Produced and Directed by William J. Hole, Jr.
Written by James Edmiston and Dallas Gaultois
Cinematography: John M. Nickolaus, Jr.
Music by Alec Compinsky
Cast: James Craig (Tom Sabin), Martha Vickers (Mary Hoag), Edgar Buchanan (Dipper), Brett Halsey (Johnny Naco), Paul Richards (Hoag), Richard Martin (Quijano), Blu Wright (Farmer Brown), John Swift (Zodie Dawes), Paul Raymond (Bartender)
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One of my favorite things about early CinemaScope pictures: those long takes. If the Scope picture is a cheap one, with setups kept to a minimum to save money, then you can count on even more long takes. And that brings us to Four Fast Guns (1959). It’s a cheap little B&W Scope Western released by Universal-International.
The premise is terrific. A town tamer is on his way to Purgatory when he comes across Tom Sabin (James Craig). Sabin ends up gunning the guy down, then rides on to Purgatory and takes on the town tamer job. Purgatory’s run by Hoag (Paul Richards), who owns the saloon — he’s who the townspeople want “tamed.” Hoag writes to three notorious gunmen, offering each $1,000 to kill Sabin. (He even asks Sabin to mail the letters!) All three show up, and all three end up locking horns with Sabin. When the last fast gun, Johnny Naco (Brett Halsey), turns out to be Sabin’s brother — and Hoag’s wife Mary (Martha Vickers) admits she’s in love with the town tamer, things get complicated. It all makes for an interesting 72 minutes.
James Craig does a good job in his take on the world-weary gunfighter. This is a common theme in 50s Westerns, of course — ranging from Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter (1950) to Fred MacMurray in Face Of A Fugitive (1959). Not a lot of time goes into the relationship between the Sabin brothers, but it’s well done. It’s another angle you see quite a bit in these films — Night Passage and Fury At Showdown (both 1957), for instance.
Four Fast Guns was Martha Vickers’ last feature. I’ll never forget her in The Big Sleep (1946). She’d do a couple episodes of The Rebel, then retire. Her scenes with Craig are well done. Mary’s love for Sabin doesn’t come out of the blue. It actually makes sense, thanks to the performances and the script from James Edmiston and Dallas Gaultois.
It was a unique idea to put Hoag in a wheelchair, and it’s great to see Richard Martin, as one of the fast guns, do a serious take on his Chito character from the Tim Holt pictures. Edgar Buchanan is as dependable as ever as Dipper, who serves as Sabin’s makeshift deputy. His character could’ve easily become a liability, but he keeps things in check most of the time.
John M. Nickolaus, Jr. shot Four Fast Guns. He also shot a few Regalscope pictures, including Showdown At Boot Hill and Desert Hell (both 1958), so he certainly knew his way around B&W Scope. (The House Of The Damned, a cheap haunted house picture that Nickolaus shot for Maury Dexter, is worth seeking out.) The bulk of Nickolaus’ career was spent in TV, shooting many episodes of Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, The Outer Limits and more. The blocking of scenes within the wide frame, bringing real life to those long takes, is very effective.
Four Fast Guns is usually listed as a 1960 picture. But it played at the Palms Theatre in Detroit (with 4D Man) in December of 1959. Released by Universal-International, it was often paired with Operation Petticoat (1959).
I love cheap movies like this, where talent and ingenuity make or break the picture. (Today’s budget-equals-quality approach to cinema is why I rarely go to the movies anymore.) Four Fast Guns is available on DVD from Kit Parker Films and VCI Entertainment in two ways — first as part of their Darn Good Westerns set, then as a standalone DVD. Either way, it looks terrific and comes highly recommended. (I’d love to see it make its way to Blu-Ray.)
50 Westerns From The 50s. 
I love these low budget westerns ,but there are still some waiting to be released on DVD.Unfortunately my contact at Mill Creek inform me that the only western programming they are releasing for the remainder of this year is the TV mini series BUFFALO GIRLS starring Anjelica Huston.
I liked “Four Fast Guns” quite a bit. I’d never seen it until a few years ago, when it was included in that VCI dvd-set. Brett Halsey was at the Memphis film festival a couple of years back, and I’d intended to ask him about his memories of the film, but I think topics managed to meander in other directions. Anyway, I almost always like these little low-budget westerns of the mid-to-late-1950s more than the prominent “A” titles that are so often cited and celebrated. Another nifty example in this vein, “Fury at Showdown” (1957) popped up on cable the other day, and I again found myself watching it.
Fury At Showdown is terrific, one of my favorites of these no-budget 50s Westerns. I’d love to hear Halsey’s thoughts on Four Fast Guns, but it was done so fast who knows what kind of impression it left.
Completely agree on Four Fast Guns, and despite the fact it is just a shade threadbare, fine entertainment provided by all. Glad to see James Craig getting some love here. An interesting guy and much more than he is usually pictured as being.
I actually first saw “FOUR FAST GUNS” on the big screen in 1960 as part of a double bill here in the UK though I can’t remember what it was paired with (need David Rayner for this as he is bound to know).
When I finally got to see it again on TV in recent years I thought it seemed more threadbare than I remembered but still well worth seeing. James Craig did a pretty good job in it.
Around that time I got to see quite a few budget oaters at our local fleapit and this one and “FRONTIER GAMBLER” always kind of stood out in the memory.
I’ve never seen Frontier Gambler. Great cast.
Jerry,sorry to be the bearer of bad news .I spoke to Renown and they have all THE DETECTIVES episodes and own the UK rights ,but won’t release a collection because it costs them 2000 pound an episode .I can understand their concern about the cost but don’t understand why they got our hopes up in the first place and why they even own it if they are not going to release it.If I put up the money they’ll make it happen!!HA ,HA.
Gosh, thanks for getting back on that, Graham! Good news (I guess) if they now have ALL the half-hour episodes but it would have been great to have a set released. 96 episodes would have made it a pretty big set, I suppose.
Jerry,doesn’t look like it’s happening any time soon .Couple of companies interested ,VCI ,SHOUT ,SIDONIS, but who knows .This was a good series and should be on DVD.
Always enjoyed Richard Martin’s’ work with Tim Holt in the fine series of westerns they did after the war. Without question my favorite side-kick. He was kind enough to send me an autographed studio still back in 1994, just a few months before he passed on. He spent the latter part of his life selling life insurance.
A great piece Toby which shows why your commentaries are so good-
plenty of interesting info- as well as a well chosen film I might add.
BTW- FOUR FAST GUNS was released in the UK as the B picture to
DENTIST IN THE CHAIR with Bob Monkhouse,Kenneth Connor
and Peggy Cummins.
Writer James Edmiston did not have a huge list of credits and according to
imdb passed away at a very early age 47.
Possibly his best film was A DAY OF FURY an exceptional Universal
programmer Western-one of the very best in my book.
Of Edmiston’s TV credits there was the classic RAWHIDE episode
“Incident With An Executioner” with Dan Duryea going full tilt.
Edmiston’s last credit was the B Western RIDER ON A DEAD HORSE
an interesting little picture hampered by a very weak cast.
Other interesting genre pictures associated with Edmiston are
DANGEROUS MISSION and THE DEVIL’S HAIRPIN.
FRONTIER GAMBLER is an ultra low budget Western set version of
LAURA and it’s pretty good despite its threadbare production values.
FRONTIER GAMBLER was one of those very cheap Sam Newfield
Associated Releasing films possibly financed by Lippert.
Other films in this short lived series include Newfield’s LAST OF THE
DESPERADOES a Pat Garrett saga also with James Craig.
Another Associated Releasing film not associated with Newfield was
TWO GUN LADY championed by Blake Lucas,no less.
…’phone home Blake..we miss you.
Blake is the only esteemed writer that I know of to champion director
Richard Bartlett.
I do know that I think that I saw FRONTIER GAMBLER as the B picture
to one of those British Naval comedy films like UP THE CREEK or
similar,perhaps David Rayner can assist here.
It’s funny what you turn up when you imdb certain people.
Noting that FRONTIER GAMBLER and LAST OF THE DESPERADOES
was shot by Edward Linden I thought I’d research him a bit more.
He went right back to the silent days and ended up working on KING KONG
and SON OF KONG.
Thereafter it was loads of ultra cheap Westerns and exploitation pics before
more or less vanishing around 1943.
Then Linden turns up over a decade later on the two aforementioned
Westerns,which more or less rounded off his screen career,.
Round about that time he shot Toby’s favourite THE WEREWOLF surely
one of the most strikingly shot 50’s horrors ever.
An interesting guy another DOP with a similar career was Brydon Baker.
I love doing this sort of thing,plus the fact you turn up a ton of B Movies
that you have never heard of-perhaps with good reason.
Glad you brought up Linden. He doesn’t get the attention he deserves. Of course, now that you’ve brought up The Werewolf, I’ll have to watch it over the weekend!
Four Fast Guns is one of those special cheap movies, where everything seemed to come together just right. Every time I see it, it stays with me for a day or two. Good stuff.
Toby, wonderful write-up of a really “darn good Western.” FOUR FAST GUNS is a corker of a story. The screenwriters James Edmiston and Dalllas Gaultois should be commended, as well as producer-director William J. Hole, Jr. for buying the screen rights to this curious Western drama. A viewer may go into the watching of this movie, not expecting much, but I think that they will be pleasantly surprised, especially if you like twists and turns.
IMDb lists Universal City and Arizona, USA as being the locations for the filming of this movie. Well, I’ve seen plenty of THE VIRGINIAN TV show(Universal Studios) episodes, and I don’t think the town scenes of FOUR FAST GUNS were filmed there. The movie was a Phoenix Film Studio production and the outdoor scenes look like the Superstition Mountains area, which is
east of Phoenix. The town looks like the Apacheland Movie Ranch, which was being built in 1959. Also, what looks like the Apacheland barn and blacksmith shop is in the movie. The information that I have found, states that Apacheland wasn’t open for business until 1960, and that the first movie filmed there was Maury Dexter’s THE PURPLE HILLS(1961), although episodes of the TV shows HAVE GUN TRAVEL and STAGECOACH WEST were filmed there in early 1961. It looks like to me, that FOUR FAST GUNS may have been the first movie filmed at the new Apacheland Movie Ranch. Toby, do you know? I sure would like to know what Brett Halsey remembers about this movie.
Concerning the above poster, or lobby card that shows James Craig pointing a pistol at Brett Halsey, while he holds the actress who portrayed Juanita. This must have been a publicity photo, because this scene isn’t in the movie. There was a scene between gunfighter Quijano(Richard Martin) and Juanita. This being Richard Martin’s last movie, I’m sure he enjoyed the scene, because he never had one like this as Chito Rafferty, Tim Holt’s sidekick. The actress was uncredited, even at IMBd.
I’m not that familiar with Apacheland. Movie ranches are something I’d love to really dive deep into. I find all that stuff fascinating.
Caftan Woman has a good write-up on DAY OF THE OUTLAW(1959) starring Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, and Tina Louise. http://www.caftanwoman.com/2018/07/the-winter-in-july-blogathon-day-of.html
This is a great post! I have this in the VCI DVD set and somehow have never gotten around to it despite my liking for several people in the cast, including Craig, Martin, and Vickers. I’m going to have to pull it out sooner rather than later! (Those VCI sets were great, sure wish they had put out more – loved titles like SHOTGUN, PANHANDLE, and OPERATION HAYLIFT.)
Craig was also very good in MAN OR GUN in the late ’50s so I look forward to seeing him in this. I always liked his work at MGM in the ’40s — he played opposite children in several films and was good at establishing a warm rapport with them in several quality family titles.
TWO-GUN LADY, mentioned by John, is another good one! I wish it would be released on DVD. Cheap but entertaining. You wouldn’t think of William Talman as a romantic lead but I found him surprisingly charismatic. I picked up “gray market” copies of both that and FRONTIER GAMBLER in the recent past; I haven’t seen FRONTIER GAMBLER yet but look forward to it as it stars dear Coleen Gray plus Kent Taylor, another actor I like. (PS I miss hearing from Blake too! Hopefully he is busy writing more wonderful pieces like his two-parter on Universal Pictures and Douglas Sirk!)
Walter, thanks for the link to Caftan Woman’s review of DAY OF THE OUTLAW! Funny thing, I have not yet seen that one myself and have been mulling the possibility of writing about it for Classic Movie Hub.
Best wishes,
Laura
Yes, FRONTIER GAMBLER went out on release as the support to UP THE CREEK on the ABC circuit in May, 1958 and, although I’ve seen UP THE CREEK many times since then, that was the one and only time I ever saw FRONTIER GAMBLER. Some films, like that one and THE TALL TROUBLE (American title Hell Canyon Outlaws) were seen once over sixty years ago and then never seen again,. The TV channel Movies4Men show FOUR FAST GUNS regularly, but i’s one of the worst pan and scan transfers I’ve ever seen, with a blurred image to boot.
According to this YouTube video from 16 years ago, the early television film series ‘The 20th Century-Fox Hour’, which contained a number of shortened remakes of old Fox Westerns such as BROKEN ARROW and THE OX-BOW INCIDENT, had been found in a film vault in Kansas and restored. All or most of this series was released to cinemas in the UK at the time as supporting features to 20th Century-Fox films. Their length, at around 48 minutes, was handy to support a longer film. I remember as a ten year old in 1957 going to see Robert Wagner in GUN IN HIS HAND as the support to D-DAY, THE SIXTH OF JUNE and I haven’t seen GUN IN HIS HAND since and that’s 61 years ago. So if these films were restored in 2002, why haven’t they had a DVD release? Will I ever get to see GUN IN HIS HAND again? Who knows? But us babyboomers aren’t getting any younger. Incidentally, does anyone know what Fox Western GUN IN HIS HAND was a remake of?
Hi David,
That’s very interesting news about the “20th Century Fox Hour” shows.
Back in 1960-61 the BBC showed 14 episodes (or so). “GUN IN HIS HAND” was shown on 17th June 1961. Earlier, they showed “THE STILL TRUMPET” starring Dale Robertson on 6th February 1960 and “END OF A GUN” starring Richard Conte on 27th April 1960. I saw all of them at the time.
Let’s hope they become available soon. I believe you and I are about the same age so…yes…sooner rather than later would be good!
David Rayner, THE 20TH CENTURY FOX HOUR(1955-57) aired both remakes and originals. I think “Gun in His Hand” was an original, which aired on April 4, 1956. It was written by Steve Fisher, who scripted several A.C. Lyles Westerns, and Leo Townsend. Does anyone else have more information?
Many Thanks for the info, Jerry. I do have a vague recollection of seeing GUN IN HIS HAND on television around 1961 or so, so that must have been when it was. I can’t understand why Fox would go to a lot of expense restoring these films and then never re-releasing them on DVD so that we could all see them.
Many Thanks, Walter. With GUN IN HIS HAND being released to cinemas over here, there was obviously a Front of House set of eight black and white stills for it, but in over 16 and a half years of searching daily on eBay, not one still from the set has ever turned up on there.
Hi Toby,
Just a note to let you lnow you inspired me to watch this – just wrote about it at my blog: http://laurasmiscmusings.blogspot.com/2018/08/tonights-movie-four-fast-guns-1960.html
Linked back here in my review. Thanks for a great tip on a most enjoyable film.
Best wishes,
Laura