This is no "The Ten Commandments, even though the good guys block the passage of the bag guys by hurling fire down on them to prevent them from moving.Otherwise, an extremely routine western where Russ Tamblyn seeks to discover the man who he claimed killed his mother. Refusing to reveal his last name, he comes upon the man and then we learn that the latter is his father. The father explains the circumstances of why he abandoned Johnny (Tamblyn) and his mother 20 years before. Wherever they'd go to live, there was always a young one wanting to test his fast speed on the notorious father.Of course, all this has to be put aside when Mexican bandits threaten them and the "hacienda" they have taken refuge in. Naturally, romance blossoms between Tamblyn and the young daughter of the owner of the estate.Surprising that Tamblyn who starred in far superior pictures such as "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Peyton Place," and "West Side Story" ever did this routine fanfare.

I switched on today before coming to work and saw the listed film 'Son of a Gunfighter' - never heard of the actors involved but stuck around to watch the adventure roll out. Bit of a giveaway film title though as it becomes apparent during the telling as to who is who and who is going to kill who. There could have been more chemistry in the blooming romance between Johnny and Pilar. But the music was really surprising - shades of the Rawhide them and when the action built up, so did the music. But what became of the bad guy laid out in stakes under the hot sun with a wet hide tied round his neck - i assume he met an inevitable agonising death as the hide dried and choked him quite slowly and painfully. Scenery was great and is the first time I have seen Maria Granada - quite a honey. For a movie now well over 40 years old, I found it quite entertaining genre wise.

The movie has a rather good typical genre revenge-story but the story gets almost completely ruined by the movie its poor directing and annoyingly bad dialog.It's not that the movie has a bad story but it's still a poorly written. And the things they say! Oh man, the spend 3 lines on things they could say with just 5 words. Some of the dialog is ridicules and at times completely redundant for the movie. Really some of the worst dialog writing I have seen in a long time. How did those actors ever agreed to say all those lines? Unfortunately the movie also feels the need to put in a female character and love-story. I mean no offense but women in westerns have just never quite worked out. Even in the best westerns, the women still felt out of place and did not worked out. I understand that it's PC and good for marketing reasons but some genres are just not created to have female characters in it. But on top of that the love-story in this movie feels rather forced and out of place and is just not quite believable, since Pilar seems like a complete bore and shallow character, that no tough gunfighter would ever fall for.It also seems silly that the biggest spoiler and surprise of the movie is also in the movie it's title. What's up with that!?The musical score for the movie was unexpectedly great. I liked it surprising much! One of the very few highlights of the movie.The directing was very poor and it ruined some of the potentially good moments of the movie. It also made some of the action seemed bad and ridicules. It's the sort of clumsy action you would normally expect to see in a '30's movie or a "The A-Team" type of series. Characters come and go in the movie and evil and good guys keep switching constantly. The main character isn't even introduced until 10 minutes into the movie. The main villains are disappointing and underused. Never fully showed in the movie why they are being considered such legendary and bad villainous characters in the West.Also non of the actors are really any great ones but then again, they also aren't really helped by the dialog in the movie.Still some of the action makes the movie worthwhile to watch, at least for the genre fans. Some action sequences are surprisingly big (seemed to me they'd watched "The Magnificent Seven" before making this movie?) and even though some of the action seems to constantly repeat itself, it's still great to watch!4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Produced near the tail-end of the western cycle, this is a handsomely photographed movie that -- in its many outdoor scenes -- makes good use of the wide-screen process. It also has a rousing musical score, though at times this score drifts too far into modern territory. However, the movie's weakened by the miscasting of its two top-billed actors. Russ Tamblyn simply isn't "tough" and "hard" enough for the kind of character he's asked to play, (such was also the case with Bobby Darin in "Gunfight at Abilene"), and Irish-born Kieron Moore can't seem to find the right accent for the half-Texan, half-Mexican character he's asked to play. (On the other hand, Fernando Rey is just right as a wealthy landowner.) What's more, there seem to be too many plot elements squeezed into this script. You have Tamblyn and his outlaw father, you have a Mexican bandit, you have Fernando Rey and his daughter, you have Tamblyn and the daughter, you have the bandit versus Rey, you have the bandit versus the outlaw father, you have ... Well, this is one of those movies in which it's hard to determine the key relationship, the key conflict. Something leaner and less cluttered would have been preferable.A small point of interest: a bare-chested Kieron Moore winds up being staked out in the desert, spreadeagle style, and left to die. This time, though, a strip of wet rawhide is tied around his neck. As the rawhide shrinks in the hot sun, it will slowly strangle him. A similar fate befell another Moore in the movies. In "Gold of the Seven Saints," Roger Moore was also staked out, but in that case the wet rawhide strips were tied around his chest. Kieron was about 40 years old at this time and he still looks in good shape, physique wise, but one wonders: why was it necessary for the bad guys to remove his shirt in order to tie that rawhide strip around their victim's neck?