'Five Guns West' is legendary Roger Corman's debut as director, although he had produced couple of movies before. The film was shot in nine days on $60.000 budget. It shows that the film was made by first time director with being little uneven at places, but it is still entertaining piece.Turing the Civil war, South desperately is in the need of men, so Confederate States gives pardon to five hard criminals and sending them behind enemy lines to capture the traitor and bring back the stolen gold. Sending criminals to do official government business is always interesting premise and the film doesn't disappoint at that department. The characters are interesting, and quite well developed (this is probably due to the low budget - not enough action, but plenty of interesting interactions between characters), so even with the low amount of shooting, the film is entertaining enough to keep the viewer interested - with five hardened criminals and stolen gold in the game, it can't be any other way.Quite well written screenplay, good acting, and filmed in Pathe color, 'Five Guns West' doesn't feel much like rushed low budget independent production. Nothing spectacular, but should interest hardcore Corman (and Western) fans enough.

Five criminals, some smarter than others, are pardoned by the Confederacy in order to rob a stagecoach of Union cash and capture a Confederate traitor. The five make their way to the rendezvous, where some of them menace a young woman and her elderly uncle, leading to in-fighting and the eventual battle with the US Army.It's surprising to discover that the directorial debut of Roger Corman is not only a western, but is in color as well, with good photography by Floyd Crosby and some decent outdoor locations. On a technical level, this looks better than some of Corman's later, shoe-string black and white productions.On hand is frequent collaborators like actor Jonathan Haze, Crosby, and writer R. Wright Campbell, as well as it's distributor, the soon-to-be renamed American International Pictures.As far as the actual movie goes, it gets a bit talky at times, but it's a solid enough B-picture. Also, it's easy to see why villain Mike Conners went on to bigger and better things.

Five guns west is a western made with a low budget, but with surprising results. It tells the story of five prisoners which are released on the condition that they will go on a mission for the confederates. There was a similar story in 'Only The Valiant'(1951) and later on 'The Dirty Dozen'(1967). I wonder who came out first with this idea, it proved to be a great source for films. There is no glamor here, no handsome hero, the handsome guy (Mike Connors) is really a crook and the leader is John Lund.Dorothy Malone is the girl who lives with her uncle in a deserted town, and you feel she is starving for a man, it is hard to accept her loneliness. When she dances with each of the men, you feel she is breaking so many of her own rules, that for her it is almost as if she was making love to them. The Candy brothers, Bob Campbell and Jonathan Haze are as real as it can be, one a man with no morals and the other so limited that he does not know what morals are. Paul Birch is the good bad guy who unwillingly got into trouble with the law. They are all waiting for the stagecoach and when it comes, there are some good action scenes. Roger Corman is the type of guy who seems to succeed in anything he does, and he certainly knew how to make a western.

Mediocre story about 5 southern prisoners given pardons in exchange for intercepting a Confederate spy using an alleged gold shipment as an inducement. John Lund is the good guy while all the others are the bad guys. This has some good acting concerning the participants involved, but the story is ridiculous and the premise is wildly implausible. Why trust a bunch of criminals to do this kind of a job? Good grief!This is Roger Corman's first attempt at the directors chair and it shows, but at least he filmed it outdoors instead of on cheap Hollywood soundstages. Maybe he couldn't afford it. Or the box lunches, for that matter. (laughs) It also has Dorothy Malone as the love interest who not too long afterwards, would earn an Oscar for WRITTEN ON THE WIND. Talk about a career jump!3 out of 10