No Name on the Bullet
by Jack Arnold
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Audie Murphy, Charles Drake, Joan Evans, Virginia Grey, Warren StevensDirector: Jack Arnold
Brand: Universal Studios
Cinematographer: Harold Lipstein
Producer: Jack Arnold
Editor: Frank Gross
Producer: Howard Christie
Writer: Gene L. Coon
Writer: Howard Amacker
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 77 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of No Name on the Bullet
Movie Review: Chilling Western Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
There are people who love to do "lists" on AOL with regard to movies and such, and you can usually tell something about their age and their overall exposure to artistic genres by what they list in terms of their notions of "the best". Most such lists don't don't usually reflect much other than abysmal ignorance of the subjects they address.
Any list of supposed "best westerns" that doesn't include Audie Murphy's awesome "No Name On the Bullet" is about as hare brained as one that doesn't include "The Ox Bow Incident" , "The Virginian", "The Gunfighter", "Broken Arrow", "Red River", "Dodge City", "The Searchers", "Shane", "Rio Bravo", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "Winchester 73", or John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy on it.
Fact is , the most decorated soldier...not just of World War Two...but in the entire history of the U.S. Armed Forces...could not only call artillery down on himself while he machine-gunned down an entire enemy rifle company with a .50 calbre machine gun mounted on the back of a disabled, burning tank destroyer (earning a Congressional Medal of Honor in the process)...he could also ACT. AND, if given good material and capable direction, he could do some FINE acting.
"No Name On the Bullet" is vivid, engrossing proof of that contention. This is a western that is anything BUT "run of the mill". Put it up against "High Noon" and it has twice the tension and edginess, and Audie Murphy's "John Gant" would have Gary Cooper's "Marshal Will Kane" leaving town so fast he'd leave a windstorm in his wake.
Murphy's Gant is a hired killer who rides into Lordsburg one day and sets the entire town on edge. Gant's reputation is considerable. He is said to be lightning fast with a six gun and deadly accurate.He is also known to have put many men into the ground, a lot of whom were considered good gun-hands themselves.
Gant's methodolgy is to goad his target into a shootout. In this manner the killing is waived as a "self-defense" claim...quite common and effective in the 19th century West.
In Gant's case, nobody knows who he intends to kill until the event actually goes down. And here in Lordsburg everyone from bankers to miners to saloon-keepers to store-owners worries that it might be THEM...("Everybody has enemies")
From the hour Gant hits town, stress and paranoia begin to take over. People all over town are convinced that THEY are the targets and some neighbor of theirs might be the one who hired this killer to "do" them. People turn against each other and the entire town becomes a powderkeg of volatility.
And Gant enjoys every minute of it. He enjoys psychologically terrorizing these people. Playing them. He enjoys the effect his name has on them, how they "kowtow" to him and cringe when he walks by. Oh, he plays nicey-nice and ambivalent at all times. He is polite, well-spoken, obviously sophisticated, educated, and well-read (a friend commented to me once that, if t.v.'s "Have Gun, Will Travel" Paladin character were written to be a clean shaven, babyfaced psychopath, then this would be him).
Yet there is a smug little smirk he carries around with him, and a glinting look that comes into his eyes at times that say.."watch yourself around this boyo...he's not playing with a full deck of cards". Or does he just lack true depth of feeling or conscience?
One intriguing scene has a mob of townsmen accost Gant at the porch of the city hotel. They are going to try to frighten him off...tell him to get out of town before they all cut loose on him. He looks at them withn utter contempt and urges them to have at it. He tells them which ones he's going to kill right off and then tells the rest they can take their own chances before he drops. The mob scatters quickly. They want none of what he is selling. The scene works because of the steely-eyed believability of Murphy's performance...AND because of the psychological awareness by the audience that this IS Audie Murphy on this porch...someone who in real life could street-slap "Scarface".
Gant is a very complex character as played by Murphy. He is both likable and scary at the same time. And Murphy the actor works the nuances that swing him back and forth BETWEEN the likable and the scary in brilliant fashion. This is GOOD acting
here. Murphy delivers a cowboy "boogeyman" on par with Robert Mitchum's evil preacher in "Night of the Hunter", and, on the strength of this performance in "No Name", one would have to consider that Audie Murphy could have turned in a hair-raising Norman Bates in "Psycho" if Anthony Perkins had not gotten the role.
Everyone else in this film does a great job. Filled with familiar character-actor faces throughout, the story moves along with nary a drag and just pulls you into its multi-faceded story line and holds you there right to the end.
"No Name On the Bullet". Remember that title. If you're a fan of westerns,or good movies in general, you need to be aware of it and sit yourself down to watch it sometime. It's a "Good'un".
Summary of No Name on the Bullet
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