The Hired Gun (1957)

A little dull and predictable,  24 December 2020

Ellen Belden (Anne Francis) is set to be hanged for her husband’s murder in Texas.  Ellen’s uncle has one of his ranch hands bust her out of jail and escort across the New Mexico border.  The father of the dead man hires a gunman named Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to go into New Mexico and bring Ellen back to face her sentence.  But is Ellen really guilty or is someone else responsible for the murder?

Overall, I’d call this MGM programmer a bit dull.  One of my main issues is that The Hired Gun’s plot offers few, if any, surprises.  Almost everything is predictable after about 15 minutes.  Things like:  Is Ellen guilty?  Who really killed Ellen’s husband?  What will happen with Ellen and McCord?  It doesn’t take a fortune teller to predict the answers to these questions.  

In addition, try as it might, The Hired Gun never has an appropriate Western feel to it.  The sets don’t seem authentic,  the wardrobe looks too modern, and Anne Francis is more Honey West than Old West.   I know budget constraints probably played a role in this, but the lack of a Western feel really took me out of the movie.

I suppose of all the cast, I enjoyed Chuck Connors as Judd Farrow, the ranch hand, as much as anyone.  I felt for the man as time-after-time Ellen rebuffed his advances, yet he kept coming back for more. 

4/10