Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon – Forty Guns (1957)

This is the second of 4 reviews that are part of the Barbara Stanwyck Blogathon being held today and tomorrow over at In the Good Old Days of Hollywood.

Thanks to Crystal for letting me take part

“Last time I killed a man was 10 years ago, a boy. He was no good like your brother but he was still a boy and I killed him. I could have made a crippling shot but I didn’t. Did you ever see a dead boy’s eyes in the sky? Threw his gun in the west. You know why I hate to get into fights? I can’t miss. Am I talking too much? In my heart I’ve always asked forgiveness before I kill just like an Indian asking for forgiveness from an animal before the slaughter. You can’t ask after you kill, it’s too late then. I didn’t come here to talk about that, I came to talk about Brockie. He put Charlie Savage’s corpse on public display in a store window. A boy who do a thing like that is dead, or nearly dead, but there’s still time. ” – Griff

Number of Times Seen – 1 (13 Jan 2016)

Brief Synopsis – Three lawmen brothers arrive in Tombstone Arizona and must fend off the nefarious female landowner and her forty armed men.

My Take on it – This is my fourth viewing of a movie about the famous shootout between the Erps and the Clantons at the OK Coral.

Of the ones Ive seen, this is the only one which tries to completely fictionalize it by changing some of the key players.  Doing this, makes the story feel even more unrealistic than it should be and it’s too bad they didn’t just stick to the original story.

I think that part of the problem here is that it tries to make the story more of a love story than a Western and it suffers because of this.

There are some good action scenes and shootouts that still make this interesting to watch at least once for anyone curious but ultimately this is nothing more than an average  Western.

Bottom Line – Not the greatest semi-adaptation of the showdown at the OK Coral. Tries too hard to be a love story and it suffers because of it.  Some nice shootouts and law debates make it worth watching at least once, but overall it’s pretty average.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Barbara Stanwyck’s stunt woman refused to allow herself to be dragged along a street by a horse, saying that it was too dangerous. Without further ado Stanwyck did it by herself. She got some bruises and scrapes, but was okay. At that time Stanwyck was 49 years old. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy (5/10)

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