No Name on the Bullet

• Director: Jack Arnold
• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Western
• Movie Type: Psychological Western
• Themes: Out For Revenge
• Release Year: 1959
• Country: US
• Run Time: 77 minutes

Plot

John Gant (Audie Murphy) rides into the town of Lordsburg and quietly checks into the hotel. He doesn't say much, nor does he need to -- his mere presence does the talking. Gant is a killer, a hired assassin, a gunman with 23 dead men to his credit, but he is not a murderer or a criminal; all of his killings have been legal, a result of self-defense when the men he was after drew on him. When he comes to a town, someone dies as surely as if he were the angel of death -- he even tells the town doctor in Lordsburg (Charles Drake) that he's in "a similar line of work," and ends up playing chess with him. Who has he come to "see" in Lordsburg? No one is sure, but as the sheriff (Willis Bouchey) tells his deputy, it will be mighty interesting watching the leading citizens over the next few days. Sure enough, the town banker (Whit Bissell) locks himself in his office with a gun, his business partner starts packing iron for the first time in his life, the man they cheated in their dealings is also going armed; and one guilty cuckold (Warren Stevens) is positive his ex-rival has paid Gant. Less than 12 hours after that, there's no law left in Lordsburg, every dirty little secret in every man's past starts bubbling to the surface, and gunplay has broken out in the streets between the men who think their respective rivals have brought Gant to town. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Review

Jack Arnold didn't make too many movies in Cinemascope, but when he did, he knew how to fill the screen with useful picture information -- just check out High School Confidential, in case No Name on the Bullet isn't proof enough. There isn't a shot or a frame that wastes any of the space accorded him by the widescreen image. All of that, plus the superb pacing (nothing drags in this picture and, if anything, some moments seem slightly too brisk) and the fine acting (led by R.G. Armstrong as the hero's father), make this movie work extremely well. In the process, Arnold manages to cross swords with Fred Zinnemann's High Noon, depicting the fragility of the civil order in the West, even the late, almost modern West of long-settled towns; Lordsburg is depicted as being a lot like Hadleyville in the earlier movie, a town "small enough to be comfortable in, but big enough to have a future." It also benefits from Audie Murphy's understated acting in the film; for this movie, he had unknowingly adopted a style that later served Steve McQueen and Chuck Norris well, letting those around him do most of the acting (and the talking -- he doesn't have 300 words of dialogue in the whole movie) while he remains the center of attention. It's all a pretty compelling 77 minutes of viewing, and a provocative little Western. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Cast

John Alderson - Ben Chaffee; R.G. Armstrong - Asa Canfield; Whit Bissell - Thad Pierce; Willis B. Bouchey - Buck Hastings; Charles Drake - Dr. Luke Canfield; Joan Evans - Ann Benson; Virginia Grey - Roseanne Fraden; Jim Hyland - Hugo Mott; Audie Murphy - John Gant; Simon Scott - Reeler; Edgar Stehli - Judge Benson; Karl Swenson - Earl Sticker; Charles Watts - Sid; Guy Wilkerson - Uncredited farmer in opening scene; Russ Bender - Storekeeper; Jerry Paris - Harold Miller; Warren Stevens - Lou Fraden

Credit

Alexander Golitzen - Art Director, Robert Emmet Smith - Art Director, Bill Thomas - Costume Designer, John Sherwood - First Assistant Director, Jack Arnold - Director, Frank Gross - Editor, Herman Stein - Composer (Music Score), Joseph E. Gershenson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Bud Westmore - Makeup, Harold Lipstein - Cinematographer, Jack Arnold - Producer, Howard Christie - Producer, Russell A. Gausman - Set Designer, Leslie I. Carey - Sound/Sound Designer, Frank H. Wilkinson - Sound/Sound Designer, Gene L. Coon - Screenwriter, Howard Amacker - Short Story Author

Similar Movies

Last Train From Gun Hill; Decision at Sundown; The Bravados; The Man from Laramie; Terror in a Texas Town

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