''Gun Glory'' is a 1957 American
Metrocolor
Metrocolor is the trade name used by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for films processed at their laboratory. Virtually all of these films were shot on Kodak's Eastmancolor film.
Although MGM used Kodak film products, MGM did not use all of Kodak's proc ...
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
film directed by
Roy Rowland starring
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger (born James Lablache Stewart; 6 May 1913 – 16 August 1993) was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame thr ...
and
Rhonda Fleming
Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamoro ...
.
Plot
Tom Early rides into a Wyoming town where he once lived with his wife and son. In the general store, owner Wainscott is annoyed when he believes clerk Jo is flirtatious with Early.
At his old ranch, Early finds his wife's grave and his 17-year-old son, Tom Jr., an immature man embittered by his father's having abandoned him and his mother.
Jo takes a job as housekeeper at Early's ranch. She resists the advances of Tom Jr., whose resentment of his father grows. When they attend church, Wainscott turns the preacher's congregation against them, insinuating Jo is living in sin with Early.
The townspeople need help, though, when gunmen working for the villainous cattleman Grimsell ambush one of their own. A posse, ineptly led by the preacher, is formed and goes after the gunmen. The preacher leads them into an ambush, and half the posse become casualties. By the time Early, who had been doing something else, gets to the ambush site, the preacher is dying and Tom Jr. is wounded in the leg, their horses gone. The preacher sends Early away with his son, knowing he is mortally wounded He takes Tom Jr. home, and he and Jo patch him up. Early then sets out after the gunmen.
Locating a trail in a pass Early knows the cattle drive must take, he uses dynamite to start a rockslide when Grimsell moves the herd down the trail. The cattle stampede to escape the rockslide and some of Grimsell's men are killed by falling rocks and the cattle. Grimsell and one of his men, Gunn, follow Early back to his ranch, getting there first.
Grimsell tries and fails to intimidate Jo and Tom Jr., giving Early time to disarm and thrash Grimsell. In a showdown, he fights with Gunn and beats him. Gunn, lying on the ground, tries to shoot Early in the back but Tom Jr. comes to his rescue, shooting Gunn down. Grimsell rides off, defeated.
Reconciled, Early and Tom Jr. acknowledge their kinship. Jo and Early decide they like each well enough to stay together, raise Tom Jr., improve the ranch, and finish building the church, as Early had promised the dying preacher he would do. They kiss to seal the bargain, their marriage implied.
Cast
*
Stewart Granger
Stewart Granger (born James Lablache Stewart; 6 May 1913 – 16 August 1993) was a British film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s, rising to fame thr ...
as Tom Early
*
Rhonda Fleming
Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamoro ...
as Jo
*
Chill Wills
Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet.
Early life
Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas, on July 18, 1902.
Career
He was a performer from early chi ...
as Preacher
*
Steve Rowland as Tom Early, Jr.
*
James Gregory as Grimsell
* Jacques Aubuchon as Sam Wainscott
* Arch Johnson as Gunn
*
Rayford Barnes
Rayford Barnes (October 23, 1920 – November 11, 2000) was an American film and TV character actor from Whitesboro, Texas.
Early years
Barnes was born in Dallas, Texas, and attended the University of Texas. He acted in plays at the university ...
as Blonde
Production
The film was based on an original story by Cyril Hume according to one account. Another says it was based on the novel ''Man of the West'' by Philip Yordan which
Ben Maddow
Ben Maddow (born David Wolff, August 7, 1909 in Passaic, New Jersey – October 9, 1992 in Los Angeles, California) was an American screenwriter and documentarian from the 1930s through the 1970s. Educated at Columbia University, Maddow began h ...
says he wrote under Yordan's name. Maddow also claims to have written the script. Yordan said "But if you read the screenplay, you'll see it fits the hero character that I've always written. I've always written the one character. The hero. A man with a cold, hard, bad past—and I never like to go into the past—with his own set of morals and everything else."
It was one of a series of Westerns MGM started making following the success of ''
The Fastest Gun Alive
''The Fastest Gun Alive'' is a 1956 MGM Western film starring Glenn Ford, Jeanne Crain, and Broderick Crawford directed by Russell Rouse.
Plot
Son of a notorious fast-drawing sheriff, George Kelby Jr. (Ford) and his wife Dora (Jeanne Crain) s ...
''.
Robert Horton was originally announced as star. Then Stewart Granger was assigned to star. The film was made towards the end of Granger's contract with MGM and he felt they assigned him to this low-budget film to punish him for not renewing with the studio.
He appeared opposite Steve Rowland, the son of the director.
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades.
Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...
was to play the preacher but had to withdraw and was replaced by
Chill Wills
Theodore Childress "Chill" Wills (July 18, 1902 – December 15, 1978) was an American actor and a singer in the Avalon Boys quartet.
Early life
Wills was born in Seagoville, Texas, on July 18, 1902.
Career
He was a performer from early chi ...
. However the music recorded by Ives for the film was retained in the finished production.
Location
The film was shot on locations in
Humboldt County, California
Humboldt County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,463. The county seat is Eureka.
Humboldt County comprises the Eureka–Arcata–Fortuna, California Micropolitan Statistica ...
.
Reception
According to MGM records, the film earned $1,125,000 in the US and Canada and $1,425,000 overseas, making a loss of $265,000.
In France, it recorded admissions of 889,516.
[Box office information for Stewart Granger films in France](_blank)
at Box Office Story
Comic book adaptation
*
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
Four Color
''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...
#846 (October 1957)
See also
*
List of American films of 1957
A list of American films released in 1957. ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
A-B
C-H
I-N
O-Q
R-T
U-Z
See also
* 1957 in the United States
References
External links
1957 filmsat the Interne ...
References
External links
*
*
Review of filmat Variety
{{Roy Rowland
1957 films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
CinemaScope films
Films with screenplays by William Ludwig
Films directed by Roy Rowland
Films adapted into comics
Revisionist Western (genre) films
1950s English-language films
American Western (genre) films
1950s American films