Gunslinger (1956)

Marshal Girl

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Gunslinger on DVD.

This Western from Roger Corman is uncharacteristically slow and talky. The action scenes are lethargic and the film is filled with gaffes; I suspect that the great B-movie director and the Western genre never quite clicked. He only worked in this capacity three or four more times over the course of his 500-film career. Regardless, Gunslinger is of interest with its strong, pants-wearing female hero, Rose Hood (Beverly Garland), who takes over the job of marshal after her husband is murdered. She faces off with a handsome, vengeance-driven bad guy (John Ireland) and a sexy barmaid (Allison Hayes). Hayes alone makes the film worth seeing. Apparently, the film is unavailable (or at least out-of-print) on DVD, and so currently the only way to see it is in the MST3K version, which is probably for the best.

Starring: Beverly Garland, John Ireland, Allison Hayes, Martin Kingsley, Jonathan Haze, Chris Alcaide, Dick Miller, Bruno VeSota, Margaret Campbell, William Schallert, Aaron Saxon, Chris Miller
Written by: Charles B. Griffith, Mark Hanna
Directed by: Roger Corman
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 83 minutes
Date: April 5, 2009