zardoz-13
"The Silent Gun" comes loaded with clichés and conventions. Nevertheless, a strong cast, sturdy production values, and intelligent direction redeem this six-gun saga. Incidentally, Lloyd Bridges starred in a "Studio One" version of this western in 1956. Clyde Ware, who penned dozens of teleplays for westerns such as "Gunsmoke," "The Guns of Will Sonnett," "Rawhide," "The Road West," and "The High Chapparal," wrote the script. Lenser Howard Schwartz photographs everything in a neat, efficient, and fashion. Michael Caffey stages the gunfights, confrontations, and never lets the pace drag in this 75-minute ABC-Movie of the Week oater. Clearly, Caffey's work on 12 episodes of the World War II television series "Combat" must have served him well because he orchestrates the gunfights with flair. This psychological horse opera concerns a professional lawman who has lost his nerve. At the height of a thunderous gunfight, our wounded hero shoots an innocent girl but doesn't kill her. "The only thing between me and a dead kid was luck my gun was empty I'd would've killed her," our hero assures his saddle pal Billy Reed (John Beck) who runs interference for him. The experience proves so traumatic for Brad Clinton (Lloyd Bridges of "The Loner") that he risks death by toting an unloaded gun. Instead, Clinton relies as much as his fear as he does his reputation. One of the most charismatic and sympathetic of leading men, Lloyd Bridges suffers as the sheriff who tried to shoot a little girl who had gone to retrieve her penny. Indeed, she is very proud of that penny. This just goes to show you how inflation has devastated our economy. In the first scene, Clinton rides into a sleepy town on a Sunday morning. Billy and he look like saddle bums. As it turns out, one of the secondary villains, Trace Evans (Mark Forest of "Now They Call Him Sacramento"), awaits him in the town of Burton Stop. Evans has riflemen staked out in some buildings. Clinton proves that he doesn't like to kill men if he can disarm them. Later, when Evans and his gunmen blaze away at our hero, he reacts to their perfidy. He wounds some of them. During this predicament, Clinton catches a bullet from Trace Evans, and he has a faraway woebegone look in his eyes as Evans and company pursue him through town. One character later observes that Clinton left six men dead in Burton's Stop. The law sends the wounded Clinton into exile. Our heroes ride into another town where they get cleaned up. Clinton collides with a friend from the past, Sam Benner (Pernell Roberts of "Bonanza"), and Sam is the town boss of Cole Creek. Benner is the traditional, well-tailored city slicker businessman villain who plans to bribe, buy, or run settlers out of the plains. He wants to evict prominent land owner John Cole (Ed Begley of "Hang'em High"), but Clinton comes between them. It doesn't hurt matters that Cole's daughter Lorisa Cole (Susan Howard of "The Virginian") is strikingly beautiful and rambunctious. Benner and Clinton ultimately come to loggerheads during a friendly poker game where the charming Benner tries to bribe Clinton by allowing him to win hands. Clinton throws Benner his ill-earned winnings and Billy and he ride out of town. He rides to Cole's ranch and learn the oldster has been burned out. Ironically, Cole has all along been searching for somebody to wear a badge. We're told at one point that Clinton was a sheriff briefly. During that time, he lost his brother in a gunfight with Trace Evans. When Clinton refuses to do Benner's dirty work, Benner hires Evans. At the final showdown, the hero and villain confront each other on the street in broad daylight. We learn during that showdown that Evans—just to rub in his villainy--killed Lorisa's brother Eddie (Bobby Diamond). Naturally, Eddie's violent death occurs off-screen. Everything boils down to Clinton strapping an empty revolver and staring down Trace. Clinton bluffs his way, disarms Trace, and beats him up. Clinton banishes Benner from Coleville. "You own nothing," he informs Benner. Not only does Clinton vanquish Benner, but he also gets the girl. "Move over Lorisa," he tells her as he appropriates the reins of the buckboard team, "I'm taking you home."
gidmadrid
The opening of this made for TV movie of the week is very exciting with Lloyd Bridges taking on a gang of outlaws all by himself. At the time, the anti TV violence folks power was at it's peak. TV Detective shows could only fire their guns once during an episode and the only way to kill anyone was during a car chase ending in a car going off a cliff which Mannix seemed to do every 15 minutes. This was the reason the opening gunfight with the high body count was such a surprise during this time. As the synopsis states, Bridges almost killing a little girl leads to his carrying an empty gun for the rest of the movie. Tension is created by the veteran gunman running a bluff based on his deadly reputation to keep the badmen in line. John Beck was Bridges' side kick and was cool, but wasn't given much to do. The veteran cast made it interesting, but lack of action takes it's toll on the western fan craving excitement.
