IMDb plot summary: Showdown in Arizona between the Bonnell brothers, U.S.Marshals, and Jessica Drummond, the iron-fist rancher who controls the territory.
Directed by Samuel Fuller. Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, and Dean Jagger.
Forty Guns is about a group of reformed gunslinger brothers who come to a town to help restore order. Currently the town is at the mercy of Jessica Drummond's gang of outlaws. Drummond is played by Barbara Stanwyck (by apparently complete coincidence, this is the second time she played a character by that name) and she is easily the best part of the movie. I've been watching a bunch of Stanwyck films over the last month, and I'm beginning to realize my favorite performances of her may be her later ones. She just gives off a different level of subtle charisma at 50 than she did at 30, and I find it very compelling how she can do so much with so little. The rest of the story feels like every other western about lawmakers trying to put a town back into shape, just from the occasional angle of "but what if the outlaw is a WOMAN?" which leads to a predictable and somewhat disappointing ending. Definitely worth watching if you're a fan of Stanwyck's work or of westerns in general, but it isn't a shining star outside of either of those categories.
How it entered my Flickchart:
Forty Guns < Dark and Stormy Night
Forty Guns > Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
Forty Guns > Sullivan's Travels
Forty Guns < Venom
Forty Guns < Deep Red
Forty Guns > Kicking and Screaming (1995)
Forty Guns < Legends of the Fall
Forty Guns > Naked Lunch
Forty Guns > Fun Size
Forty Guns > The Big Trail
Forty Guns > Streets of Fire
Forty Guns > Sreekaram
Final spot: #2148 out of 3570, or 40%.
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