Russell Rouse's The Fastest Gun Alive 1956

The Fastest Gun Alive is a terrific little Western, giving life to some cliched situations and standard characters.  In some ways this MGM film has something for everyone --  action, a complex love story, dancing teenagers, a little boy with a toy gun -- but director Russell Rouse, who only directed eleven films but also wrote some superb ones (especially D.O.A. in 1949), brings the characters and conflicts to vivid life in this film that takes place in 1889, as civilization is taking over the Wild West.

Glenn Ford plays George Temple, a frustrated storekeeper who has given up guns and alcohol for the sake of his wife (played by Jeanne Crain) and child on the way.  But he gets angry when his customers are always complaining and gets somewhat inebriated, deciding to show his ability with a gun to the townsfolk, who are suitably impressed with his ability to shoot silver dollars in the air.  Then bank robber Vinnie Harold (Broderick Crawford) rides into town with his gang, Taylor Swope (John Dehner) and Dink Wells (Noah Beery) while all the townspeople are in church.  Harold hears that there is a fast gun in town and threatens to burn the town down unless Temple comes out to draw against him.  Temple feels he has no choice but to save the town, even though he has again given up his guns for the sake of his family,  Temple slowly walks into the street from the church and he and Harold shoot it out.

Rouse and his co-writer Frank Gilroy (on whose story the film is based) bring humanity to all the characters,  Temple failed to confront his father's killer while Harold has been trying to prove he's the best ever since his wife ran off with a faro dealer. Swope and Wells leave town ahead of a posse (they had killed the sheriff's brother in another town while robbing a bank) while Harold only cares about proving he's faster than Temple.

This impressive psychological Western was photographed in beautiful black-and-white by George Folsey, who started in films in 1920, with an intelligent score by Andre Previn.  Throughout Rouse uses unusual shots from high angles, suggesting that there might be a higher power watching.  The film starts with the outlaws riding over mountains and past rock formations, identifying them throughout with the wildness of the West, contrasted with the town and its symbols of civilization:  stores and a church.