Day of the Evil Gun (1968) User Reviews

Day of the Evil Gun

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 10 November 2006]

Not bad little western starring Glenn Ford as Lorne Warfield, a gunfighter who has had his belly-full of killing and just wishes to carve out a new life with his wife and two daughters. When he finds they have been kidnapped by Apaches, Warfield will have quite a few obstacles in his path before he can rescue them. Arthur Kennedy has the best role of the film as Owen Forbes, a man in love with Warfield's wife and resents the man for walking out on his family. Forbes is slowly growing accustomed to killing as many will die by his gun along the way. Warfield is always looking over his shoulder in regards to Forbes but will have to form a partnership with him in order to somehow survive an accompaniment of ordeals along the way such as Army deserters wishing to make a trade with those Apaches who have kidnapped Warfield's family. They'll have to contend with Mexicans, also.

The film is excellently photographed by cinematographer W Wallace Kelley, especially many numerous long shots which really open wide the hot desert landscape Warfield must ride(..and walk)along the way. But Kelley's marvelous camera-work during the Apache attack on the small town filled with betrayed Army deserters led by John Anderson's Jefferson Addis, is wonderful to behold. Probably my favorite sequence is when Warfield and Forbes have been tied up to be meat for the buzzards as we watch and wonder in horror how they'll ever escape this ordeal. When you have Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy as your leads, a film would be hard to dislike. This one does have a rather routine plot, but as I mention above the cast and photography is first-rate.

Grim, but well-made and intriguing western

[coltras35 · 6/10 · 27 July 2021]

An ex-gunfighter searching for his kidnapped wife and children is joined by his peaceful neighbour. Accompanied by an eccentric scout and a trader, the men run into Apaches and bandits - encounters that eventually turn the neighbour into a cold-blooded killer.

Though a traditional western, Day of the evil gun has touches of the spaghetti western with its grittiness and violence. A reworking of the Searchers, it's a bleak film that starts slow and without much energy, but it gradually hooks you, especially with the two performances from Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy, who make an uneasy alliance, which adds some tension. I mean, they have enough to contend with- Apaches, Army deserters.

Day of the evil gun isn't a great western, but it's watchable and gets better as it goes on. The location adds to the grim mission our heroes are on.

A better than average western

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 20 March 2017]

Jerry Thorpe may have been something of a lightweight director but even lightweights can hit pay-dirt once in awhile and "Day of the Evil Gun", which he made in 1968, is a fine and somewhat unusual western. The story is not dissimilar to such earlier westerns as "The Searchers" and "Two Rode Together", (two men searching for a woman abducted by the Apaches), but it takes a few diversions along the way. The men in question are played by veterans Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy and the slightly grizzled cast also includes Dean Jagger, Paul Fix and John Anderson as well as a young Dean Stanton sans the Harry. It's no classic, I'll grant you but it's sufficiently different to be of interest and fans of the western won't be disappointed.

Ford's best western since *3:10 to Yuma*

[louisgodena · 10 February 2001]

Ford's performance as Warfield anticipated by nearly a decade the western anti-heroes of Sam Peckinpah. It is a gripping and surprisingly well-produced oater (considering its modest budget). It really succeeds in evoking the terror of man alone against the wilderness. The villains - of which there are a number - appear two-dimensional and even sympathetic; e.g., Captain Addis and his men, reduced by massacre and desertion, perform almost heroically in their desperation (watch for Harry Dean Stanton's understated role as a cavalry sergeant). The Apaches are seen as brutal, but no more so than their white enemies or the surrounding deserts and moutains, which are haughtingly evoked in this first-rate western. Highly recommended.

Entertaining;surprisingly good

[rich-106 · 7/10 · 14 May 2005]

I've tried not to make give any real key spoilers but there are some mild spoilers. "Captivating" tale of two men on a long, difficult, quest into hot Western desert to find out if "their" wife and children are still alive. Each is "married" to the same woman and neither appreciates the other's company. They each desperately want to track down the brutal Apache band that captured their family by questioning persons they meet. Along the the way they encounter a not-so-crazy trader who knows much more than he lets on, Mexican bandits who wheel and deal, soldiers playing a high risk game with the Apache, a cholera epidemic, and the pair of husbands are nearly killed several times. Nearly every one they talk to lies to them ,pretends to be something that they are not, or says one thing and does another. Warfield, who has become cynical in his years of gunfighting, brilliantly sees through the motives of people and often finds sly ways to turn the tables on them. His partner starts out being a peace loving gentleman gradually becomes more and more blood-thirsty as every episode shakes his faith in mankind. Some noteworthy quotes are "Noble says as Noble does" said by the trader. "Don't talk to me, I'm busy killin' people" said by the Doctor who is helplessly fighting the the cholera epidemic by burning down half the town. The first-rate cinematography of the desert and the high shots of towns and Indian-soldier battle scenes make for great viewing. The eventually reach the Apache camp (or should it be the Churacawa?, ha ha) where another clever fight ensues. Ironically, when they get back home, a brief remark about a dress ignites the final surprise twist to end the movie. I give it 7 Apache pelts out of a possible ten pelts.

2 men chase Apaches into the high country

[helpless_dancer · 7/10 · 1 June 2002]

Good western with Ford playing a gunman trying to put his guns down and come home to the wife and kids. Upon arrival at the homestead he finds his family has been taken by injun raiders. This leads to his searching for them in a harsh land where he must battle not only the redskins on their own turf but Army deserters, a gang of cutthroat Mexican outlaws, and a man he must ride with who is close to losing his mind. Lots of action and gunsmoke.

Great Glenn Ford turn in TV budgeted production.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 2 March 2010]

Presumed dead, aging Gunslinger Warfield (Glenn Ford) returns to Adamsville to find that wife Angie and two young daughters have been kidnapped by the Apaches. Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) is the man giving out the news and also claiming Angie was to marry him after giving up on Warfield ever returning. An uneasy alliance forms as the two men set off to find the missing girls.

Directed by Jerry Thorpe and scripted by Charles Marquis Warren, Day Of The Evil Gun is a low budget mixture of more notable genre pieces. Tho the production value is low, it is however boosted by two enjoyable lead performances and the story is never less than interesting as our duo run into a number of feverish like encounters. In fact the film very much feels like a spaghetti Western at times, such is the odd ambiance that accompanies the men on their perilous odyssey. Fine support comes from Dean Jagger & John Anderson, while Harry Dean Stanton also weighs in with an appearance.

No great film by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly one that has a little more to it to keep it above average. 6/10

"You're an ungrateful man, Senor".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 10 August 2016]

Tension between the two main protagonists is established early in this story, as Lorn Warfield (Glenn Ford) returns home after a lengthy absence, only to be told by Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) that his wife and two daughters were attacked and taken hostage by Apaches. Complicating matters, Forbes tells Warfield that his wife had already given him up for dead, and that he was about to marry her in a week's time. Not the sort of news one expects to hear upon returning home.

If I were casting this film I think I would have reversed the roles of two of the supporting players. Royal Dano could usually be found playing less than savory characters, so seeing him here as a doctor treating cholera victims was a new one on me. I thought he would have been better suited to portray the part of the pretend crazy guy, Jimmy Noble. He had already taken on a similar role in a first season episode of 'The Rebel' TV series when he played a coward holed up in an abandoned fort, surviving only because Indians pay no mind to the mentally infirm. The title of that show was 'Yellow Hair' if you care to look it up. In any event, Dean Jagger acquitted himself well as the nutty Noble.

It goes without saying that Warfield and Owens succeed in their mission, though as others on this board have rightly noted, the rescue of Angie Warfield (Barbara Babcock) and her two daughters occurred without the slightest of hitches amid a fully armed camp of hostile Apaches. The 'evil gun' connection doesn't come into play until the very end of the story when shopkeeper Wilford (Parley Baer) accepts Warfield's holstered weapon in exchange for new dresses for the freed women. Right before gunning down the aggrieved Owens about to shoot his defenseless partner and rival, Wilford manages to answer his own rhetorical question - "I'll never know how one man can kill another".

VERY grim !

[wmjahn · 9/10 · 13 August 2007]

I like Glen FORD and consider this western a minor classic. Pretty unknown and still waiting to be recognized even by movie buffs this little gem has definitely not yet the reputation it deserves.

"Directed with lazy assurance" as the TIME OUT FILM GUIDE correctly writes, by veteran director Jerry Thorpe, and played with laid back gusto by all involved, this western offers a very grim and dark view on the "old west", more influenced by the Italo-western (which was in full bloom in the later 60ies) than the classic US-flick. Gunfighter FORD, aged, bored, tired and with "have-seen-it-all" eyes, comes back home just to find his wife and 2 small daughter carried away by Apaches. Arthur KENNEDY claims his wife was about to marry him and after an incredibly tough fist-fight they team up (unwillingly) to rescue them.

What follows is an odyssey through some very bizarre situations, staged with the aforementioned lazy assurance, situations, which one does not happen to see in many other US-western: everything is dark, depressing, cynical and void of any sympathy. Whereas THE SEARCHERS had some hope underneath, this is more than 10 years later and the characters, scripted by veteran scriptwriter Charles Marquis Warren, are driven by the urge to do what has to be done, but equipped with little hope. FORD plays the "lost character" in an old west with dark cynical humor, one of his best later performances. Kennedy is fine, too, and also very worth mentioning is the character played by Nico Minardos, whom you would more expect to find in any Quentin Tarantino movie than in a B-western from the later 60ies. Great rough music by Jeff Alexander! All in all a very watchable outing, made by experts, each of whom must have had a dozen or more western to his credit at the time, when they teamed up to put DAY OF THE EVIL GUN on celluloid.

Watch out for this and don't miss it, it's very well worth a viewing !

They have to stay allied

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 1 November 2014]

Like Gregory Peck in The Gunfighter Glenn Ford in Day Of The Evil Gun is a gunfighter who deserted his wife and two daughters and has now come home. But on arrival discovers that they've been taken by the Apaches and he sets off to find them.

Unlike Peck's wife though, Barbara Babcock has grown inpatient for her man and has given up. She's taken up with her neighbor Arthur Kennedy who declares himself in on the hunt. These two form one uneasy alliance.

But they have to stay allied because they do come across a whole lot of low lifes on their journey into Apache country. On the way there they come into a charming, but coldblooded Mexican bandit in Nico Minardos, a cholera epidemic in a town with an avaricious store owner in James Griffith and some army deserters who are an outlaw gang with John Anderson in charge.

During all this time Kennedy who has lorded his moral superiority over Ford develops into quite a killing machine himself. Makes for an interesting climax.

In his recent biography of his father, Peter Ford who played one of the army deserters said that this was one cursed production. Some kind of malady was going around in Durango, Mexico where the film was shot and everyone in the cast came down. The most serious was Dean Jagger who nearly died. Jagger has only one scene in the film, but he plays an itinerant peddler who pretends he's crazy so that the Apaches will deal with him. He looked somewhat ravaged in his appearance. The malady whatever it was also affected the crew on Guns For San Sebastian shooting at the same time.

Peter Ford who played one of the army deserters also said his father was pleased to be working with Arthur Kennedy again, they had been together on one of Ford's best films Trial. Day Of The Evil Gun is a competently made western does drag a bit in spots. Still fans of the horse opera and Glenn Ford should like it.

Moseys Right Along.

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 24 May 2009]

A watchable flick with decent performances by the leads and supporting cast, using some striking desert photography from Durango as background. Ford is a tired gunfighter who returns home to find his wife and two children kidnapped by Apaches. Kennedy is his rival who claims that she was just about to marry him.

The mismatched pair team up to retrieve Ford's family, but it's allmighty hard a-trackin' them through this here desert. Along the way they must pry information out of a handful of truculent witnesses, natural challenges, and assorted miscreants. The first group includes Dean Jagger as a filthy, mentally challenged desert dweller. The second set includes cholera and vultures. The third includes a group of self-styled renegade deserters from the Army.

Ford is forceful enough but burned out from the mayhem he's created in the past. Kennedy is by far the more ruthless of the two.

In the end they manage to reach the Apache camp and escape with the prisoners, but a cathartic showdown between Ford and Kennedy is unavoidable. Our sensibilities demand that Kennedy die. (I wonder why? Our ostensible hero, Glen Ford, the man we admire so much, wouldn't have demanded it, yet we in the audience wring our hands in expectation of seeing Kennedy shot full of holes.) At the climactic moment, Kennedy turns into not merely a brutal man but a conniving and cowardly murderer, which he has not been before, in order to justify his killing. It's an "evil gun," as the storekeeper comments, but it's a bullet from that gun that satisfies the viewers. Some might call it hypocrisy, since the ending violates the principles that the movie itself has been preaching all along, but I'd just put it in the "commercial interests" basket and let it go, just another movie that rejects violence except when doing so would lead to less pelf.

Sorry. Carried away there. Will someone help me down from this soap box? Thank you. Thank you very much.

Ford is his usual cool and savvy Westerner, wearing his usual small-brimmed hat, and is outfitted in earth colors suggestive of nature. Kennedy is always in a black hat and dirty shirt. Dean Jagger is absolutely FILTHY. I suppose there's no water in the desert, just plenty Alacron de Durango.

The Apaches are treated reasonably for a Western. They are human enough to retrieve their dead and hold funeral ceremonies. They may violate our laws by kidnapping -- kidnapping and adoption and such things were traditionally acceptable -- but they're neither treacherous no inherently evil. Not like that gun.

Impressive and hard edged minor Western

[lorenellroy · 8/10 · 2 November 2007]

It is not credited as such but this is essentially a retread of The Searchers ,and the two movies share a common plot -the hunt for relatives stolen by Indians Glenn Ford plays a noted gunman trying to turn his back on his former violent profession and who joins his neighbour ,Arthur Kennedy ,in the hunt for Kennedy's wife and two children who have been taken by Apaches.Complicating the matter is the fact that both men are in love with the woman in question. They are helped in their quest by a demented Indian trader -played by Dean Jagger in a way that seems to be a conscious tip of the hat to Hank Worden's performance in a similar role in The Searchers .The mission proves a fraught one -they are tortured by bandits ,encounter renegades and endure Indian raids en route to finding the people they seek

The men undergo personality changes as the trek unfolds ,with the previously peaceable Kennedy displaying a new found relish for the killing fields and events build to a personal confrontation between the two men Performances are superlative ,the script by Charles Marquis Warren and Eric Bercovi is pointed and candid .Jerry Thorpe directs capably if somewhat anonymously

This was designed for TV but wisely was given a cinema release .I urge all western lovers to see it

I film very much a product of the 1960s...

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 26 July 2016]

"Day of the Evil Gun" is the sort of western you probably wouldn't have seen before the 1960s. This is because the film is filled with a lot of non-heroes...folks who are just scum and no nice guys like you'd have found in earlier movies. Again and again, the two anti- heroes meet up with folks who end up being pretty much awful people...a true late 60s sort of plot, that's for sure.

When the film begins, Lorn (Glenn Ford) returns home after being absent for a couple months--only to find his homestead deserted. It seems the Apaches kidnapped his wife and kids and so he sets off to find them. A neighbor (Arthur Kennedy) insists on coming along...but Lorn is a tough guy and insists of doing it alone. Why would Owen insist on coming along and risking his life? This is something you'll have to learn through the course of this picture. To find the women, both men resort to being scum-bags themselves-- threatening folks and picking up clues as to the whereabouts of the three. And each time they stop to look for clues, they find folks who are just awful.

Overall, the film is enjoyable but a bit grim. Additionally, the rescue was AMAZINGLY easy--too easy. Fortunately, the film is redeemed with a terrific ending...after Lorn gives up his gun forever. Worth seeing but grim....

There's no way to "willfully suspend disbelief" with this one

[Wuchakk · 5/10 · 10 October 2015]

Released in 1968, "Day of the Evil Gun" stars Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy as two older men pursuing the Apaches who kidnapped the wife and daughters of the former. The two are at odds because the latter wants to be the man of the family after the former skipped out and was thought dead. Unfortunately, the trail is two months cold and they run into numerous problems, like being staked out in the desert and being hindered by a curious group of remote soldiers.

"Day of the Evil Gun" has a quality late 60's Western vibe, so if you favor Westerns from this period, like 1966' "Duel at Diablo" and 1970's "Two Mules for Sister Sara," it's worthwhile, but it's mortally hampered by several unbelievable scenes, particularly the "yeah right" climatic rescue sequence. Another problem is the way a certain character curiously morphs into a brutal, conniving and cowardly murderer at the end, which he was not previously during all the various stressful trials. It's unfortunate because with just a little tweaking this would've been an effective Western.

The film runs 95 minutes and was shot in Durango, Mexico.

GRADE: C

Two rode together

[dbdumonteil · 14 March 2013]

An offbeat ,almost dusky western ,with two veterans of the genre ,Arthur Kennedy and Glenn Ford ,both at their best and giving their characters substance :who is really the"hero"?Even when the movie is over ,you will not know..

The subject is well known and was often treated in the past notably by John Ford : rescuing women captured by the Indians ,but the script is bizarre,including scenes which you would not expect ,which makes the two men's adventures an odyssey in miniature :the prisoners ,tied under the blistering sun ,and the birds of prey which gather à la Hitchcock's "the birds";the town where cholera is rampant;the pacifist man who does not understand why one can murder his fellow man.

Not very plausible (particularly the final stampede ) ,most likely a fable with an ambiguous "moral".

Take This Gun and Shoot It

[rpvanderlinden · 7/10 · 24 April 2012]

"I'll be the same man when this is over," claims Owen (Arthur Kennedy), Lorne's side-kick in "Day of the Evil Gun". Uh, not quite. Owen is learning to kill, quite efficiently, and maybe Lorne (Glenn Ford) ought not to turn his back on him. It's a marriage of convenience between the two men. Both are on a quest to rescue Lorne's wife and daughters from a band of Apaches and Owen, due to ex-gunfighter Lorne's long absence from the homestead, figures he has dibs on the wife. Along the way they get into several adventures involving a grungy town without pity, Apaches (a highway robbery chase sequence is a hoot), Mexican riff-raff and a group of self-described blue-coat "renegades" (has a more heroic ring than "deserters").

"Day of the Evil Gun" is a laconic western that aims just high enough and succeeds entirely. Technically it does much with little and uses the landscape and backdrops to maximum effect, employing imaginative camera angles to describe the action. One reviewer has described the direction (by Jerry Thorpe) as "laid-back" - that doesn't mean "lazy", however. I would use the word "measured". Good widescreen photography and an evocative, but sparse, musical score make the movie seem more expensive than it likely is. Then, too, the movie is buoyed by the presence of Glenn Ford, late in his career, adding conviction to the story, while not too sluggish in the action scenes; also, the ever-welcome, somewhat bedevilled Arthur Kennedy; and Dean Jagger in a delightful cameo as a crazy trinket salesman (crazy like a fox).

I doubt that B-western writer Charles Marquis William pays much attention to historical reality. "Day of the Evil Gun" isn't Peckinpah or Leone, and It isn't bristling with "meaning", but all things being equal, it deserves to be seen and enjoyed. And referencing its title the movie is book-ended by two scenes that are practically the same, but different in a suitably ironic way. One question. To what extent does the 31 buck shopkeep debt trigger the outcome?

Grim, Above-Average, Unrelenting Moral Fable Set in the Old West

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 30 May 2016]

Critics have compared Jerry Thorpe's "Day of the Evil Gun" unfairly with John Ford's classic John Wayne western "The Searchers." These two westerns concern the long, arduous, often dangerous quest to find and rescue wives and daughters who have been kidnapped by murderous Apaches. Glenn Ford is cast as Lorn Warfield, a gunfighter who vanished for three years after he killed a man in a duel, but who has returned now to search for his wife and children. At the same time, a neighbor, Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy of "Lawrence of Arabia"), who had watched from afar, has fallen in love with Warfield's wife, Angie (Barbara Babcock), and he is determined to find her for himself since he doesn't believe that Lorn deserves her after all she has endured without him by her side. Initially, Lorn wants nothing to do with Forbes, but the two men eventually form an uneasy alliance as they enter Apache infested territory and encounter their share of trouble. "Gunsmoke" and "Rawhide" creator Charles Marquis Warren wrote the story and the screenplay with assistance from "Hell in the Pacific" scenarist Eric Bercovici who went on to write and produce the television mini-series "Shogun."

The toilsome journey proves to be the revelation in this dusty, moralistic oater with neighborly rancher Forbes changing into a cold-bloodied killer while cold-bloodied killer Warfield changes into a pacifist. You can see the change that has overtaken Warfield when the film unfolds. He faces a younger man in the middle of the street who tosses him a six-gun and challenges him to shoot it out. Warfield kicks the revolver into a mud puddle and passes up the opportunity to add another notch to his reputation. Meantime, Warren and Bercovici chronicle the change in Forbes through his wardrobe. Forbes starts out wearing a white hat. By the time that he challenges Warfield in the street, Forbes is wearing a black hat. The finale when they return to the same town that they left finds Forbes prepared to kill Warfield after the latter has traded his revolver to buy clothes for his wife and daughters. About two-thirds of the way through this horse opera, our heroes are taken by the Apaches and left to die at the hands of treacherous Mexicans, specifically DeLeon (Nico Minardos of "Cannon for Cordoba"), and predictably it is Forbes who shoots him. Jerry Thorpe confines the action to a trim 94 minute running time.

Neither Glenn Ford at age 52 nor Arthur Kennedy at age 54 looked like they were in shape to be trudging all over Mexico in pursuit of their abducted loved ones. Indeed, their fist-fighting scenes are knock about affairs, but they look like the over the hill. Nevertheless, the screenplay is solid, but the dialogue is largely forgettable. Veteran western character actor John Anderson and up-and-coming character actor Harry Dean Stanton show up briefly as cavalry deserters. They are in an abandoned town with two wagons loaded with bullets and our heroes ride into this stacked deck believing that the soldiers are straight-up and trustworthy. Anderson proves to be quite a shot with a single-barreled shotgun. The protagonists in "Day of the Evil Gun" have more in common to some extent with the killers in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." They move in a straight enough line when they confront their problem, but they run into one problem after another. Dean Jagger of "Twelve O'Clock High" has a minor role as a lunatic who trades with the Apaches. He knows something about the whereabouts of Warfield's women, but he is reluctant to divulge his knowledge until Warfield presses him about the issue. Typically, Apaches as well as Native Americans in general rarely harmed people who were lunatics, and Jimmy Noble (Dean Jagger) has been posing like a lunatic for so long that he almost lets Warfield burn his wagon loaded with trade goods. Altogether, "Day of the Evil Gun" is no "Searchers." The showdown in the abandoned town between the Apaches and the Army deserters reminded me more of John Sturges' "The Law and Jake Wade." Lenser W. Wallace Kelley, no stranger to westerns since he had photographed five oaters previous to "Day of the Evil Gun," makes this tale look better than it has any right to look. The film was shot on location in Durango, Mexico, in locales that you have seen before in "Major Dundee." The shot of Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy riding double on a horse at dusk looks spectacular. Art direction and set decoration is comparably as good.

slow and boring for the most part, and improbable. Decent cast and production.

[chipe · 6/10 · 10 April 2012]

I used to enjoy Westerns. Now I wonder. This one has a good: cast, color scenery, and production values. The last few minutes were well done. But as a whole it moved way too slowly.

I am writing this review to draw attention to the typical way adventure movies --and this one in particular-- have such ridiculous and improbable action scenes. I was really charged with disgust at the way the two men rescued the wife and two kids from the Indian camp at the end of the movie. Everything fell so improbably into place for them. Using ropes they somehow silently scale an escarpment in daylight out of sight and hearing by the Indian guards. They sneak up and kill a guard. They are in a perfect place to spy on the Indian village, including the convenient placement of the wife and kids tied to outdoor poles. The two men scale down the escarpment in plain sight of Indians below, who don't notice them. Conveniently the three captives are in a perfect position to be rescued -- at the edge of the Indian camp (so the two men can sneak up behind them to untie them) and right next to the horse corral (so Glen Ford can stampede the horses so the Indians can't pursue) and near the ammunition wagon and an oil lantern (so Glen can blow it up) and an empty horse-driven wagon (so Arthur Kennedy can drive the family away). Oh, and the Indians were conveniently burying their dead at the time, so Glen and Arthur would have less interference! Even with all this, the Indians should have recouped and caught up to the wagon in the badlands far from a white settlement. The only thing missing from this derring-do is for Glen to have flicked a cigarette behind him to start a sagebrush fire to thwart the pursuing Indians!

Gritty "Searchers" Type Western

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 30 August 2019]

"Day of the Evil Gun" is another Glenn Ford western in which he plays a "fast on the draw gunfighter". The theme is similar in nature to John Ford's "The Searchers" released two years earlier.

Lorne Warfield (Ford) a gunfighter, has been on the move for the past three years. He returns home to find that his ranch is in ruin and that Apaches have abducted his wife Angie (Barbara Babcock) and two young daughters. He also finds neighbor Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) waiting for him. Forbes tells Warfield about the abduction and also informs him that he and Angie were planning to marry since she believed her husband to be dead.

Warfield decides to go after his family with Forbes accompanying him. Warfield learns that the wife of Reverend Yeardley (Ross Elliot), Lydia (Pilat Pellicer) had also been abducted by the Apache but had been released. He goes to her but does not gain any useful information. Sheriff Kelso (Paul Fix) cautions Warfield about going into Apache territory.

Warfield and Forbes come upon seemingly simple minded peddler Jimmy Noble (Dean Jagger) whom Warfield gets to admit that it was he who brought Lydia Yeardley home. Warfield and Forbes simply do not get along but tolerate each other in the search. They grapple with each other but continue onward.

The men come to a small town where Forbes is able to convince a gun running storekeeper (James Griffith) to point the way. Next they are captured by a band of Apaches and taken to the camp of bandito Deleon (Nico Minardos). Warfield and Forbes are staked out in the sun to await the buzzards . They escape from Deleon when Warfield lets it be known that he has money buried somewhere. Deleon frees them but is overpowered by the men. Deleon is killed by Forbes when he attempts to overpower him.

Forced to carry on without the help of Deleon, they come upon a small cholera infested town where the town doctor (Royal Dano) is burning houses and trying to tend to the sick. He is unable to help. Warfield and Forbes plod on until they come to an abandoned Morman village. There they find an army detachment headed by a Captain Addis (John Anderson) and Sgt. Parker (Harry Dean Stanton). It turns out that they are deserters aiming to sell two army ammunition wagons to the Apache in return for a stolen pay roll.

The Apache attack and make off with one of the wagons after Addis had blown up the other wagon. Warfield and Forbes follow the wagon tracks to the Indian village where unbelievably, they manage to rescue Angie and the girls. Returning to their home town Warfield turns in his gun to grocer Wilford (Parley Baer) to pay for clothing for his family. But Forbes is not ready to give up Angie and...................................................................................

Glenn Ford again plays the grim faced gunfighter, a part he had down pat. The vastly under rated Arthur Kennedy plays nicely off of Ford as the two compete for the same woman. Ford never fully explains where he has been for the past three years. Paul Fix and Dean Jagger are wasted here as both have only brief cameo-like roles. There is no real leading lady to speak of, an oddity.

A gripping edge of your seat western.

The searchers.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 9/10 · 18 July 2022]

Glenn Ford plays here a character close to the one he had in FASTEST GUN ALIVE. It is a western in the fifties fashion, more than the late sixties, less gloomy than the others from this very same period. It could have been a topic for Budd Boetticher -Randolph Scott partnership. It remains bittersweet however, with a rather unexpected ending. Richard Thorpe's son gives here a good job, so shame that he did not proceed for the big screen. Arthur Kennedy nearly steals the show. The best scene is where both Ford and Kennedy - not the Presidents ! - are tied down on the ground and surrounded by vultures. It's s shame that it did not last a bit longer. Good character analysis, without being totally a psychological western.

post-civil-war western

[ksf-2 · 6/10 · 7 August 2019]

Glenn Ford... way after "Gilda", his best work from 1946m in my opinion. Day of the Evil Gun, with Arthur Kennedy. Ford and Kennedy are Warfield and Forbes. We learn right off that it's 1869, right after the civil war, but there's a strange connection between them; Forbes was engaged to Angie (Barbara Babcock) when Warfield was already thought to be dead. Warfield goes looking for his wife and family, and has dangerous adventures along the way. meets up with a greedy amurrican, who had dirty dealings with the apache indians, as well as the apaches themselves. and even an army outfit that isn't what it seems. Ford could play anything, so of course he's great in this one too. it's pretty good suspense. they get caught up in another showdown that doesn't really concern them, but now it does. Directed by Jerry Thorpe. didn't win any oscars, but directed and produced a good number of things. its pretty good, if you like the westerns.

Great western movie and I recommend it for all western enthusiasts.

[roles68 · 8/10 · 10 November 2006]

Make movie available on DVD as you can't buy this excellent movie on any format. Anyone who likes westerns should not miss this one. The psychological roles that Ford and Kennedy play make this movie definitely different and spellbinding for the viewer. What's interesting about this movie is the apparent role changes that take place between Glenn Ford and Arthur Kennedy. They switch from Ford as a reforming gunslinger to Kennedy a mild family man turning the opposite direction. The movie lived up to my expectations of both actors. I missed this movie when it was first released in 1968 and can not find it available in any format. So far, catch it on TV if you can in your area.

"Don't talk to me, I'm busy killin' people."

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 15 February 2024]

Glenn Ford ("Jubal") plays Lorn Warfield, who returns to the family homestead after having abandoned them for a period. He learns that they were abducted by Apaches a while back, and determinedly searches for them. His companion on this journey will be Owen Forbes (Arthur Kennedy, "Lawrence of Arabia"), the man who married his wife during his absence.

The antagonistic relationship between these two flawed characters forms the core of this interesting combination of character study and action-driven Western. It's appropriately exciting at times, and pretty violent (without being especially bloody), and has a good sense of humor. What's most interesting about it is a skewed "morality", with a less than ideal protagonist and a cohort who does have a good point when he angrily confronts him at the end.

The film is well directed by Jerry Thorpe (son of fellow director Richard Thorpe), whose credits are almost exclusively in television; watching this, one may wish that he'd directed more features. It's nicely scored (by Jeff Alexander) and just as nicely photographed (by W. Wallace Kelley). The eclectic supporting cast includes Dean Jagger ("Twelve O'Clock High"), John Anderson ("Psycho"), a much too briefly seen Paul Fix ("El Dorado"), Nico Minardos ("Cannon for Cordoba"), Harry Dean Stanton ("Repo Man"), Parley Baer ("Gypsy"), Royal Dano ("The Outlaw Josey Wales"), and Barbara Babcock ('Hill Street Blues'). Kennedy is a standout.

I would agree that the best scene involves Warfield & Forbes tied to stakes in the ground, intended to be meals for the vultures flying around. All in all, "Day of the Evil Gun" manages to balance serious and humorous moments while delivering an ending which the viewer may not see coming.

Seven out of 10.

A Classic western!!

[elo-equipamentos · 8/10 · 16 July 2018]

Since the first time that l'd watched this picture in early 80' l found it a real classic western on a low budge, but strong enough to put it in a high ground, Ford and Kennedy are fantastic in great shape if consider their ages, deserve a look in the river's fight sequence, Dean Jagger's role of an insany man is outrageous fine, the desert's scene when Nico Minardos come out is another unforgetable scene and quite unique in this genre, the desert landscape became another wall to be overcame, without forget Anderson & Stanton soldier's renegades on the desert's border town, the official release stop a long waiting for this charismatic picture!!

Resume:

First watch: 1981 / How many: 6 / Source: TV-Cable TV -DVD / Rating: 8.

A solid western drama

[NewEnglandPat · 8/10 · 22 January 2009]

A retired gunslinger faces long odds as he rides the trail to an Apache encampment to rescue his wife and two daughters who were kidnapped by the red raiders. Glenn Ford stars in this gritty western and beautiful Mexican scenery helps when the action flags. Arthur Kennedy, who lays claim to Ford's wife, tags along and the two men form an uneasy alliance as they search for the hidden camp. The pair encounter renegade Indians, Mexican bandits, the scourge of cholera and a Confederate outfit looking for a Union payroll. Ford's tough character displays a steely resolve to find his family and Kennedy plays his heavy with relish but sounds more like a Boston police captain than a rancher in the old west. The moral is that guns accomplish very little, as later events bear out. This film was released when the western was in its final decline in Hollywood as movie entertainment.