Rory Calhoun struggles to turn over a new leaf in Jack Arnold's sure-fire but formulaic western "Red Sundown," co-starring Martha Hyer, Robert Middleton, Dean Jagger, and Grant Williams. Hollywood westerns entered the post-war years and purveyed messages about the evils of gun-play, especially the influence of a six-gun over an individual's destiny. Earlier, the iconic Gregory Peck oater "The Gunfighter" (1951) depicted the disadvantages of toting a pistol. Similarly, "Red Sundown" deplores the way of the gun and lays it's ideology on with a trowel. For example, two hero-worshipping youngsters are obvious message bearers. Gunfighters are their role models. Our stalwart hero is a swift-shooting gunslinger himself who wants to hang up his hardware. For the record, Rory sports two six-guns; one worn on his right hip while another jockeys his left hip with the handle of the revolver facing forward. The casting in this horse opera is splendid, with Rory Calhoun living up to his usual standards. Grant Williams is particularly slimy as a paid pistolero with a leer. He has three effective scenes where he threatens a rancher and his wife, another where he turns tail and flees in the face of the protagonist's shotgun, and a scene in the hero's room. Hyer is cold, cruel ice; she doesn't believe that Ale Longmire has ridden a different trail. This is one of those lean, mean, low-budget westerns that Universal Pictures turned out like hot cakes during the 1950s. Arnold helms the action with an accomplished assurance. He never lets a scene wear out its welcome, and the production values look sturdy. The fistfight between Calhoun and Middleton is a brief but brutal knockdown drag-out affair. Middleton makes a thorough-going villain. Of course, Leo V. Gordon is the ultimate ruffian. Later, Williams starred in Arnold's iconic "The Incredible Shrinking Man."
Review of Red Sundown
