Forty Guns (1957)

Whip Smart

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

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Samuel Fuller's finest Western takes more than a few cues from Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954), notably its heavy Freudian symbolism and its strong central female matriarch (Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar and Barbara Stanwyck in Forty Guns). Rancher Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck) commands a loyal crew of forty men but has a soft spot for her trouble-making brother Brock (John Ericson). When Brock shoots the town sheriff in cold blood, she bails him out, but inadvertently starts a war. Griff Bonnell (Barry Sullivan) is the tough ex-marshal who falls for Jessica and causes all the trouble. Fuller constantly equates guns with phalluses and evokes manly images whenever possible. In one scene, a man actually strokes the handle of a gun while eyeballing the beautiful female gunsmith. In one of the film's best scenes, Jessica makes her forty hands get up from the table and leave the room so that she can have a word alone with Griff. The huge table and Fuller's clever framing give Jessica a strong masculine power. Storywise, the film moves along in nervy fits and starts, and it's sometimes difficult to tell the generic supporting actors apart. But Stanwyck is as stunning and fiery as she was all the way back in Baby Face (1933), and she helps make this one of the best Westerns of its day.

Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger, John Ericson, Gene Barry, Robert Dix, Jidge Carroll
Written by: Samuel Fuller
Directed by: Samuel Fuller
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 79 minutes
Date: January 19, 2005