- Directed by Jack Arnold
- February 1959 (US)
When a famous hired killer arrives in a small town, the prominent citizens become frightened as they all have enemies capable of employing his services.
Audie Murphy stars in No Name on the Bullet, a Western about a hired gun who legally carries out assassinations or murders depending on how you look at it. His modus operandi is to get them into a lethal fight. His superior gun fighting skills put him on top and put them in the grave. Points for creativity.
It’s an interesting idea for Western in a screenplay written by Star Trek: TOS’s Gene L. Coon and handled by Jack Arnold with a few classics under his belt. Murphy for his part easily can affect toughness though not consistently the sinister edge needed for such a character. Yet Murphy’s performance as John Gant is good. He was no gifted thespian, but he was capable enough to make a series of films and have a career.
Murphy was not a physically large individual. I would’ve suggested an apple box to give him a few inches on the other actors. The man is a war fighting legend but not a physically legendary figure. He is noticeably shorter than most of the cast yet his John Gant is supposed to be someone feared.
What makes No Name on the Bullet very good to watch is the paranoia that starts spreading through the town. It does a lot of work that normally would be put on the back of Murphy as an actor. As the story goes on the paranoia builds because the pool of potential victims with somebody who would want them dead grows. The movie relies on tension over action.
The movie itself is restrained as are the performances with even a bit of an edge of philosophy. Is it really murder if Gant is defending himself? There’s also the moral question if a criminal never receives justice and someone on their own takes action is that not justice? There’s a chess scene that distills much of the film slot philosophy between Gant and local physician Luke Canfield (Charles Drake).
Maybe it is because of the short runtime but despite there being a large list of victims the target becomes obvious the moment they show on screen. Judge Benson (Edgar Stehli) is the father of Anne Benson (Joan Evans) that also happens to be Luke’s fiancée. Why he must die is left up to the imagination which is an effective storytelling hook that invests the viewer.
More importantly, this movie gets to the point under the hand of a man known more for his science-fiction movies than for his Westerns of the time. It establishes the characters and the scenario quickly and sets everything on a collision course for the end rather than hitting the runtime and feeling the need to lazily wrap it up. At a little over 70 minutes it doesn’t waste time with anything unnecessary to the story. It’s a battle of wits and cat and mouse with the cat keeping who the mouse is from the audience as much as he can.
No Name on the Bullet, though a bit forgotten in this time, is an excellent Western. It has philosophical elements and is well directed and acted. I think this could appeal to modern audiences as well as a traditional Western fan.
Warren Watched A Movie 