Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen
Written by Burt Kennedy
Starring James Arness, Emile Meyer, Robert J. Wilke, Harry Carey, Jr., Michael Ernest, Frank Fenton, Angie Dickinson, Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez
John Wayne’s Batjac Productions made some terrific smaller films in the mid-50s. Gun The Man Down (1956) is one of them.
Burt Kennedy followed his script for Seven Men From Now (1956), the first of the Scott/Boetticher/Kennedy movies, with this solid revenge tale. James Arness, under contract to Batjac, got the lead. Andrew V. McLaglen directed — this was his first picture. Angie Dickinson was given an “introducing” credit, even though she’d appeared in a handful of things, including Tennessee’s Partner (1955). And William H. Clothier made it all look like a million bucks.
It’s coming to Blu-ray in July from Olive Films. Like anything written by Kennedy in the 50s, this is highly recommended.
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
A real “sleeper”, as the saying goes. A really good little western that fans should go for. Good to see Olive Films putting this one out.
Yes, it’s really good, and not only for Kennedy’s script, which is, as Toby says, characteristically excellent. McLaglen’s direction is also strong. After his directing career took off later, I found McLaglen often disappointing, except for SHENANDOAH, which is outstanding. But he was very good in these days–and I know he directed a lot of good “Gunsmoke” episodes with Arness. The role given to James Arness here is very different than Matt Dillon and he does well by it. Robert J. Wilke has a bigger role than usual as the main villain.
Thanks for joining in, Blake. I agree 100% about McLaglen, his pictures lost their snap as time went on. It’s hard to believe this and Something Big were the work of the same guy.
With low-budget movie-making, you’ve got to bring your creativity every day — and as budgets grow, creativity sometimes shrinks. Of course, McLaglen is just one of hundreds of directors you could say that about.
Some of the movies I have directed by Andrew V McLaglen I really enjoyed including ON WINGS OF EAGLES (TV MINI SERIES),THE SEA WOLVES ,THE WILD GEESE,BANDOLERO ,THE DEVIL’S BRIGADETHE RARE BREED, SHENANDOAH and most of the movies he directed for John Wayne .
Okay, so THE DEVIL’S BRIGADE has been criticized for copying THE DIRTY DOZEN and rightly so, but I tend to watch it more then the latter.
I don’t think I’ve seen GUN THE MAN DOWN .
I thought CHISUM was one of his better westerns. It’s coming on Blu-Ray in June.
I watched the French Sidonis DVD of REPRISAL (1956) this evening. It’s a very nice looking DVD, sharp picture and good color. It’s 1.33:1 whereas IMDB says it was originally 1.85:1 (don’t know if that’s correct or not). I enjoyed it and didn’t have a problem with the aspect ratio. It does have forced subtitles, but I’m used to them by now on these French releases and am able to simply ignore them.
Mike ,for some reason the last 2 or 3 Sidonis titles I have purchased ,I have been able to remove the subtitles .The rest have forced subs but I just ignore them .
Watched the German Filmjuwelen release of THE PLUNDERERS (1948) with Rod Cameron and Forrest Tucker. It’s in color, has an English soundtrack without subtitles, and is a good Republic western. It’s region 2 (pal), and the one drawback is that the picture is softer than we’re used to for DVD—I use a 65 inch monitor. It looked more like a good VHS.
I have to get that one.
The entertaining outdoor western RELENTLESS (1948) has been released by Sidonis with the usual forced subtitles, but the picture quality is stunning. Highly recommended.
Just read where WB Archive will release a restored version of SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON on BLU RAY in the near future .Apparently it looks good.
“Bat Masterson was always full of sheep-dip”…..
I forgot the Duke’s great line from THE SHOOTIST but it’s a goodie!
Anyway,the Pidax,Germany Blu Ray of THE SHOOTIST had been
getting some very negative reviews on Amazon de,with some folks
suggesting that it’s nothing more than an “upscaled” DVD.
Frankly,I really don’t know where these cats are coming from,in my view
the Pidax Blu Ray is lovely. The exteriors sparkle and the high def treatment
really does justice to Bruce Surtees’ wonderful low key lighting in the many
interior scenes.
Buy with total confidence I say.
THE SHOOTIST a Dino De Laurentis project was not released by
Paramount in Germany the film is licensed from Lion’s Gate.
The film is certainly an “official” release.
I was always so glad that The Duke went out on such a high note,and
he really SHOULD have won an Oscar for his great performance.
I saw the new DCP of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon at the TCM film festival last week and it looks very nice indeed. I’m sure the (not yet officially announced) Blu-ray will make everyone very happy. 🙂
Just seeing the names John Wayne or John Ford in the same sentence with the word Blu-ray makes me happy.
Pulled out the Blu-ray of The Horse Soldiers the other day. I hope you all bought one — it’s terrific. A mammoth improvement over the DVD.
I’m confused Toby, as I read on here recently that DVDs are utterly perfect and cannot be improved upon. Surely only a fool would believe that a blu-ray could be a ‘mammoth improvement’ over a DVD. Personally I have a beautiful pan and scan VHS of HORSE SOLDIERS in EP mode and I’m sticking with that.
You sure cain’t fool me with this darned new fangled technology put out by greedy studios to steal our money. No siree!
We don’t need to get the VHS vs. DVD vs. Blu-ray thing going again. If you’re happy with what you have, I don’t ever see any reason to upgrade.
Personally, I’ve always found The Horse Soldiers kinda ugly on video, from TV airings to VHS to DVD. I believe this was one of the main reasons the movie has been listed as one of Ford’s lesser works.
A John Ford movie, whether it’s color or B&W, should really pop off the screen. The man was an artist, a genius at composition, and he pushed some of cinema’s greatest cameramen to do their finest work.
The new transfer for the Blu-ray corrects many of these problems — better color and contrast, mainly. I came away appreciating the film more than ever before.
I understand your studio greed comment, and I’d often agree with you. With The Horse Soldiers, however, I think they earned my $10 several times over.
Toby, if I knew how, I would have put a smiley face icon next to my comment
which was entirely written in jest. Didn’t I read somewhere that Americans don’t ‘do’ irony …?
That’s the trouble with all this blog stuff. There’s no inflection, which I guess is why those smiley face things got started in the first place.
You got me.
Jeepers Nick!
Even a “hardcore Luddite” (thanks Paula) like me knows how to
do a 🙂
This is something coming from a bloke who does not even own
a mobile phone,let alone a computer!
BTW Paula,have you seen Shout Factory’s Blu Ray of GRAY EAGLE/
WINTERHAWK. I’ve only given it a cursory look but the p.q looks
stunning to say the least.
…and returning to the actual thread, I can confirm absolutely (and without irony) that I will be upgrading and replacing my DVD of GUN THE MAN DOWN with the incoming blu-ray. This is a taut and unpretentious Western that, along with a few standout HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL episodes, is probably amongst Andrew V. McLaglen’s better efforts. I’ve never liked McLaglen’s work that much. He comes across as to me a ‘poor man’s John Ford’ with leaden ‘epics’ like THE WAY WEST and sentimental tosh such as SHENANDOAH. McLaglen’s career seems oddly synonymous with the decline of the Western itself….It’s also nice to see the great James Arness in a Western where he isn’t playing Matt Dillon!
I agree 100%. He was an outstanding TV and low-budget feature director. Bigger projects often seemed to get away from him.
Lucky for me, I tend to prefer smaller movies anyway, and this one is terrific.
The director can’t make gold from a lousy script. You can pack it with stars but the screenplay ultimately rules good or bad. McLaglen directed good stuff on TV after the westerns started dying off. CAHILL US MARSHALL is a good example of a horrible script and budget production demands by Michael Wayne/BATJAC, and not the best performance by John Wayne, but the movie turned out okay. I have to credit McLaglen for making something decent out of a piece of crap script.
I agree with john k on the German Blu-Ray of THE SHOOTIST. I don’t know how it would look projected onto the side of a large barn, but it looked great on my 65″ Toshiba.
Back to The Horse Soldiers – agree that the Blu-Ray is a huge improvement over the DVD having had both – probably because the DVD was awful. Although it’s a little too long I think I watch the movie every July – I’m a sucker for cavalry pictures – even ones where they ride along the ridge singing while trying to be stealthy behind Confederate lines:) – anyway love Wayne and Holden’s interplay – not top-notch John Ford but I like it anyway.
I only see PLUNDERERS – 1948 from Filmjuwelen in PAL format. Will this play on my US- Sony BluRay DVD player?