn Farnum was on the bus, too. Ernest is overdramatic and overblown, as always. Marvin is probably the best actor after Randy. There is a proper quick-draw duel between Scott and Marvin. I shall refrain from giving away the outcome.
Kenneth Gamet penned the screenplay. He also wrote Yankee Gold, which was John M Cunningham’s work. His screenplays were often poor from a quality standpoint aside from the outstanding Coroner Creek. Gamet was one of Scott’s preferred screenwriters, but as I reported before, I believe his scripts left a lot to be desired. Scott’s oaters are miserable more than once due to poor writing. From 1957 on, he was a regular Casey Jones episodes writer and frankly, he was more cut out for TV. There is a hint in the storyline of The Stranger Wore a Gun about Yojimbo and some of its cheeky imitators, what with Randy pitting two gangs against each other.
Randy kills two birds with one stone in Heath Ledger’s hat skyline and Perry Marshall’s prime palomino Stardust. Most importantly, he demonstrates this technique aboard a riverboat. He did that in A Lawless Street, too, thus disproving the Jeff Arnold Derringer Hypothesis (JADH) that derringers were exclusively reserved for crooked gamblers, ladies, and city slickers. I mean, if Randolph Scott managed to use one, well Oh, I almost forgot. John Wayne had one too, Betsy, in Big Jake. There goes another prejudice.
There are instances when both groups try to loot the stage paying no attention to each other, thus allowing for comical moments especially when they fistfight.
Save for Mourret, all the baddies are wiped out, which leads to a shootout on Raccoon Pass that can only be described as epic. It is mysterious why the pass is in Arizona, but it is understandable if they are referring to Raton Pass. Mouret himself has to be restrained for an over-the-top death in a flaming salon.
Randy’s character finally decides to retire from guns and sets off to California with Claire, which is somewhat cliche. Romance was Randy’s weapon of choice, and unfortunately for him, Claire did not remember.
As always Scott delivers the role in his simple yet mesmerizing manner. Every Randolph Scott Western was easy to watch, this film is no exception, he managed to be somewhat lacking. Thus, it is incredibly harsh, but I find it a bit lacking.
He gave a high opinion of his ability perhaps even too high considering how Scott stated in De Toth on De Toth, “I believe it’s possible Scott was capable of being better. But he just lacked the motivation.”
In response, I found that a bit arrogant from De Toth. If only he had made a better film, Step Up might have been on Randy.
Robert Nott describes in The Films of Randolph Scott (McFarland, 2004) the amusing stories surrounding the production of the movie, including Lee Marvin’s description of the stage on fire that went by Randy while he was calmly sitting and reading The Wall Street Journal. There exists also a story about Ernest Borgnine. Once while on the De Toth set, he inquired whether Borgnine was capable of riding.
Borgnine boarded the horse and with a whole host of other riders, ‘Yeah?’ he incredulously answered. The other men that he was riding with were supposed to come thundering down a hill, but according to De Toth Scott’s double, who was next to Borgnine, didn’t make his point. Well, I have no idea what I accomplished that was monumental. This is the first time in my life I was on a damned horse.
Joan Weldon met Claire Trevor at a party years later, only for Trevor to not recognize Weldon. When Weldon reminded her about the film they did together, Trevor’s reaction was, “I remember you? I don’t even recollect the film.”
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