TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Wizard-8 With a title like "The Fastest Gun Alive", many people will probably be expecting a western jam packed with action. Actually, there is very little action in the entire movie - it's more of a serious drama and a character study. But don't let that dissuade you, because the movie is very well done. While Glenn Ford was never thought as one of the greatest actors of the golden age of Hollywood, he shows here (as in his other movies) he could portray a character who was flawed yet sympathetic. The scenes where his character is conflicted or under great strain are very convincing. Ford really helps to sell the basic theme of the movie that being a top gun in the wild west was not the glamorous position often portrayed in other westerns - there's nothing fun about killing someone, even if it seems that the victim deserved it. There is a more human feel to the characters and situations here than you usually get in westerns. The ending is kind of predictable, and the Russ Tamblyn dance number, while spectacular and fun by itself, doesn't really fit with the dead seriousness of the rest of the movie. But aside from those two minor quibbles, the movie is a solid western for fans of the genre in the mood for something more serious and thought-provoking than usual.

A_Different_Drummer I love good movies, who doesn't, but I especially love movies that are one-of-a-kind, that break the mold, that don't quite fit the mold, constantly surprise the viewer, and ultimately deliver the goods. One of the most watchable westerns ever. Glen Ford is what could be one of his best roles, subtle, anxious, looking to do the right thing, never pushing. And Jeanne Crain doing what she does best, spurring on her man. (Opps, not trying to be sexist BUT THE ROLE WAS WRITTEN THAT WAY). And -- who knew? -- after literally 100's of Hollywood westerns have passed over the creative bridge, THIS IS THE FIRST TO POINT OUT that being "fast" takes ... Duh .. practice? Superb story -- quiet storekeeper is, in fact, a closet gunslinger who practices each and every day of his life ... as long as he can get away from the little woman, of course. All is fine is until one day the town bully pushes the little guy a bit too far, and he snaps and teaches the bully a lesson. And in the process does a gun trick that only a handful of men alive could do. And a little boy sees this ... and remembers. That's all the spoiler you get, but this one is a keeper.

kenjha A sharp-shooter puts away his guns for the sake of his family but can't escape his reputation. This is a rather strange Western in that the hero gets into trouble because he is a show off. He's itching to show people how good he is with a gun, yet he is afraid to use it in a gunfight. The cast features many familiar faces but this is not the finest hour for any of the actors. Ford looks tired. Crain looks uncomfortable. Crawford is typically blustery as the heavy (figuratively and literally). Tamblyn does a nice barnyard dance routine but it's out of place in this film. The drab cinematography and pedestrian direction don't help matters.

Robert J. Maxwell There have been any number of movies about gunslingers who have hung up their guns and forsworn violence, only to be reluctantly dragged back into the game. Some have been good and some, like "Shane", have been very good.I don't know of any movie other than this one that paints a fast draw as a disease. With Glenn Ford, peaceable storekeeper in a one-horse town, it's pathological, an obsession that breaks out and overcomes him every four years or so, much to the distress of his wife, Jeanne Craine.He's the fastest gun in the West, see. And he KNOWS he is. Yet here he is, locked away with the cracker barrels, selling dresses to ladies who complain that he's ordered the wrong color. It makes him edgy. The good people of the town of Cross Creek don't know of his latent status so they're puzzled by his increasing irritability. I mean, the poor guy has done his best to settle down but he suffers from what the German ethologists called "Funktionslust," the pleasure one takes from doing what one does best. He can help himself no more than Peter Lorre could keep away from little girls in "M." Yep, he's a sick man alright.Help is on the way. Three no-goodniks, led by the growling and bejowled Broderick Crawford, ride on into Cross Creek shortly after Ford has given up his pose as the peaceable storekeeper, had a couple of shots of whiskey, and demonstrated his uncanny skill with a six gun. Crawford has just killed a man in another town. He had no reason to, other than that he'd heard the man was fast, and Crawford takes pride in being the fastest gun in the West.A lot of movies seem to take pride in debunking the myth of the fastest slinger of six shooters. In John Wayne's last movie, "The Shootist," it wasn't being the fastest draw that enabled you to survive. But this movie doesn't debunk the myth. It IS the myth! It places the entire fantasy right in your lap, as a gift. The fastest draw wins. It's a fabrication of the kind most of us outgrow after the age of fourteen.Of course nothing was ever so simple, however much we like to think it was. As an adult, I doubt that very many lives depended upon the speed of the draw, anymore than they did with the swords the preceded the guns. A good guess is that a greater willingness to kill kept one alive.The metaphor here is a sporting contest. It's presented as an event in the Special Olympics For Imbeciles. But the idea of the fast draw contest is so endearing for some of us that actual contests have been staged. Not with real bullets of course, but with supreme accuracy in measurement. A man enters a circle, facing a light bulb. When the bulb goes on, the man draws a six gun and fires, and a photographic device measures the time it take him, as in a horse race. These contests were held within the last twenty years or so. What was going through the minds of the contestants as they played this game? Did they dream of living in the Old West, of being Glenn Ford, outdrawing others, and putting notches on their pistol grips while the dead bodies were still warm? Ford is his usual reliable self in a silly role. Jeanne Craine is still beautiful but her beauty is almost hidden behind a mask of 1956 make up. But what a supporting cast! From top to bottom, it's studded with recognizable names and faces, sometimes almost in cameo roles.They needed all the help they could get to put over this impossible and dangerous fantasy. As mythos, this goes beyond raising Lazarus, somewhere into the neighborhood of Atlantis and Mole People.