My Gun Is Quick ** (1957, Robert Bray, Whitney Blake, Donald Randolph, Pamela Duncan) – Classic Movie Review 11,394

Directors George A White and Victor Saville [Phil Victor]’s 1957 film noir crime thriller My Gun Is Quick stars Robert Bray, who plays Mickey Spillane’s hard-hitting hero Mike Hammer in this tough-nosed, plot-heavy mix of murder and thievery.

Private eye Hammer finds that a prostitute’s murder leads back to the theft of a unique diamond ring, originally on her hand when he helped her during an assaulted but now missing.

Hammer and an American army colonel then try to find the ring and recover the other jewels in a cache stolen by the Nazis in World War Two and smuggled out of France after the war by the colonel.

My Gun Is Quick is an effective, low-key crime action thriller, the third in the United Artists series of Mike Hammer mysteries.

Thanks mainly to Mickey Spillane’s 1950 hard-boiled source novel, the film is enjoyable, even if it is held back by modest acting and a cheap-looking production. Pamela Duncan plays Velda, Hammer’s secretary, with Whitney Blake as Nancy Williams and Donald Randolph as Colonel Holloway.

Also in the cast are Pat Donahue, Booth Colman, Terrence de Marney, Jan Chaney, Gina Core, Richard Garland, Charles Boaz, Peter Mamakos, Claire Carleton, Phil Arnold, John Dennis, Jackie Paul, Leon Askin, and Jack Holland.

It is produced by George A White and Victor Saville (credited as Phil Victor), written by Richard M Powell and Richard Collins, and directed by Victor Saville (credited as Phil Victor and George A White.

It follows I, the Jury (United Artists, 1953), filmed in 3D and starring Biff Elliot as Mike Hammer, and director Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (United Artists, 1955), with Ralph Meeker as Hammer.

It is followed by The Girl Hunters (Colorama Features, 1963), with Mickey Spillane as Hammer, and I, the Jury (20th Century Fox, 1982), with Armand Assante as Hammer.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,394

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