Released in 1957, "Forty Guns" is a B&W Western that revolves around an authoritarian rancher, Jessica Drummond (Barbara Stanwyck), who rules an Arizona county with her private entourage of hired guns. When two marshal brothers arrive to set things aright (Barry Sullivan and Gene Barry), the cattle queen finds herself falling for the former. Both have young brothers who are problematic. Eve Brent plays a curvy gun-maker.The movie has a number of positives: The opening sequence is great with its apocalypse of thundering horses led by Jessica on a lone white horse (symbolically?).The tornado sequence is well-done with Jessica getting dragged by her horse and her subsequent monologue after the storm, hooking up with Griff (Sullivan).Eastwood's renowned "Unforgiven" (1992) was obviously influenced by "Forty Guns": Both feature a remote town without justice or law and order, an existential wasteland. Crooked, murderous Sheriff Logan (Dean Jagger), embodying the breakdown of social order, is similar to Hackman in "Unforgiven"; and his suicide is very eerily done. A blind marshal (Worden) is a literal joke on "blind justice" and another symbol of the impotence of law & order.The long shoot-up of the town by the "wet-nose" Brock is grand mayhem. In "Unforgiven" the attack on the prostitute by two young cowboys (also referred to as "boys") serves as the same type of initial, youthful, anarchic transgression which has to be set straight.A gruesome, dressed-up corpse in a coffin, put on full display on the main street, with accompanying, hand-written vindictive placards, is also seen in "Unforgiven." In each it's a grotesque slap to decency and civilization.The town ambush of Griff by Charlie Savage (fitting name) next to a row of empty coffins is effective, particularly the straight-up vertical shot of the window with the assassin's rifle sticking out.While the "Woman with a Whip" song is dated, ill-fitting and corny, the score is otherwise suited to the content.The stylish, irreverent way the movie strays from Western tradition reveals it to be the precursor to the (mostly lame) spaghetti Westerns of the 60s.Other highlights include: The shot of Wes's widow in black against the sky; the leitmotifs of the foal and hearse, representing the extremes of birth and death; the comedy at the baths; the sexy female gunsmith seen through a rifle barrel, a jarring juxtaposition of the feminine and force, as is the case with Jessica.Because of these positives "Forty Guns" is often touted as a groundbreaking Western. While true, it's also a decidedly average 50's Western filled with unbelievable dialogue/characterizations and deliberately contrived scenes, not to mention the story's just dull and it's shot in B&W. Just because it strays from the mold of traditional Westerns doesn't make it a good movie.The film runs 79 minutes and was shot in Arizona.GRADE: C

This movie is a bizarre western that works, filmed like a Gothic horror film, it sets a pace for action that is brisk and unapologetic. The cavalier personalities of the main characters seem like an odd fit with the rest of the brooding characters. Dean Jagger gives a fine performance as the love struck dupe who thinks that a way to Stanwyck's heart is by being a groveling yes man and cuckold. A friend told me that the intent was to make Stanwyck's brother, her illegitimate son, and I think the strangeness of their relationship would have been less creepy had it been written that way. The way it stands there is a bit of over the top emotional attachment that is on the fringe of a husband and wife relationship.That being said, the scene where Stanwyck's is at the burnt remnants of her childhood home is sheer artistry, and visually arresting. To sum it up, the sheer weirdness and bizarre dialogue, along with the writing of the story, added with some truly unexpected twists make this a film worth viewing.

Aided by her trigger-happy brother and a small army, a cattle queen owns the county including the sheriff. But there's trouble when a marshal arrives who has a trigger-happy brother of his own. Thus a load of complications ensue.Interesting, if not wholly successful, western. There's really too many principal characters and plot for the limited time frame (79-min's.). Nonetheless, director and screenwriter Fuller manage a few real surprises. Then too, this may be the "walkingest" horse opera I've seen – note how many tracking shots Fuller manages of people walking. This may be a budget consideration since little action occurs away from town. The forty guns are forty guys riding behind queen bee Jessica (Stanwyck) like a mounted army. Oddly, these guys never talk even after being dismissed from the extra-long dinner table, and soon disappear when Jessica's little empire crumbles. There are a lot of cross-currents to the highly involved plot line, so you may need the proverbial scorecard to keep up.Unsurprisingly, Stanwyck is imperious as the big cheese running both her ranch and the town, while Sullivan is appropriately steely-eyed as the town tamer. But give John Ericson (Brockie) an upside-down Oscar for the worst over-the-top mugging since The Three Stooges. At the same time, Jagger does well as the spineless Sheriff in the employ of queen bee Jessica. Fuller shows real style at times. He certainly knows how to subvert western cliché and keep audience interest. However, in my little book, this is not one of his better films, basically because of a crowded script and budgetary limitations. I mean a lot of money went into the name cast that perhaps had to be made up elsewhere as in the pedestrian settings. All in all, it's, a rather exotic if not exactly memorable western.

I couldn't help but to be disappointed with Forty Guns, which sold itself to be starring Barbara Stanwyck as the leader of a pack of forty outlaws. I expected a lot more action, especially from Stanwyck. But considering she was 50 years old when she made this, I really should have had lowered expectations. She was more of a figurehead - a don, like Marlon Brando in The Godfather. I don't think he got to shoot people either. I was also disappointed that this wasn't too feminist, considering its synopsis. Sure Stanwyck got to crack a whip and order some men around, but she also fell for some man, and got her heart broken, and still threw herself at him anyway. And I got a little lost with the plot, which involved indistinguishable brothers doing bad stuff and/or getting shot, which set up for feuds. Still, it's hard to dislike a Barbara Stanwyck movie. Even when it's bad, she still brings class to it.