The Gunfighter [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Henry King, Ole Retsbo Henry King

Overview

In this classic noir-influenced Western, Gregory Peck stars as an aging gunslinger, sick of killing but haunted by punks wanting to make a name for themselves by slaying a legend. After being warned by his old friend the Sheriff, Peck decides to return East to see his estranged wife and the child he left behind. Knowing his death is an inevitability if he stays, Peck leaves but before he can reach his destination his past catches up with him in the form of a young outlaw. A showdown-cum-Greek tragedy follows and the film ends on a haunting, bleak note. Nominated for an Academy Award in Best Motion Picture Story, The Gunfighter was often imitated by other Westerns, most notably by High Noon, and its minimalist, morally difficult, and compelling tale made it one of the most important films produced in the 1950s.

Product Details

Release Date:	10/20/2020
UPC:	0715515252218
Original Release:	1950
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:24:00
Sales rank:	9,795

Special Features

New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack; New interview about director Henry King and The Gunfighter with filmmaker, writer, and archivist Gina Telaroli; New video essay on editor Barbara McLean by film historian and author J.E. Smyth; Audio excerpts of interviews with King and McLean from 1970 and '71; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gregory Peck	Jimmy Ringo
Helen Westcott	Peggy Walsh
Jean Parker	Molly
Millard Mitchell	Sheriff Mark Strett
Karl Malden	Mac
Skip Homeier	Hunt Bromley
Anthony Ross	Charlie
Verna Felton	Mrs. Pennyfeather
Ellen Corby	Mrs. Devlin
Richard Jaeckel	Eddie
Alan Hale Jr.	First Brother
David Clarke	2nd Brother,Mac's Wife
John Pickard	3rd Brother,Third Brother
B.G. Norman	Jimmie
Cliff Clark	Jerry Marlowe
Jean Inness	Alice Marlowe
Eddie Ehrhart	Archie
Alberto Morin	Pablo
Kenneth Tobey	Swede
Archie Twitchell	Johnny
Eddie Parkes	Barber
Ferris Taylor	Grocer
Hank Patterson	Jake
Mae Marsh	Mrs. O'Brien
Credda Zajac	Mrs. Cooper
Anne Whitfield	Carrie Lou
Kim Spalding	Clerk
Harry Shannon	Bartender
Houseley Stevenson	Barlow
James Millican	Pete
William Vedder	Minister
Ed Mundy	Street Loafer
Alan Hale	First Brother
Jack Elam	Tom McLowery
Charles Herbert	Tommy Earp
Alfred Newman	Composer
Dimitri Tiomkin	Composer

Technical Credits

William Bowers

William Sellers

Nunnally Johnson

André De Toth

Henry King	Director
William Bowers	Screenwriter
William Sellers	Screenwriter
Nunnally Johnson	Producer,Screenwriter
Ole Retsbo	Director
André De Toth	Screenwriter
Alfred Bruzlin	Sound/Sound Designer
Roger Heman	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A masterly western graced with keen scripting, incisive characterization, and taut direction, The Gunfighter is less horse opera than Shakespearian tragedy. Jimmy Ringo, the film's protagonist, is a weary, fatalistic figure tormented by the mistakes of his past and determined to change his future. Gregory Peck portrays Ringo, a famous and feared gunslinger who returns to his hometown in hopes of effecting a reconciliation with his estranged wife (Helen Westcott). Warned by the sheriff (Millard Mitchell) that his very presence unnerves the community, the gunfighter vows to leave immediately after the meeting -- but a mischievous fate intervenes. Peck’s performance is a tour de force; he conveys, quietly and subtly, the angst of a basically honorable man dogged by his unsavory reputation and denied the company of "decent" citizens wherever he goes. Veteran director Henry King (Twelve O’Clock High), a skillful journeyman whose association with westerns dates back to the silent era, paints this unflattering picture in dark shades. In this doom-laden atmosphere, one can sense that Peck’s past is in the process of catching up to him. Irony and fatalism reign supreme in King’s somber but compelling tale -- the first important film of the genre to adopt these noir trappings. Its placement in the pantheon of great movie westerns is amply deserved.

Barnes & Noble - Ed Hulse

A character study of a reluctant gunman, The Gunfighter (1950) was a notable predecessor to the revisionist emphasis on the end of the Westerner (and the West) in such 1960s and 1970s films as Ride the High Country (1962) and The Shootist (1976). The questionable morals of Gregory Peck's mustachioed Jimmy Ringo make him less than ideal, but Peck's mien and the exhausted Ringo's wish to be reunited with his estranged wife lend the character a measure of heroic gravity that sets him apart from the "squirts" eager to take their shot at him. The portrayal of a gunfighter at the end of his rope is underlined by the frequency of indoor scenes; the frontier vistas that defined the Western genre are nearly absent. The visual promise of the move westward is transformed into muted, shadowy gray interiors, in which Ringo deals with the legacy of his notoriety as the top gun in the West. Lauded for Peck's laconic yet deeply felt performance and its adept psychological examination of the unwanted results of myth-making violence, The Gunfighter earned an Oscar nomination for William Bowers's and André de Toth's screen story.

All Movie Guide - Lucia Bozzola