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.

This western from 1957 was the second of two westerns that were shown on Sunday as part of channel 5USAs weekly western matinée, it was just another boring Sunday afternoon so I sat down to watch it,the storyline is like this, the Keough brothers, Bless(JEFFREY HUNTER),Will(FRED MACMURRAY)and Hade(DEAN STOCKWELL)run their dead father's ranch along with their mother.Bless,the middle child, has always had a fear of fighting, getting hurt and Rattlesnakes ever since he failed to prevent his father being killed by a Rattlesnake as a young boy. The boy's mother favours Bless over his two brothers and insists on treating him like a child, despite Will's attempts to turn him into a man, the mother wants to move to St Louis and take Bless with her, but she soon dies and Bless decides to remain on the ranch with his brothers. The brothers then begin a Cattle drive and Hade, the youngest boy becomes irritated with Bless' soft attitude on the trail but things soon come to a head after Hade is killed in a shootout with some rustler and Bless rides away from the trouble, Will and the other cowhands blame him for Hade's death and label him a coward, does Bless still have the chance to prove he is a man...GUN FOR A COWARD is an alright western, but Universal have done a lot better, as far as westerns are concerned it's just above average, although it could have and should have been much better. It's a bit too story driven and feels like more of a moral drama than a western, there's too much boring dialogue and corny romantic scenes and too little action. Though there are a couple of impressive action sequences, the Cattle stampede and shootout with the rustlers was fantastic and superbly shot and the Saloon fight at the end between Bless and Will was excellent but could have been done a little better. The camera-work was magnificent,especially the shots of the Cattle moving across the plains, but the version I watched on TV was 1:33:1 full screen and this made various parts of the film appear washed out looking and faded which was a little disappointing, if you ever want to watch the film then watch it on another channel in it's original 2:35:1 cinemascope format as channel 5 have a reputation for widening their films. I did love the storyline and the premise about a man trying his hardest to prove himself, the film also have a towering, strong moral to it which was a huge bonus as I myself can relate to this. The film was brilliantly scripted and I particularly liked the way it ended, SPOILER ALERT, Bless finally proves himself by beating Will in a fight and then gets to lead a posse out against the rustlers.GUN FOR A COWARD is certainly not a terrible film, it's a plausible and entertaining effort but just gets bogged down in too much dialogue and mushy scenes. The film's script, moral and cinematography build it up and make it worth watching and with a couple of exciting action scenes thrown it really isn't that bad, it's the perfect type of movie for a dull, quiet afternoon and I would be bold enough to say that it's worthy of a DVD release(a-hem Pegasus!).Overall, it's not the best western ever made, but it's far from the worst.7/10.

Gun for a Coward is directed by Abner Biberman and written by R. Wright Campbell. It stars Fred MacMurray, Jeffrey Hunter, Janice Rule, Chill Wills, Dean Stockwell and Josephine Hutchinson. Out of Universal International Pictures, film is a CinemaScope production in Eastman Color, with photography by George Robinson and music by Joseph Gershenson.Three brothers must contend with big personal differences whilst also trying to see off a band of cattle rustlers who are pillaging from their herd.But you don't cover me with your shadow.So many good things involved with this production it feels unfair to label it as dull, but dull is ultimately how it ends up being after film has run its course. The cast assembled is a strong one, the dialogue is sharp and well written, and the location photography out of Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is most pleasing. Prolific Western scorer Gershenson also produces a highly effective score, very reflective of the characters' stuttering emotions. But with a running time of almost 90 minutes the makers have over stretched the family feud premise by having too many periods of story inactivity. Biggest problem of all is that the coward of the title, Bless' (Hunter) back story is never fully formed, adding little snippets here and there doesn't do it justice. For instance: it's only late in the day that we find his reputation is tarnished outside of his family, the whole damn town are down on him. A better director than jobber for hire Biberman would surely have got more from this tortured character axis.Stockwell and Hunter are not the best of actors all told, but they fit right into the roles of two brothers made of different stuff. Stockwell does a good turn as the young and fearless one, and Hunter as the middle brother of the three effectively conveys the psychological pangs that sting him during the plot. The elder brother is played by MacMurray, who offers up a weary surrogate father performance for this fatherless family. It's the death of the father that is the catalyst for Hunter's problems. While Hutchinson adds a bit of class as the fretful mother and Wills is always good value for money. Rule gets the short straw from the screenplay, in what is a critical (two fold) role, she isn't asked to do anything other than look pretty and say soothing words to tortured Bless. The action is competently constructed, though the art of throwing a convincing punch is sadly missing here. And the ending, whilst being predictable (no shades of the far superior Saddle the Wind here), has enough warmth about it for those not in need of blackness in their Western viewings.By definition it is very much a B movie in the truest sense of the term, but there is good in the production, even if it is undone by slackness elsewhere. 5.5/10