No Name on the Bullet
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Movie Reviews of No Name on the Bullet
Movie Review: "Does it really matter how a man dies or when, when he really knows it's going to happen?" asks the judge. John Gant says, "No."
Summary: 4 Stars
"Buck, he's here! He's right here in town," says the out-of breath barkeep who just ran over from the town hotel to the sheriff's office.
"Who's he talkin' about? Who's Gant?" asks Harold Miller, the deputy sheriff.
"You mean you really don't know?" says the barkeep.
"I asked, didn't I?"
"He's a killer," says Sheriff Buck Hastings.
"So what? We've had some pretty good ones. We've been able to handle `em."
"Oh, no," says the sheriff. "A gunman is one thing. Gant's another."
John Gant (Audie Murphy) is a paid assassin, cool, quick, deadly and smart. He's given the name of his target and collects his fee, then sets out for a bit of lawful murdering. He arrives in a town, takes a room for a few days, scouts out his victim's weaknesses, and then goads the man into drawing on him. Gant has gunned down quite a few with this technique and has never been arrested. His services come high.
Now John Gant has ridden into the dusty town of Lordsburg, taken a room at the local hotel, and is biding his time. Every one in town knows Gant is going to kill someone, but no one knows who.
It's not long before venality, cowardice, suspicion and fear consume some of Lordsburg's leading citizens. Quite a few show that they wear a coating of moral slime. Their fear is justified by everything from double dealing, mine stealing and wife theft. John Gant is a paid assassin, but he also seems to be the dark side of humanity's conscience. Just his presence causes suicide, vigilantism and murderous gunfights between factions in the town. Gant just looks on. The one man in town who speaks for decency is the town doc, Luke Canfield (Charles Drake). Canfield is a dedicated young medical man, serious about healing, engaged to the daughter of a retired, consumptive, dying judge. Gant and Canfield find each other interesting. Canfield is intrigued by Gant's intelligence. He finds it difficult to believe Gant is nothing but a paid killer. Gant seems drawn to Canfield's honesty. They talk a little. They enjoy a game of chess. Canfield sees himself as a healer of men. Gant sees himself as a healer of problems. It can't last. We might think it's easy to figure out Gant's intended victim; we just have to remember all the clichés of B movies. We'd be wrong.
No Name on the Bullet is an efficient B western, stuffed full with the familiar faces of B movie character actors. The acting is standard B movie quality, not bad but predictable. What makes the movie stand out as something other than just a time killer is that the plot is more intriguing than you'd expect. Essentially, one passive gunman raises havoc among the leading citizens as they unmask their own flawed motives and actions. This is accomplished within an efficient use of just 77 minutes. The movie doesn't dawdle.
And then there is Audie Murphy, playing a man who finds it easy to justify, for pay, bringing death a little earlier than expected to men who mostly deserve what he deals them. Murphy was no great shakes as an actor, and he learned his craft while doing it. Partly because of his extraordinary combat war record, his struggles with what now we call Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, his early hardscrabble life and being responsible for his younger brothers and sisters, and his modesty, I've always respected the man. He wasn't a big guy, he had a baby face that sometimes helped and sometimes didn't. He applied himself to the job at hand. He had sufficient screen presence to build himself into an above-the-title and popular lead actor. Most of his movies, in my opinion, are standard Hollywood fodder. In some circumstances, however, he could deliver unusually effective performances. He's at his best, in my opinion, in The Red Badge of Courage(1951), The Quiet American (1958) and The Unforgiven (1960). All three movies are flawed, with The Quiet American being awful (and a cynical and corrupt adaptation of Graham Greene's novel) and The Unforgiven being awfully long, but Murphy is just fine. I think No Name on the Bullet ranks among these in terms of Murphy's performance.
The DVD looks just fine. There are no extras.
Movie Review: A pretty good and little-seen Western
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a pretty good little Western that I'd love to see remade. The title and premise are fantastic. Very simple, but ripe with promise. A known assassin-for-hire, John Gant (played by real life war hero Audie Murphy), arrives in town and checks into the hotel. Everyone has heard of him, but no one knows who he's there to kill. His method is also known: he provokes his target into a fight and then kills him in "self-defense," so he gets away with it legally. Gant plays it cool for several days, allowing the more tightly-wound members of the town to self-destruct under their own hidden guilt. He befriends the town doctor named Luke (Gant reflects on the Biblical reference to the apostle/physician) before Luke learns who he is.
The build-up is handled pretty well. The seedier residents immediately begin to panic and conspire against each other and Gant. None of them are particularly memorable characters, but they ratchet up the tension and provide a few great scenes when they each face Gant. The most memorable is when a tall, skinny, wife-stealing gambler gets drunk and confronts the seated assassin. Gant calmly prods him, even placing his palms flat on the table. "All right. If you think you can do it, go ahead and try. My hands are on the table. I couldn't possibly outdraw you. So go ahead and shoot."
Another stand-out scene features Gant facing down a large posse determined to kill him or drive him out of town. "There are many of you. Yes, you could kill me. If you're willing enough. But it's only fair to tell you that I'll kill you, Stricker. And you, Dutch Henry. The physician. His father. And there might even be time for you, storekeeper." The scene has been played out many times since then, most memorably for me in Tombstone, and while I don't know if No Name on the Bullet was the first to use this scene, it's certainly one of the most potent uses. (Warlock had a similar scene, and is also from 1959, by chance.)
Save for Murphy (and maybe Edgar Stehli as Judge Benson), the performances are mostly adequate. They do the job, they're certainly not bad, but they're nothing special, either. I'd like to see some stronger character actors filling the supporting roles in a remake, and a more interesting actor playing Luke. (The most interesting parts with Luke are always Gant's reaction to him rather than Luke himself.) Murphy as Gant captivated me, however. I don't think all of that was because of his talent, however. While he certainly plays his role well, with a Death-like calm and serenity, I had recently devoured his Wikipedia entry and was in awe knowing that this baby-faced actor was one of the most decorated soldiers in history. It was hard to divorce the man from the part while watching him.
The dichotomy between the killer and the healer is perhaps a little too obvious, but it works here. Some of the dialogue from Luke is a bit on-the-nose, and I longed for a more interestingly written character, but Gant's dialogue is pretty good. He has some really good lines and only a few clunkers. (Anytime he makes medical jokes to Luke, like "that's your prescription doc... fill it," I groaned.)
With a length of just 77 minutes, this is a decent Western with a few exceptional elements that are worth your time.
Movie Review: Suspenseful Western
Summary: 4 Stars
As others reviewers have noted, 1959's "No Name on the Bullet" is far from being a typical Audie Murphy western. Under Jack Arnold's expert direction, the focus here is on suspense and tension, rather than action. When gunman John Gant rides into town, most of the local citizens are justifiably nervous. Gant is a hired killer, and he seldom visits a town just to see the sights. Much of the film revolves around the questions--why is he here ? Who is he after ? Which of the town's citizens will die ? Since Gant isn't the talkative type, the suspense keeps building, not to mention the nervous paranoia of the townfolk.As Gant, Murphy delivers a chilling performance. You never doubt that, behind that baby face and modest build, is a man not to be crossed ( by all accounts, in real life, as well as in movies ). He is not intimidated by anyone, not even a hostile crowd who thinks that, by sheer numbers, it can scare him away. As the town's doctor who tries to befriend Gant, Charles Drake delivers a strong performance as he comes to realize that he cannot distract the killer from his purpose.
Other fine supporting actors further add to the quality of the film--Whit Bissell, Karl Swenson, Warren Stevens and Virginia Grey. Apart from one climactic scene with Mr. Murphy, leading lady, Joan Evans ( not to be confused with the popular comedienne ), has little to do but make coffee for her "man", Charles Drake.
I found the ending to be memorable, and--for those of you who like action--there is gunplay at certain crucial parts of the movie.
The DVD has beautiful colour, is widescreen and mono sound. The only extra is the original trailer.
Audie Murphy made a lot of westerns in the 1950s and 60s. "No Name on the Bullet" is not the most action-packed, but it is certainly one of the most interesting, and features one of his best perfomances. If he is not yet represented in your western DVD collection, this is an excellent title to start with.
Movie Review: Suspenseful with lite psychology
Summary: 4 Stars
This film is suspenseful and contains a psychological study, but the latter is lite. A gunman for hire rides into town. He is known to have killed over twenty men. His practice is to arrive, secure a hotel room, and view the town before he kills his victim. He was never arrested because he always goads his victims into drawing a gun first and then killing them in self defense. Many city inhabitants see the gunman take the hotel room and become agitated - and here is the psychology - because they had done wrong in the past or they have rivals at present, and they think that the gunman has come to kill them. Their reactions are interesting to view. Also interesting is the town doctor who tries to stop the people from killing one another because they fear that a rival hired the gunman, and trying to stop others from trying to kill the gunman before he kills them. The suspense arises from the questions: who did the gunman come to kill and did he stop in town only because his horse was limping?Movie Review: The name's Gant. John Gant.
Summary: 4 Stars
The more sinister the character, the better Audie Murphy's performance. Here, his character is more overtly evil (with Charles Drake taking on the boring goodnik role) as a known killer-for-hire who has just arrived in town setting off a paranoidal furor. And how Audie embodies cool! Dressed in black. Shaping his laidback Texas twang into something ominous. Confident. And dangerous.
He was generally dismissed as a non-actor. And Audie believed it too. So I don't know what it was he was doing in this movie, but I wish he did it more often. And I wish other actors could learn to do it, too.
This is a thoughtful Western with just enuf action to qualify as such and to keep the groundlings happy. Topping it off, there is the memorable ending. With a better director and better production values this might have been a great Western instead of just a very good one.