Gunman’s Walk **** (1958, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Kathryn Grant, James Darren) – Classic Movie Review 8130

Van Heflin stars in director Phil Karlson’s intelligent and involving 1958 Technicolor and CinemaScope Western movie Gunman’s Walk as macho widowed cattle rancher Lee Hackett, who tries to lick his two sons Ed (Tab Hunter) and Davy (James Darren) into shape. But the ambitious and forceful Tab causes old Van lots and lots of bother, while the softer Darren stays firmly in line.

The drama – and the film’s social and moral conscience – arrives in the form of beautiful half-French, half-Sioux woman Clee Chouard (Kathryn Grant), whom both brothers take a shine to. Davy intervenes when Ed makes unwelcome advances towards Clee, whose brother Paul (Bert Convy) then joins the family cattle drive to Wyoming. Ed becomes a gunfighter and a killer, and heads for a showdown with his father.

Frank Nugent’s screenplay produces no new variants on the usual old story (this one is by Ric Hardman), but the team makes it work, bringing out its thoughtful, metaphorical elements, and Hunter impresses in his effective against-type casting as the bad guy. All the performers turn their stereotypes (or archetypes, maybe) into real characters. Karlson keeps his movie intense, focused and gritty, with a tough edge.

Also in the cast are Mickey Shaughnessy, Robert F Simon, Edward Platt, Ray Teal, Paul Birch, Michael Granger, Bert Convy, Paul E Burns, Will Wright, Chief Blue Eagle, Harry Antrim, Everett Glass, Dorothy Adams and Paul Bryar.

Gunman’s Walk is directed by Phil Karlson, runs 95 minutes, is made and released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Frank Nugent, from a story by Ric Hardman, is shot in Technicolor and CinemaScope by Charles Lawton, is produced by Fred Kohlmar and is scored by George Duning.

Ric Hardman wrote the original script but it was adapted by Frank Nugent. Original director Rudolph Mate dropped out and was replaced by Karlson. Darren was a Columbia contract player but Hunter was on loan from Warner Bros. Filming started in November 1957, and when tough Columbia studio head Harry Cohn saw the completed movie, he fell into tears. Karlson recalled: ‘He had two sons and this was a story about a father and two sons. He identified completely.’

By this time Hunter had independently established himself as a pop star with his number one hit Young Love, and Warner Bros cashed in with ‘Hear Tab’s runaway song-hit I’m a Runaway’ on the original print ads.

RIP Tab Hunter who died on 8 July 2018, aged 86. His autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star (2005) reveals how proud he was of his work in this movie. He relished playing against type as the bad brother and was also able to show off his superb horsemanship.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8130

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