BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

VividSimon Simply Perfect

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Martin Bradley Jerry Thorpe may have been something of a lightweight director but even lightweights can hit pay-dirt once in awhile and "Day of the Evil Gun", which he made in 1968, is a fine and somewhat unusual western. The story is not dissimilar to such earlier westerns as "The Searchers" and "Two Rode Together", (two men searching for a woman abducted by the Apaches), but it takes a few diversions along the way. The men in question are played by veterans Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy and the slightly grizzled cast also includes Dean Jagger, Paul Fix and John Anderson as well as a young Dean Stanton sans the Harry. It's no classic, I'll grant you but it's sufficiently different to be of interest and fans of the western won't be disappointed.

bkoganbing Like Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter Glenn Ford in Day Of The Evil Gun is a gunfighter who deserted his wife and two daughters and has now come home. But on arrival discovers that they've been taken by the Apaches and he sets off to find them.Unlike Peck's wife though, Barbara Babcock has grown inpatient for her man and has given up. She's taken up with her neighbor Arthur Kennedy who declares himself in on the hunt. These two form one uneasy alliance.But they have to stay allied because they do come across a whole lot of low lifes on their journey into Apache country. On the way there they come into a charming, but coldblooded Mexican bandit in Nico Minardos, a cholera epidemic in a town with an avaricious store owner in James Griffith and some army deserters who are an outlaw gang with John Anderson in charge.During all this time Kennedy who has lorded his moral superiority over Ford develops into quite a killing machine himself. Makes for an interesting climax.In his recent biography of his father, Peter Ford who played one of the army deserters said that this was one cursed production. Some kind of malady was going around in Durango, Mexico where the film was shot and everyone in the cast came down. The most serious was Dean Jagger who nearly died. Jagger has only one scene in the film, but he plays an itinerant peddler who pretends he's crazy so that the Apaches will deal with him. He looked somewhat ravaged in his appearance. The malady whatever it was also affected the crew on Guns For San Sebastian shooting at the same time.Peter Ford who played one of the army deserters also said his father was pleased to be working with Arthur Kennedy again, they had been together on one of Ford's best films Trial. Day Of The Evil Gun is a competently made western does drag a bit in spots. Still fans of the horse opera and Glenn Ford should like it.

wmjahn I like Glen FORD and consider this western a minor classic. Pretty unknown and still waiting to be recognized even by movie buffs this little gem has definitely not yet the reputation it deserves."Directed with lazy assurance" as the TIME OUT FILM GUIDE correctly writes, by veteran director Jerry Thorpe, and played with laid back gusto by all involved, this western offers a very grim and dark view on the "old west", more influenced by the Italo-western (which was in full bloom in the later 60ies) than the classic US-flick. Gunfighter FORD, aged, bored, tired and with "have-seen-it-all" eyes, comes back home just to find his wife and 2 small daughter carried away by Apaches. Arthur KENNEDY claims his wife was about to marry him and after an incredibly tough fist-fight they team up (unwillingly) to rescue them.What follows is an odyssey through some very bizarre situations, staged with the aforementioned lazy assurance, situations, which one does not happen to see in many other US-western: everything is dark, depressing, cynical and void of any sympathy. Whereas THE SEARCHERS had some hope underneath, this is more than 10 years later and the characters, scripted by veteran scriptwriter Charles Marquis Warren, are driven by the urge to do what has to be done, but equipped with little hope. FORD plays the "lost character" in an old west with dark cynical humor, one of his best later performances. Kennedy is fine, too, and also very worth mentioning is the character played by Nico Minardos, whom you would more expect to find in any Quentin Tarantino movie than in a B-western from the later 60ies. Great rough music by Jeff Alexander! All in all a very watchable outing, made by experts, each of whom must have had a dozen or more western to his credit at the time, when they teamed up to put DAY OF THE EVIL GUN on celluloid.Watch out for this and don't miss it, it's very well worth a viewing !

helpless_dancer Good western with Ford playing a gunman trying to put his guns down and come home to the wife and kids. Upon arrival at the homestead he finds his family has been taken by injun raiders. This leads to his searching for them in a harsh land where he must battle not only the redskins on their own turf but Army deserters, a gang of cutthroat Mexican outlaws, and a man he must ride with who is close to losing his mind. Lots of action and gunsmoke.