The frontier town of Sheridan City suffers a wave of crime and violence, due in large part to the influence of powerful rancher Dade Holman. When local resident Jeff Castle (John Lupton) is shot and wounded, the town council hires gunslinger Clint Tollinger (Robert Mitchum) to re-assert law and order by any means necessary.

There is a fantastic idea at the core of Richard Wilson’s 1955 western Man with the Gun. A town terrorised by a greedy land owner and his men calls upon a mercenary to protect them, but his hard-hitting and often lethal methods threaten to be worse than the original problem. Sadly there is a poor narrative focus in the screenplay, which forces the film to witter away its core strengths in favour of unresolved romantic melodramas. Tollinger takes the job defending the town, but his real purpose is to reunite with Nelly (Jan Sterling) and learn the local of their young daughter. Meanwhile Castle resents Tollinger’s presence in town – and the effect he seems to be having on Castle’s fiancée Stella (Karen Sharpe). Dade Tolman, the apparent villain of the film and cause of all the local strife, does not even arrive onscreen until the climax.

This is a film that pulls its punches precisely where it need to press them hard. For much of its 84-minute running time the audience is strung along by several simultaneous plot threads and the promise of a violent climactic showdown. What is presented on-screen is a massive let-down: even when Tolman arrives in the centre of town it is for a heavily truncated shoot-out paired with a superficial and unconvincing dénouement. Tolliver and Nelly’s failed romance appears to spontaneously re-ignite for reasons of convenience. A promised love triangle never eventuates. A raft of supporting characters turn out to not have any sort of story arc or character development at all.

Man with the Gun came out late in 1955 – it premiered on 5 November – from United Artists and producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Its prestige behind the cameras, including photography by Lee Garmes (Detective Story, The Desperate Hours) and music by Alex North (already a three-time Oscar nominee at this point), suggest a much better picture than the one audiences received. Its strongest asset is Robert Mitchum, whose menacing charm towers over the rest of the cast. Fans of the actor will likely find more to enjoy than the general viewer.

1955 was a key year in Robert Mitchum’s career, not because of Man with the Gun but because of The Night of the Hunter. That earlier film was released in July, is widely considered one of the greatest films ever made and arguably contains Mitchum’s best-ever role and performance. By capturing the actor right afterwards provides Man with the Gun with its best chance at entertaining the audience; Mitchum is predictably marvellous here. Sadly, he’s much too good for the film that surrounds him.

1955 West is a review project to watch as many western features from 1955 as possible, in order to gain a ‘snapshot’ view of the genre at its height. According to Letterboxd, there were 72 westerns released that year. You can see all of FictionMachine’s reviews of them to date by clicking here.