Gun Glory

John Chard: God Moves In Mysterious Ways. Gun Glory is directed by Roy Rowland and adapted to screenplay by William Ludwig from Philip Yordan's novel, Man of the West. It stars Stewart Granger, Rhonda Fleming, Chill Wills, James Gregory and Steve Rowland. Music is by Jeff Alexander - with the title song "The Ninety and the Nine" song by Burl Ives - and cinematography is by Harold J. Marzorati. What we have here is a very familiar tale. Granger is gunslinger Tom Early, who returns to his home town after a number of years to find his wife has died and his son (Rowland) is unsurprisingly miffed at his father having abandoned them. The townsfolk, also, are not exactly enamoured to have him back either, but since they are in the grip of terror brought about by violent cattle baron Grimsell (Gregory), a chance for Early to make peace with all is in the offering. Granger was winding down his contract with MGM and this could hardly be seen has a triumphant fanfare finale. Yet for committed Western film fans there's still plenty to enjoy. Handsome is a word that springs to mind, Granger and Fleming positively ooze sexual beauty, the Calif locations (Bronson Canyon - Whoosh!) are magnificently brought to life via CinemaScope (Metrocolor), while costuming and set designs are most appealing. The script is weak, though, and familiarity of story demands that elsewhere the pic needs to cover the shortcomings. Action scenes are all too brief, but the stunt work on show is impressive and the construction of shoot-outs, and a rockslide sequence, certainly stirs the blood. Elsewhere, Jacques Aubuchon's lecherous windbag act gets tiresome pretty quickly, and the overt religion angles are heavy handed (even the musical score is full of biblical swirls) - the latter of which a shame because Chill Wills as The Preacher turns in the best perf in the pic. Hardly a must see movie, then, but Oater fans, and fans of the stars, are not short changed (Gregory does good villainy as well). Even if ultimately it comes off as a "going through the motions" movie that's very pretty but of little substance. 6.5/10