Henry Hathaway, a man who knew how to shoot scenery, apparently forgot how to make a decent movie with 1971's Shoot Out. This quickie flick, destined for the NBC Saturday Night Movie about 10 minutes after its theatrical run, has Gregory Peck being peckish, about a minute of James Gregory being the baddie that double-crossed Peck, Robert F. Lyons as the psycho gunslinger hired by Gregory, and 7-year-old Dawn Lyn as the cutesy, foul-mouthed little 'un dumped on Peck when he gets released from prison for a robbery gone sideways.You also get the startle of seeing a hooker's slobber-covered boobs in the saloon's back room. And this thing got a GP?Hathaway's talent for lovely landscapes is lost on the viewer trying to translate the grammar-challenged westernese that spills out of everyone's mouth and with the grimacing from the scenery-chewing bad-guy behavior that would make anyone long for the quiet rationality of Richard Widmark's sociopath in Kiss of Death or the social responsibility of Andy Robinson in Dirty Harry.Just to show you how stolid Peck got toward the end of his big-star career, he gets the chance to have a heart-to-heart with a farm widow (a pretty, curvy actress named Patricia Quinn), and when she opens up to him about how lonely she is, how she drinks herself to sleep every night pining away for a man in bed, Peck doesn't kiss her or make goo-goo eyes at her, he grasps her head, and I thought, "My God, he's gonna check her teeth!"It's amazing how snarky one can get when watching a bastard stink- pot western.

Is this a classic? Well no, but it isn't terrible either. People who love westerns and the west will enjoy this film. Is this Peck's greatest film? No, but Peck being one of the best actors ever to come out of Hollywood never gave a bad performance. This film also co-stars the great character actor James Gregory who also never gave a bad performance. Veteran character actors Paul Fix and Arthur Honnicutt have small roles but give their usual fine performances. These performances makeup for some of the other poor acting by supporting players. This film has beautiful scenery, lots of action and an unusual story line. What more needs to be said? Enjoy!

I didn't vote it 10 stars because of the wonderful directing, acting, dialog or story value--because quite frankly, it doesn't have any of those going for it--I voted it 10 because I enjoyed watching this film so much.This is a western starring tall and handsome Gregory Peck, and it has some scenes and dialog that are a real hoot, as well as a couple of scenes where it is blatantly obvious the characters are not really on horseback. There is also some so-called acting by Patricia Quinn as Juliana Farrell, where she sounds like she's reading her lines out a book, rather than saying them in a natural speaking manner.Not the kind of western you see every day, that's for sure.Clay Lomax (Gregory Peck)is getting out of prison after having served 7 years for an unsuccessful bank robbery. To my amazement, the Warden hands Clay back his gun belt and gun and what's even cuter, the gun is loaded.Clay immediately unloads all the bullets from the gun. Since he definitely has plans to get back at his bank robbing partner, Sam Foley, who shot him in the back right at the scene of the hold-up and then took all the money, I don't know why he unloaded the weapon.That's just one of many strange behaviors on the part of various characters in this film. For example, when Sam shot Clay, how come no one saw him do it? And for that matter, weren't there people working in the bank - why could none of them identify Sam Foley as being one of the bank robbers? Ah, well, kiddies, we're not going to let logic interfere with a fine, rousing tale, now, are we.Sam Foley, now a rich and apparently respected citizen in the town of Gun Hill, knows Clay is out and knows he'll undoubtedly be looking for him. He hires 3 young punks, Bobby Jay Jones (Robert F. Lyons) and his 2 worthless pals, Skeeter and Pepe to follow Clay around and keep an eye on him, but he doesn't want Clay shot. Why do it this way? Why not shoot him, knowing Clay is undoubtedly gunning for him? Maybe the writer knew, if so, it never made it to the screen.After an early encounter between Clay and Bobby Jay and the boys, Clay meets a train on which he expects an old girlfriend to arrive with some money she's been holding for him.Unexpectedly the girlfriend has died and the young daughter traveling with her has been left to Clay. Decky (Dawn Lyn)is an obstinate little girl of about six, with a mind of her own.After getting stuck with Decky, Clay learns where Sam Foley is and sets out with his young charge.On the way to Gun Hill, there's another run-in with Bobby Jay and the boys, who at this point have forced a young prostitute, Alma,(Susan Tyrrell) to go along with them.During a drenching rain, Clay and Decky arrive at the ranch house of Juliana Farrell, a widow and her young son, Dutch.Juliana wastes no time getting down to business with Clay--five minutes after they meet. Apparently she's a woman who needs a man in her life--any man--considering she's just met Clay and doesn't know him at all. Ah well, life was tough on the western frontier - when a gal saw a 'good man', she figured she'd better grab him.They immediately confess their short-comings to each other. The scene is very close to being like this: Clay: You might not be a wantin' me, I've been in the pen. Juliana (undeterred): Oh yeah, well, guess what, I get drunk every night, so there! An ex-con and a possible alcoholic - now you know this has got be a romance destined for a "happily ever after" ending.Of course, Bobby Jay, Alma, Skeeter and Pepe also reach the ranch house, where Bobby Jay has loads of fun with some parlor games. The rest of the group being sour-faced spoil sports.Eventually Sam Foley comes into the story again for a rousing finish at his house, and a good time was had by all, except Bobby Jay who turns into the sport spoil this time around.

This film barely held my interest, mainly because it was fun identifying the same locations where "True Grit" scenes were filmed. The most glaring was the spot where Gregory Peck and the girl camped before he got the drop on the three outlaws. That was the same place where John Wayne, et al. raided the shack where Moon and Quincy were waiting for Lucky Ned Pepper. It even looked like the same camera angle for the initial shot. Could have been cribbed from "True Grit", who knows? Other than playing "what happened on this spot in "True Grit", there wasn't much else to recommend this film. Gregory Peck looked like he was sleepwalking, and Dawn Lyn as the little girl was annoying, at best. The music was awful - it was like something out of a TV western, or even a crime show. One plus was the performance of John Davis Chandler (credited as John Chandler here), playing yet another whiny, heavy lidded heavy. He wasn't given much to do, unfortunately, since most of the bad guy attention went to Robert F. Lyons. Not worth a second look, IMHO.