4/5 "Stranger Wore A Gun (1953) ... Randolph Scott ... Columbia Pictures Classic Westerns"
  by J. Lovins (Missouri-USA)
Columbia Pictures presents "STRANGER WORE A GUN" (1953) (82 mins/Color) (Dolby digitally remastered) --- Starring Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Joan Weldon, George Macready, Lee Marvin & Ernest Borgnine --- Directed by André De Toth and released in August 15, 1953, our story line and film, Having been a spy for Quantrill's raiders during the Civil War, Jeff Travis thinking himself a wanted man, flees to Arizona where he runs into Jules Mourret who knows of his past ... He takes a job on the stage line that Mourret is trying to steal gold from ... When Mourret's men kill a friend of his he sets out to get Mourret and his men ... When his plan to have another gang get Mourret fails, he has to go after them himself --- Yep, that's both Lee Marvin & Ernest Borgnine in supporting roles --- from the book "Yankee Gold" by John W. Cunningham --- This western cannot be compared with Scott's best like the ones he made with Boetticher, but it is stll enjoyable --- And Mr. Scott was secure enough in his stardom that he gave good lines and depth to the younger actors in the film.

Under André De Toth (Director), Harry Joe Brown (Producer), John W. Cunningham (Book Author), Kenneth Gamet (Screenwriter), Lester White (Cinematographer), Gene Havlick (Editor), James Sweeney (Editor), George Brooks (Art Director) - - - - the cast includes Randolph Scott (Jeff Travis), Claire Trevor (Josie Sullivan), Joan Weldon (Shelby Conroy), George Macready (Jules Mourret), Alfonso Bedoya (Degas), Lee Marvin (Dan Kurth), Ernest Borgnine (Bull Slager), Pierre Watkin (Jason Conroy), Joseph Vitale (Dutch Mueller), Clem Bevans (Jim Martin), Paul Maxey (Poley), Frank Scannell (Red Glick), Reed Howes (Harve Comis), Roscoe Ates (Milt Hooper), Edward Earle (Jeb), Guy Wilkerson (Ike) - - - - Randy Scott had a quiet gentleman nature about him which is not seen in the films of today ... Randy took his job and his responsibility to his audience very seriously ,,, would not settle for anything less than his best ... same was true in his personal life.

SPECIAL FEATURES BIOS:
1. Randolph Scott (aka: George Randolph Scott)
Date of birth: 23 January 1898 - Orange County, Virginia
Date of death: 2 March 1987 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California

Special footnote, George Randolph Scott better known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s ... his popularity grew in the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in such films as "Gung Ho"! (1943) and "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1938); but he was especially famous for his numerous Westerns including "Virginia City" (1940) with Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, "Western Union" (1941) with Robert Young and "Ride the High Country" (1962) with Joel McCrea (a coin was flipped to see whether Scott or McCrea would receive top billing, and Scott won despite having a slightly smaller role) ... his long fistfight with John Wayne in "The Spoilers" (1942) was frequently cited by critics and the press as the most thrilling ever filmed; they were fighting over Marlene Dietrich ... another smash hit film together that same year called "Pittsburgh" (1942) once again with Dietrich, Scott and Wayne --- Daniel Webster defines "Legend", as being a notable person, or the stories told about that person exploits --- well by the time Randolph Scott made his best films he had long established himself as a legend in the film industry --- they say practice makes perfect, if that is true by 1958 at 60 years of age he was the master with these oaters from the 50s ... "The Cariboo Trail" (1950), "The Nevadan" (1950), "Colt .45" (1950), "Santa Fe" (1951), "Sugarfoot" (1951), "Fort Worth" (1951), "Man in the Saddle" (1951), "Carson City" (1952), "The Man Behind the Gun" (1952), "Hangman's Knot" (1952), "Thunder over the Plains" (1953), "The Stranger Wore a Gun" (1953), "Ten Wanted Men" (1954), "Riding Shotgun" (1954), "The Bounty Hunter" (1954), "Rage at Dawn" (1955), "Tall Man Riding" (1955), "A Lawless Street" (1955), "Seven Men from Now" (1956), "Seventh Cavalry" (1956), "Decision at Sundown: (1957), "Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend" (1957), "The Tall T" (1957), "Buchanan Rides Alone" (1958), "Ride Lonesome" (1959), "Westbound" (1959), "Comanche Station" (1960) --- Scott's age seemed to matter little, they only came to see another Randolph Scott film and always got their money's worth --- Scott's films were good and getting better becoming classics --- so if you wonder "What Ever Happened To Randolph Scott", just rent or purchase one of his films and you'll see he's never left us.

2. Claire Trevor
Date of Birth: 8 March 1910 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 8 April 2000 - Newport Beach, California

3. Joan Weldon
Date of Birth: 5 August 1933 - San Francisco, California
Date of death: Still Living

4. George Macready
Date of Birth: 29 August 1899 - Providence, Rhode Island
Date of Death: 2 July 1973 - Los Angeles, California

5. Lee Marvin
Date of Birth: 19 February 1924 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 29 August 1987 - Tucson, Arizona

6. Ernest Borgnine
Date of Birth: 24 January 1917 - Hamden, Connecticut
Date of death: Still Living

7. Alfonso Bedoya
Date of Birth: 16 April 1904 - Vicam, Sonora, Mexico
Date of Death: 15 December 1957 - Mexico City, Mexico.

8. André De Toth (Director)
Date of Birth15 May 1912 - Makó, Csongrád, Hungary, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]
Date of Death: 27 October 2002 - Burbank, California

Hats off and thanks to Les Adams (collector/guideslines for character identification), Chuck Anderson (Webmaster: The Old Corral/B-Westerns.Com), Boyd Magers (Western Clippings), Bobby J. Copeland (author of "Trail Talk"), Rhonda Lemons (Empire Publishing Inc), Bob Nareau (author of "The Real Bob Steele") and Trevor Scott (Down Under Com) as they have rekindled my interest once again for Film Noir, B-Westerns and Serials --- looking forward to more high quality releases from the vintage serial era of the '20s, '30s & '40s and B-Westerns ... order your copy now from Amazon where there are plenty of copies available on VHS, stay tuned once again for top notch action mixed with deadly adventure --- if you enjoyed this title, why not check out VCI Entertainment where they are experts in releasing B-Westerns and Serials --- all my heroes have been cowboys!

Total Time: 82 min on DVD ~ Sony Pictures Video ~ (9/06/05)

2/5 A Pleasant Scott Western That Could Have Been More
  by Terence Allen (Atlanta, GA USA)
Any Western boasting the likes of Randolph Scott, Ernest Borgnine, and Lee Marvin should be an all-time great, but Stranger Wore A Gun proves that his films with Budd Boetticher were far superior to most of his films, and makes you wonder what Scott's Boetticher films would have been like if he'd had such great co-stars as he did in this film.

Scott plays a former Confederate spy who joins with an old war colleague to stage a gold robbery in Arizona. Scott changes his mind, and tries to stop the robbery. George Macready, playing the bad guy, is his usual despicable self, and Marvin and Borgnine are solid as usual as two of Macready's gang.

One of the problems with this film is that it was filmed for 3D, which is obnoxious and distracting, as objects and people point toward the screen for an effect which is no longer viable. The dialogue is also not as cleverly pointed as it was in Scott's better films.

Stranger Wore A Gun is not a bad film, but not in Scott's top five best Westerns, and possibly not even his top ten.

4/5 A Classic Western Starring Randolph Scott!!
  by Roman F. Kotrys (USA)
Lt. Jeff Travis was a spy for renegade rebel William Clark Quantrell - who had torched and looted his way to a fortune. Now he's a wanted man - dodging his past loke so many bullets in THE STRANGER WORE A GUN. Travis arrives in Prescott, Arizona just as the law is leaving, and he finds the ex capital strangled by wholesale lawlessness. Holding the tightest grip is Confederate loyalist Jules Maurette. Maurette also rode with Quantrell - and takes credit for having once saved Travis' life. Stealing yankee gold is legitmate business to him - and with Travis' help as a spy, he hopes to "divert" pounds of it being shipped through Prescott aboard the Conroy Stage & Freight Company. With Lifelong flame Josie pulling his holster toward California and with the stage owner's daughter pushing his heart toward justice, Travis rides the narrow gold-route to a surprising depot. A Gold-meets-gun tale of wild west intrigue starring Randolph Scott and Claire Trevor.

4/5 RANDY RIDES AGAIN!
  by Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.)


Read random reviews of this movie and many will have some unfavorable things to say, however, if you, like me are a fan of Randolph Scott, this movie will more than satisfy.

When the movie was made no one knew Ernest Borgnine or Lee Marvin would ever reach the level of fame they came to, they were just hired to be the black hat, bad guys. And they both earned their pay for their respective performances.

And any western having Claire Trevor in a lead role is to my thinking just great. The chemistry between Ms. Trevor and Scott in this movie is a very comfortable, enjoyable thing to see. Though she received several Oscar nominations for her various film work, Claire Trevor did not make that many westerns so that her presence here cannot be viewed by any of her fans, again count me one, as anything but special. If you haven't watched an earlier Claire Trevor western, THE DESPERADOES with Scott, you need to do so.

The reviews here, however, do point to one distracting element in the movie, 3-D, and anyone of my age from the 1950s realized that 3-D with its special glasses of red and green, was supposed to be the cutting edge, new and coming thing, but it flopped. So we still have movies such as this with action and actors centering things toward the center of the screen. And never forget that John Wayne's movie HONDO was shot in 3-D too, for that is the way I saw it downtown at the local bijou back in the '50's.

3-D really is more comical in this particular western than distracting, though. Another problem with this movie is its mood: is it a comical western or a serious western. With the role that Alfonso Bedoya plays, stumbling and mumbling through broken English, a clown of clowns, do we take his role as the key one for a comedy. No, one cannot do that because the plot is not only serious but sinister. George MacReady sinister to boot, and Mr. MacReady was a number one, classic bad guy. So the mood of the viewer is continually tested throughout whether to laugh or be serious. Not a large problem, but a minor problem none-the-less.

Down through the years this movie remains one of my favorites, warts and all. I like the chemistry between Trevor and Scott and I like the way the two characters of Marvin and Borgnine are allowed to develop beyond just thugs and meanies. And how many movies, shot in Lone Pine, ended by burning down a classy saloon?

So if you, like me, are an inveterate Randolph Scott fan, you will not mind watching this movie over and over at all.

Semper Fi.

5/5 The Stranger Wore A Gun-DVD
  by Lonnie E. Mooresr (Jackson, Alabama)
The DVD was exactly what I ordered, and I am more than pleased with my purchase; what more can I say! A great movie for the Statler Bros. (whatever happened to Randolph Scott?) a great movie for anyone who appreciates "old school" westerns.