Shotgun

Psychological explorations in the magnificent wilds of the Southwest

A Deputy Marshal in Arizona (Sterling Hayden) goes after a ruthless killer (Guy Prescott) in the sunny wasteland, where he meets a spitfire (Yvonne De Carlo) and a suave bounty hunter (Zachary Scott).

“Shotgun” (1955) is an obscure 50’s Western so my expectations weren’t exactly great, but it’s actually pretty unique and commendable. At first, I thought it was going to be a town-bound Western, but the movie was shot primarily in the spectacular desert wilderness of the heart of Arizona. Hayden is laconic and determined while De Carlo is spirited and beautiful; meanwhile Scott is smooth and Prescott shady.

I like the psychological examination of the characters. Although the villain is wholly corrupt, most of the others function somewhere in the grey area, which makes for interesting social dynamics. The depiction of the Apaches is thankfully believable with many of them being of Amer-Indian stock. Lastly, the showdown in the last act is well done and inventive.

The film runs 1 hour, 20 minutes, and was shot at Vasquez Rocks in the high country north of Los Angeles (the opening) but mostly in the Sedona, Arizona, area (Red Rock Crossing & Oil Creek) with town scenes done at Universal City, California.

GRADE: B

Noir is my passion but Westerns are my comfort food. And Shotgun is a nice fast-food snack. Nothing too exciting going on here. Hadyen is a perfect cowboy as he always is. DeCarlo is done no favors by wardrobe. She wears a puffy pirate shirt and mom jeans through the entire film. Her hair is cut like every 50's TV housewife. A review on Amazon says her ass looked huge in those jeans. I regret reading that before watching because I checked her out every time she got on a horse with Sterling (she has some junk in the trunk, it's not the jeans).

Scott is as slimy as he always is.

The film looked great on widescreen. A few excellent scenes -- the snake bit at the beginning, and the horseback shotgun duel at the end (RIP actual snake!). Reminded me of Hayden throwing that harpoon in another western of his.

Overall, Hayden is great, DeCarlo is strangely unlikable and Scott dies in a horrible way but somehow isn't moving at all.

Sterling Hayden really just goes through the motions in this rather static western adventure. He is "Marshal Hardin", determined to avenge the death of his boss at the hands of the "Thompson" gang. On the trail of their leader, he alights upon a staked-out bounty hunter and his gal, and together the three pursue their quarry. Of course he falls for the gal (Yvonne de Carlo) so there is a little hostility with "Jeb" (Zachary Scott) as they travel, but the search for "Thompson" (Guy Prescott) proves to be pretty routine, as do the concluding scenes - despite the best efforts of some marauding Apache. Some nice photography though, but the writing and characters offers us little memorable.