Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Tim Kidner Seemingly, for a good part studio-bound, this bright little western is OK, as they go. It has good colour, a couple of breezy leads, some obviously staged fights and a story that seemed as vague as everybody in the film was about Randolph Scott's identity.How anybody could quite think that a tall, lean, cowboy-looking cowboy with a ten gallon hat to boot, would ever pass off as a 'schoolteacher', I don't know! In all westerns I've ever seen, schoolteachers have been pretty, demure little damsels that are just arriving by stagecoach or have been in post for years and inevitably marries the sheriff. That's a given...

FightingWesterner Supposed killer and Army deserter Randolph Scott heads to Los Angeles sometime before the Civil War. Posing as a schoolteacher who can't shoot straight, he gets knee-deep in some intrigue involving a group of separatists, the assassination of a US senator, and their attempts to split California into free and slave states.Costumes and sets are lavish and there's lots of great old-California atmosphere. However, The Man Behind The Gun is disappointingly routine. It's really too bad, because this is really one handsome production!The actors are game and some of their characters are quite colorful. The filmmakers should have pumped a little more action and suspense into the script, or trimmed the final product to about an hour.

jcohen1 Hey I liked this flick more than I would have thought given it's from Scott's earlier block of films. An interesting plot with lots of characters, many of who standout. I liked Alan Hale as Olaf and sidekick Monk (Dick Wesson). They provided comic relief not usually present in a RS flick. Scott is his usual coxcomb, cool self. Romancing two lovely ladies (a first?) and not too shabbily. He takes his uniform off to provide a look at his less than ripped (but not too shabby frame) The film unfortunately lacks a compelling villain. Some nice California scenery (not as good as One Eyed Jacks) They kinda threw the kitchen sink into this B movie. Hey it even has a catfight where the two kittens in question manage to do no damage. Lina Myway per favor.Enjoy.

ashew I'm a huge Randolph Scott fan, but this film is a dud. The whole thing has a canned, fake, soundstage feel to it, with truly awful rear-screen projection. It has a good plot idea that the screenwriter has successfully buried in a nitwit script, which makes it impossible for the audience to become immersed in the action and truly care about any of the characters. The directing is pedestrian, and only accentuates how bad the script is instead of helping to improve it. I've seen plenty of thoroughly enjoyable "soundstage productions" before, but this is not one of them. All it does is make you appreciate the gritty Scott/Boetticher films all the more.Randolph Scott is tanned, trim, and shines that million dollar smile throughout. He's always a pleasure...even in the worst of his films. Aside from Scott, the other main reason I wanted to see this movie was due to how much I enjoyed Ms. Wymore in Errol Flynn's movie, "Rocky Mountian". In "Man Behind the Gun", she is just as beautiful, and you can tell she's a good actress, but she was forced to say some pretty dumb lines, and the blocking she was given by the director was truly awful. I've only seen Phil Carey in "Operation Pacific", and he plays the exact same character here...an arrogant pain-in-the-butt you want to beat into unconsciousness. I guess it proves he's a good actor...he made me hate him. There are some lame attempts at comic relief that only detract from the film, in my opinion. Although there are many elements to knock, I must say that I found myself truly enjoying the two Spanish songs sung in the musical numbers...but that's not why we go to see Randolph Scott movies, right?There are definitely worse Scott films out there, and this one certainly isn't unbearable, but it also certainly couldn't be deemed anything beyond mediocre.