BY DOUG OSWALD
Randolph
Scott plays a former Confederate spy in the 1953 western “The Stranger Wore a
Gun.†When the movie starts, Jeff Travis (Scott) is involved in a brutal murder
during the final days of the Civil War while spying for Quantrill' Raiders, a
gang of notorious Confederate guerrillas. A wanted man after the war, Travis
heads west to Arizona to start a new life. Josie Sullivan (Claire Trevor) helps
him escape from a river boat and meets up with him later in Arizona. Travis
also meets up with one of his former Quantrill Raider associates, Jules Mourret
(George Macready), who offers him a position in his new gang of outlaws so he
can continue to steal “Yankee gold.â€
Mourret
wants Travis to continue his old ways as a spy and pretends to be a detective
sent by the stage line to investigate recent gold robberies. Travis meets the local
stage line owner Jason Conroy (Pierre Watkin) and his pretty daughter Shelby
(Joan Weldon) and both take a liking to him. Travis plays Mourret against rival
gang leader Degas (Alfonso Bedoya) and tries to turn Mourret’s own men against
each other. Dan Kurth (Lee Marvin) and Bull Slager (Ernest Borgnine) are part
of Mourret’s gang of cutthroats and naturally they don’t trust Travis.
The
movie is filled with action scenes staged for the 3-D camera and they look a
bit silly on the flat screen. However, the movie has high production value,
fine performances and is high on action with one particularly brutal scene of a
man having objects shot off his head by a drunk Degas and his equally drunk sidekick
as the man begs for his life. Travis shows up and departs, leaving Degas to
continue his deadly game. The move comes to a predictable conclusion with a
fire, gunfights and Travis and Josie departing on the stage together.
DeToth
and Scott made six movies together, all westerns; “Man in the Saddle†(1951),
“Carson City†(1952), “The Stranger Wore a Gun†(1953), “Thunder Over the
Plains†(1953), “Riding Shotgun†(1954) and “The Bounty Hunter†(1954). DeToth
was known for the gritty depiction of violence in his movies, many of them
crime thrillers and westerns, but he is also remembered as the director of one
of the greatest horror movies ever made. No stranger to 3-D, he helmed the horror masterpiece, “House of Wax†for
Warner Bros. in the same year he made “The Stranger Wore a Gun.†The irony is
that the Hungarian born director only had one eye and lacked the depth
perception to enjoy the fruits of his 3-D labor. Yet he directed what is
considered to be both the greatest 3-D movie and one of the best horror flicks
ever made. The first wave of 3-D movies was released throughout the 1950s, but
the process was costly and cumbersome with few theaters set up to project in the
duel strip 3-D process.
Columbia
chose the right director for a 3-D western, but this movie was only shown in
that format in its early engagements. Watching it in 2-D one can still see
where 3-D effects were used as guns are fired, flaming torches, chairs and
whisky bottles are tossed directly toward the camera at every opportunity.
The
Explosive Media DVD is Region 2 so
you’ll need the appropriate player (though some viewers report they had no
problem playing it on their Region 1 units.) The movie audio options are German
and the original English. Extras include a photo montage of advertising
material and a couple of trailers, including one where Scott promotes the
virtues of three dimensions, Technicolor and stereo. The picture and sound
quality are terrific and the movie concludes after a brisk 79 minutes. Well
worth the time for classic western fans.
(Note:
Explosive Media titles are primarily available through Amazon Germany. However,
imports often turn up on eBay and Amazon in other countries.)