Main Cast: John Lund, Dorothy Malone, Bob Campbell, Jonathan Haze
Release Year: 1955
Country: US
Run Time: 78 minutes
Plot
Five convicted outlaws, sentenced to hang, are recruited by a Confederate Army officer on what could easily be a suicide mission -- they're each given a full pardon in exchange for a quick ride through hostile Indian territory to Dawn Springs, Kansas, where their job is to stop a stagecoach coming in from California. The coach is carrying Stephen Jethro, the head of intelligence for the Confederacy in California, who has sold out to the Union, and $30,000 in gold that Jethro was to use for espionage work on behalf of the south -- their job is to bring Jethro in alive if possible, but to stop him from reaching Union territory, and to bring the gold back to the Confederacy. But the temptation of that gold weighs on all of these men -- Hale Clinton (Touch Connors) and Govern Sturgess (John Lund) seem destined to fight it out to the death -- and the presence of Dorothy Malone at the Dawn Springs relief station doesn't help matters. Before it's over, there will be multiple double-crosses, one important partial redemption, and an ever growing list of casualties. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Roger Corman didn't know just how far out in front of popular culture he was when he and R. Wright Campbell conceived Five Guns West. The basic plot outline of Campbell's screenplay eerily parallels that of The Dirty Dozen, which wasn't written until years later. Equally important at the time, Corman shows a good sense of how to move a story forward while developing character, so that by the middle of 78 minute movie, we have an amazingly good sense of who these characters are and why we should care what happens to them. It's difficult to ask for much more out of a B-western made for less than $60,000 and shot in eight days, but Corman does deliver more -- he was a fast learner, from his time at 20th Century-Fox's story department, about what kind of material audiences respond to; one can detect little "lifts" out of Johnny Guitar and Rancho Notorious, as well as any number of more expensive films dealing with the background of the War Between the States. And the script also included well written parts for all concerned, from John Lund on down -- the result was an awful lot of movie, and an awfully good movie for $60,000, good enough to give James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff's American Releasing Corporation (later American International Pictures) their second release, and to launch Corman's directorial career in fine style. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Paul Birch - J.C. Haggard; James F. Stone - Uncle Mime; Jack Ingram - Stephen Jethro; Jack Bohrer; Lionel Place; Jon-Mikl Thor - Southern Captain; Touch (Mike) Connors - Hale Clinton
