I like westerns with a strong psychological component, along with some action. That is what this film delivers. The theme throughout is brother Bless's apparent cowardice or attempt to diffuse potentially explosive situations by peaceful means. Bless(Jeffrey Hunter) is much like Gregory Peck's character in "The Big Country", released the following year. Bless's mother takes up for him when others criticize him. Nonetheless, she wants him to move to St. Louis with her. She's tired of all the hassles involved in ranching. Audrey, brother Will's girlfriend, also takes up for him, saying he just has a different attitude than the others. Even older brother Will sometimes takes up for him.The most blatant example of cowardice is when a rattlesnake is near a reclining brother Hade. Will tells him to shoot it. He tries, but his gun shakes in his hand, and he gives up, so that Will has to shoot it. Later, brother Hade and cowhand Stringer make a fake rattlesnake tethered by a string, with a dried gourd as a rattle. this is put on Bless's chest while sleeping. He jumps in a panic when he awakens, and shoots the fake snake. Later, we discover that he had a traumatic experience with a rattlesnake when a boy. It bit his father, who died, and he ran away. Another example: brother Hade chose to stay in a spot during a shootout with rustlers, with stampeding steers all around. Bless moved to a safer place, but Hade didn't follow him, and got shot dead. He was criticized for not staying with his brother, even if it was more dangerous. Another example: Cowhand Stringer was sore because Bless checked out the details of his property, which was about to be foreclosed. Stringer wanted to fight, because he saw the brothers as taking advantage of him. However, Bless and Hade finally convinced him that they were doing him a favor in buying his land. Still another example: he tried to calm a potentially explosive situation involving Hade in a saloon. Some reviewers claim there is too much talk and not enough action. However, I cite the following examples of action.1)Will shooting the threatening rattlesnake 2)Will's encounter with the squatter nesters, shooting one. 3) The explosive situation in the saloon, where one man is shot 4)Bless riding a bucking bronco 5)Rustlers stampede their cattle, including several rustlers and Hade shot dead. 6)Stringer and Bless fight, followed by Will shooting Stringer.7)Will and Bless fight. The last 2 actions constitute the climax of the film. I won't reveal the subsequent ending.Janice Rule plays the main romantic interest for both Will and Bless. She was beautiful and had a lot of charisma as an 'all American' girl. She has to make up her mind whether she wants to marry an older, well established, man(Will)or an age mate who is still uncertain of his calling(Bless).Chill Wills was also present much of the time, as an old timer, with much wisdom. I believe that Fred MacMurray, as Will, should have been cast as the father, rather than an older brother. Although Fred still looked young at 49, he was only 5 years younger than Josephine Hutchinson, who played his mother, and 28 years older than Dean Stockwell, who played his kid brother.This film is available cheaply as a DVD in a set of 8 westerns.

This is one rather unusual western with themes explored that are not normally reserved for western films. Gun For A Coward did come out in the Fifties the decade when the western finally did become adult.Fred MacMurray, Jeffrey Hunter, and Dean Stockwell are the Kehoe Brothers who have the local Ponderosa spread courtesy of their father. Unlike the Cartwrights the Kehoes still have their mother Josephine Hutchinson still living with them.MacMurray is the older and most sensible brother and he's in charge of the place. The youngest is Dean Stockwell who's a hotheaded kid. It's the middle brother Jeffrey Hunter. He's the one that mom kind of reserved for her own. The frontier life isn't for him, she wants him to go east possibly take up the law as a profession.Hunter as per mom's raising always tries to talk his way out of all situations. That doesn't always work and older brother MacMurray is forever trying to both explain him and figure him out and younger brother Stockwell is impatient with his pacifism. Is Hunter really the coward of the family?Some of the situations that normally come up with Ponderosa owners who are the good guys come up in this film. It's how they're dealt with and the attitudes expressed that are what makes Gun For A Coward a different kind of western.One I think you'll enjoy.

You have to admit: not much promise here. A Universal Studios cheapo production with a cartoon title -- "Gun For A Coward" -- that sounds like a prêt à cuire Audie Murphy number. John Larch, always a likable actor, as a bearded nasty. Directed by Abner Biberman, probably best known for his role as a slimy Wog in "Gunga Din." Wait. Can I take that back? I don't mean "Wog", of course; I mean Oriental gentleman.The whole line up suggests a crude moral tale in which a brave man, highly skilled with a six shooter, tries to hang up his guns and pretend to be a preacher or a farmer but must finally prove to the townspeople that he's a REAL MAN by killing someone. And nobody has any trouble telling who's good and who's bad because the good guys are all sympathetic and clean, while the bad guys wear black and are impolite.Fortunately, it's a bit better than that. There is one fist fight that reduces the saloon to shambles but little in the way of gunplay. Instead, the script focuses on the disparate temperaments of three brothers who run the Keogh Ranch -- perfectionist Fred MacMurray, peace-loving Jeffrey Hunter, and temerarious Dean Stockwell -- plus a rivalry between MacMurray and Hunter over Janice Rule. There's a good bit of tension and some grown-up dialog in the script. Also, a couple of clunkers in the romantic scenes. As director, Biberman does a professional job, only occasionally lapsing into absurd clichés: when two men are about to draw on each other, they spread their arms like penguins in ecstatic display.I'd like to be able to say the same for the performances but none really stands out. MacMurray hits his spots, says his lines, and projects his emotions like a bird dog on point. Hunter is handsome, brown as a Brazil nut, and adequate. Janice Rule, whom I've always considered one of the most beautiful actresses, and sexy too, of her period fails to rise above medium-rare. Dean Stockwell, as the willful youngster, is another performer I've always rather liked, though he's not at his best here. He was my supporting player in the superb "Blue Velvet", when he was a little nervous at taking the role of the surreal, gaudy, homosexual sadist, but I helped the kid over the rough spots. "Just relax!", I shouted at him, "Be yourself," and managed to duck the swing he took at me. Overall, not a bad flick. Or, at any rate, an improvement over what you might expect from the title.

A mother and her three sons run a cattle ranch. At the same time, two of the brothers compete over the same girl, though one of the brothers appears cowardly.Drama heavy western. Good thing that Universal went out and got some of the better young actors of the day which helps. Then too, there's Fred MacMurray, also a fine actor, but miscast as a 50-year old bother to both a 30-year old Hunter and Dean Stockwell at just 20 . At the same time, the supposed mother of the brood, Hutchinson, is only 5-years older than MacMurray and it shows. Too bad the screenplay couldn't make Will (MacMurray) the dad, but I guess that would have ruined the romance setup with the young Aud (Rule). Anyway, the acting is good which helps the talky narrative go down, along with the excellent Technicolor photography. The movie's biggest problem, however, is the generally slow pacing that at times drags out the talky scenes long after we've gotten the idea. A brisker pace would have made the story more condensed and riveting. The elements of a good story are there. Is Bless (Hunter) a pacifist or a coward. People come to believe the latter. But if he's to win Aud and a share of the ranch he's got to show he can handle the challenges. But not in the hot-headed way of his younger brother Hade (Stockwell).Note in the supporting cast the presence of the great Bob Steele who enlivened many a sagebrush matinée in his day. I hope he picked up a good paycheck. All in all, it's a decent western, a little heavy on the dramatics, but with a number of compensations.