The Fastest Gun Alive

This is a neglected gem. Glenn Ford, following his success in The Blackboard Jungle with another fine performance, is trying to live down his father's gunslinging past by working as a town storekeeper, when Broderick Crawford's venal Vinnie Harold blasts in, exposing Ford and taunting him with his father's name. It's taut stuff, cleverly co-scripted by Frank D Gilroy, who had written the original television play from which this was drawn. Russ Tamblyn has some knockabout moments at a barn dance, and Jeanne Crain is earnest and pretty as the pleading wife, but this is Ford's movie, an underrated western deserving of your full attention.