Gunmen from Laredo * (1959, Robert Knapp, Maureen Hingert, Walter Coy, Paul Birch, Don C Harvey, Charles Horvath) – Classic Movie Review 8169

Director Wallace MacDonald’s 1959 film Gunmen from Laredo take its small place in movie history as the final Columbia Pictures Western, in a series of more than 300 low-budget films that started in 1930. It was, as they say, the end of an era. The Western had transferred from the movie to series television.

Robert Knapp stars as a rancher, Gil Reardon, who is framed and jailed for murdering his wife, but a young Indian woman called Rosita (Maureen Hingert aka Jana Davi) helps him to escape and he sets out to finds the bad guys.

Alas the Columbia Western does not exactly go out in a blaze of glory. Gunmen from Laredo is a feeble, unconvincing finish to the series, with some poor performances by actors who are unable to light up a tepid screenplay by Clarke Reynolds, though Walter Coy enjoys himself as the lip-smacking bad guy, Ben Keefer, and Paul Birch as Marshal Matt Crawford, Don C Harvey as Deputy Dave and Charles Horvath as Coloradas are welcome too.

Also in the cast are Clarence Straight, Jered Barclay [Jerry Barclay], Ron Hayes, Jean Moorhead, Harry Antrim as Judge Raymond Parker, Kermit Maynard, Hank Patterson as the stableman, John L Carson, X Brands, Bob Cason as Bob Sutton, Dan White as the jury foreman, Joseph Breen as Walker, Bill Hale as Dodge, Gil Perkins as Bowdrie, Larry Thor as Captain Garrick, Don Blackman as Smoky and Martin Garralaga as Fierro.

Gunmen from Laredo is directed by Wallace MacDonald, runs 67 minutes, is made and released by Columbia Pictures Corporation, is written by Clarke Reynolds, is shot in ColumbiaColor by Irving Lippman, is produced by Wallace MacDonald, is scored by George Duning and Paul Sawtell, and is designed by Carl Anderson.

It is shot at Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, and the Iverson Ranch, 1 Iverson Lane, Chatsworth, Los Angeles.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8169

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