Directed by Fred F. Sears
Produced by Wallace MacDonald
Story and Screen Play by David Lang
Director Of Photography: Fred Jackman, Jr.
Film Editor: Saul A. Goodkind, ACE
Music Conducted by Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Cast: David Brian (Whitey Turner), Neville Brand (Dirk Hogan), Richard Long (Roy Hanford), Lisa Davis (Kathy Phillips), Katharine Warren (Mrs. Boggs), Percy Helton (Peter Boggs), Morris Ankrum (Doc Phillips), Addison Richards (Charles Hanford), Joe Forte (Andrew Ferguson), Wally Vernon (Johnny Oakes), Paul E. Burns (Squint)
How many plot twists and double-crosses can you cram into 68 minutes? That’s something you might ask yourself about two-thirds of the way through Fury At Gunsight Pass (1956), a cheap little Columbia Western directed by Fred F. Sears.
It goes something like this: a group of bank robbers ride into Gunsight Pass. The robbery goes awry, part of the gang is captured, but the money isn’t recovered. The men of Gunsight Pass quickly become a mob, ready for a lynching. As the prisoners are being escorted out of town (to avoid the vigilantes), the rest of the gang (lead by Neville Brand) ambushes the posse, frees their cohorts and returns to town to locate the loot. With a windstorm raging, they announce they’ll start shooting civilians — one every 30 minutes — till the money is handed over.
Fury At Gunsight Pass works a bit like Allan Dwan’s Silver Lode (1954), stacking circumstance on top of circumstance and piling on plenty of suspicion and paranoia as it goes. Plenty of suspense, too. This is a well-crafted little movie.
Wallace MacDonald produced a lot of Westerns for Columbia in the 50s, including some good ones like Ambush At Tomahawk Gap (1952), The Hard Man (1957) and Return To Warbow (1958). His unit often worked from scripts by David Lang, who wrote a lot of Westerns before making his way to TV. Lang’s work here is original, very tight and economical.
David Brian and Neville Brand are appropriately shifty as double-crossing bank robbers. Richard Long is a bit wooden as one of the citizens of Gunsight Pass, though he’s good in the fight scenes. Percy Helton and Katharine Warren make quite an impression as the crooked undertaker and his wife. Lisa Davis isn’t given much to do. And, of course, Morris Ankrum is terrific as the town doctor.
Director Fred F. Sears was so prolific, cranking out one B movie after another for Columbia, it’s easy to miss his real successes among all the standard stuff. Today he’s known for Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956), a picture that benefits from remarkable stop-motion animation from Ray Harryhausen, and The Giant Claw (1957), a film completely scuttled by some of the worst, most laughable special effects in Hollywood history. Sears died in his office at Columbia in November, 1957, with eight pictures completed and waiting for release. He’s one of those B filmmakers whose work is ripe for rediscovery. His Ambush At Tomahawk Gap is a real sleeper — and so is Fury At Gunsight Pass.
Cinematographer Fred Jackman, Jr. had a lot of Westerns under his belt by the time he came to Gunsight Pass: Strawberry Roan (1948), Fighting Man Of The Plains (1949) and Apache Ambush (1955), to name a few. (He was good with Cinecolor.) A tremendous amount of Fury At Gunsight Pass was shot at Vasquez Rocks, and Jackman’s black and white, 1.85 photography looks great. Columbia made frequent use of Vasquez Rocks for their 50s Westerns. (According to a quick look at Google Maps, it’s only 43 miles from the studio.) The scenes in town, during the windstorm, which make up the last 15-20 minutes of the film, feature wind machines and tons and tons of dirt. It must’ve been absolute hell for both the cast and crew.
Columbia hasn’t gotten around to putting this one on DVD, which is a real shame. It’s unusual and suspenseful — and well worth seeking out. Highly recommended.
Thanks to Laura, I was able to see this film (in a good print) for the first time just recently.
I was really quite impressed by this taut, gritty and well-made little movie. It will have been quite cheap to make and yet shows what can be done by a team that knows what it is doing and how to cut unnecessary waste.
My own familiarity with Fred F. Sears is as a director (and sometime actor) in Charles Starrett’s “Durango Kid” movies, starting in the 40s. It seems appropiate somehow that Sears died in harness, though too young.
Thanks, Toby, for an excellent review of a fine little western that deserves to be better known.
Toby ,it’s funny how these cheap little westerns turn out good and from your description this sounds like a good one. Lets hope Colombia puts it on DVD soon .I’ve asked Olive films if they’ll consider putting 2 Alan Ladd films on DVD ,RED MOUNTAIN and THUNDER IN THE EAST with Deborah Kerr and they said their team would look into it so one can only hope .
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this film but I’m a sucker for a well-made B movie. Columbia seem to have a ton of interesting stuff sitting around in their vault – films like this would be ideal for release on one of those four movies on 2-disc sets we sometimes see.
One of the things that has come from wallowing in 50s Westerns for the last several years has been the realization that Columbia made a LOT of really good B Westerns. Wish they were easier to track down.
Yes, I’ve seen a number of terrific little Columbia westerns, and other genre pictures too, in recent years that had been unfamiliar to me. Titles like Ambush at Tomahawk Gap, Apache Territory, Three Hours to Kill & Masterson of Kansas have all been highly entertaining and leave me hungry for more.
Saddling up for this blog, I was much more familiar with Universal’s 50s Westerns than I was all the Columbias. It’s been great to have all these films I’ve never seen.
They’re quite distinctive too in their own way. Universal westerns tend to have that particular look and feel that’s very recognizable, but once you see a few more of Columbia’s output you start to note their house style as well.
Exactly! The cinematographers who shot these things were real craftsmen — and they used the new 1.85 really well.
Quite from guys like Charles Lawton to lesser know people such as Henry Freulich there was some excellent work done.
And they were using Technicolor more often for these things, when Universal was moving towards Eastmancolor (sometimes with PRINTS by Technicolor).
It’s amazing to me that Sam Katzman was actually budgeting for Tehcnicolor.
You’re right, and I’d forgotten about that. It does help make some of these movies look strong even today.
I also thought this was a good one. The multiple take, ‘NO, I want that rose petal to be orange!’, directors could take lessons from good “B” directors like Sears. (And yes, what a great wind storm at the end. The abiding image left in my mind is of the avaricious old biddy careening through it like a bat out of h—.)
Fury at Gunsight Pass sounds like the kind of 50s western that I love to see. Columbia are fairly decent at releasing their archive stuff, so this movie may see the light of day on dvd before long. However I ,unlike Colin much prefer the dvds as single items rather than four lumped together.This way a movie gets its rightfull meritous praise if it so warrants.
I’d take them either way, Ron. Those multi-film releases save on space and are a lot easier on the wallet though.
Space is starting to become a real problem with these things!
Tell me about it! That’s why I don’t mind seeing these sub-90 minute B pictures being doubled up.
The multi-film releases sell better for the distributor. A rep at Oldies.com told me this.
The more westerns they can fit into a single DVD case the merrier for me. I long ago ran out of space. I’ve doubled and tripled up DVDs already if they’re related to each other by star. That saves shelf space. No more shelves so something’s got to give. I hate the idea of renting a storage area, but it may come to that for old tapes.
As for subject of color, one of the main reasons I love ’50s westerns is the beautiful color they are in. I love it all cinecolor or Eastman or tech or warner color, if it’s color I’m happy. Only thing I don’t like is when age turns it to purple and greens.
As for Columbia releases, even if not enough are not released on DVD the rare ones do show up on TV, esp. the networks that are involved with Columbia studio, like Grit & Get and for a while there on Antenna TV. Fury At Gunsight Pass was shown on either GRIT or GET not very long ago. UNFORTUNATELY, Grit TV as of late has been showing nothing but crappy new “action” movies and they seem to have forgotten altogether ’50’s westerns. This is most disheartening, I hope they don’t go the way of all new digital channels, they all seem to start up showing the greatest of great old TV shows and movies and after a year or so the old stuff goes by the wayside and new crap takes up all programming time. Hello TV Land.
Really enjoyed this review — like the rest of you I’ve started to appreciate the Columbia ’50s Westerns in addition to Universal. 🙂 Look forward to checking this out!
Best wishes,
Laura
At one point we were getting regular Westerns from the Sony MOD
imprint. They were even mentioned on the Sony Website.
Now they just suddenly appear and their Western releases are few and
far between. More recently their MOD series has been concentrating
on more recent films.
At least we did get THE LAST POSSE an absolute gem of a programmer
Western and one of the very best ever from Columbia Pictures.
We have not however had REPRISAL! or THE HARD MAN which are
again top drawer programmers and far superior to many A Westerns.
The Fox Archive series rarely release Westerns nowadays and as
for Universal Vault it’s anybody’s guess.
Luckily most Fifties Universal Westerns have appeared in Europe
the notable exceptions being three Joel McCrea titles SADDLE
TRAMP,THE LONE HAND and BLACK HORSE CANYON.
Also on the missing list is RAILS INTO LARAMIE which has John Payne
up against bad guy “dream team” of Dan Duryea,Lee Van Cleef
and Myron Healey.
Koch in Germany have sourced a few of these rare films,recently they
gave us the excellent THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN and have just released
the even rarer BRONCO BUSTER which nobody seems to have a
decent “off air” copy of.
The stark black and white early Sixties Audie Murphy Western
SHOWDOWN is also on the missing list which is a shame because it’s
a real good one.
The only company that continues to deliver the goods is Warner Archive
who I believe have another sensational wave of ultra rare Monogram/
Allied Artists Westerns due late March.
I take on board both your comments Colin. Space does become a problem and the cost too, if buying in bulk. My own preference for single dvds I guess, just doesn’t consider the practical outlook. Unfortunately the latest round of dvds from Warner Archives ( Seven Angry Men, Bad Men Of Tombstone, Black Midnight) and Olive films ( The Quiet Gun, Stranger At My Door) are not multiples so will be a strain on both space and the wallet.
Just back from out of town, in time to say that I too very much like FURY AT GUNSIGHT PASS, which I caught up with not too many years ago, around the same time as Sears-directed AMBUSH AT TOMAHAWK GAP, also good and also written by David Lang. I’d maybe give an edge to GUNSIGHT PASS for the striking black and white cinematography which is so well attuned to a tale that is effectively tough and gripping. I especially liked those windstorm sequences which served the mood so well. And this has Neville Brand–why isn’t so great an actor more celebrated? He can’t be topped in roles like this one.
I’ve pretty much liked everything I’ve seen–and across a range of genres–by the prolific Sears and it’s sad that he died so young. It seems that B movie niche some directors fall into brings out the best in them–they handle every element with a little extra creativity and care. For me, he’s one of those guys.
I’m really enjoying all this praise for Sears. Next up: Apache Ambush (1955), which I’m really excited about.
And you’re so right about Neville Brand. He’s so good, even in junk.
I liked Sears’ BADMAN’S COUNTRY (1958) with George Montgomery and Buster Crabbe an awful lot. That’s one I’ll definitely be watching again.
In the non-Western vein, THE WORLD WAS HIS JURY with Edmond O’Brien was imperfect yet quite entertaining. And of course there was EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS!
Best wishes,
Laura
Badman’s Country is sitting here, too. Think I’ll devote the next few posts to his stuff — I’m sure enjoying them!
His The Werewolf is really well done.
Looking forward to your take on BADMAN’S COUNTRY. I was amused by the deadpan playing of Crabbe and Gregory Walcott, they made me think of them as the “Friday and Gannon” of the old West. 🙂
Best wishes,
Laura
Apache Ambush is on the Western channel this weekend. I haven’t seen it so will try to catch it or at least record it this time.
It’s not a Western but Sky Commando is another good 50 Sears movie and it stars Dan Duryea, as the hero this time, and of course he’s great, so Duryea fans as well as Sears fans might want to look out for it.
Laura ,I have BADMAN’S COUNTRY on DVDr in a Buster Crabbe collection .I thought it was a lot of fun with Buffalo Bill ,Wyatt Earp ,Bat Masterson Pat Garret and Butch Cassidy even if it wasn’t historically correct .At 68 min it wasn’t long enough.
I agree, I like short films but would have loved it if BADMAN’S COUNTRY had been a little bit longer! 🙂
Best wishes,
Laura
Y’all really have me wanting to move this to the top of the Watch Pile.
I’ll come in here too on “BADMAN’S COUNTRY”. A fun film, tautly-made with good stars – you need to see this one soon, Toby!!