Marlburian I'm surprised that the rating for FGW is only 4.3, as I thought it compared reasonably well with other Westerns of the period.The implausibility of five villains being pardoned and then being trusted to fulfil their undertaking to capture the absconding traitor and gold and return both to the Confederacy has already been remarked on. Getting the date wrong (the officer mentioning "1867" when the Civil War is still being fought) was astonishing. And the villains don't look that villainous, despite their crimes.But the plot canters along well enough, the factional aligning and re- aligning of the five is interesting, and the final shoot-out quite original.But I do wonder how much better the film would have been with Randolph Scott starring, Budd Boetticher directing and a couple of real heavies (Jack Elam, Skip Homeier, say).

bkoganbing Done on a dental floss budget Five Guns West tells the story of the Confederate Army recruiting five outlaws and pardoning them from sentences of death to help recover several thousand dollars of gold bullion. It's kind of a different slant on the plot of the much bigger budgeted Virginia City. We learn that the Confederacy is much interested more in getting their traitorous agent back to stand trial as he has a lot of contacts to give the Union and pretty much blow up their spy system.The five recruited are Michael Connors, John Lund, Paul Birch, R. Wright Campbell, and Jonathan Haze and they're about what you would expect from outlaws. The mission is to intercept a stagecoach at a particular station that will be carrying the agent and the gold. That station is operated by Jack Ingram and his niece Dorothy Malone. Remember these guys are outlaws and haven't been with a woman in a while. As that line from Casablanca would read transfered here, Dorothy constitutes a second front all her own.There are a couple interesting twists in this film involving the characters and the film was Roger Corman's directorial debut. If Corman didn't have a penchant for other genres he might have made some more interesting westerns like Five Guns West.

Scott LeBrun The legendary Roger Corman began his impressive directing career with this entertaining Civil War era Western. It's not memorable in any way and it doesn't really hint at any future greatness but it served to show how Corman was able to work with limited budgets and brief shooting schedules (a mere nine days in this instance).The performances are basically good in a tale of five outlaws hired by a Confederacy desperate for personnel. Their job is to intercept the path of a traitor named Jethro (Jack Ingram) and deliver him to the authorities. Adding incentive is the fact that Jethro is in possession of a substantial amount of gold. The stoic, low key Govern Sturges (John Lund) appoints himself leader of this group, and he finds that it's hard work dealing with the strong personalities of his accomplices. Complications arise when he takes a liking to Shalee (lovely Dorothy Malone), who runs a stagecoach station with her uncle Mime (James Stone).The action is unfortunately a little underwhelming as the story plays out; clearly, Corman wasn't very well suited for the Western genre and had yet to find his voice as a creator of entertainment for the youth market. Still, the scenery (reverently photographed by Floyd Crosby) is beautiful, the music (by Buddy Bregman) is nice, and some of the performances are colourful. Lund is a little TOO low key in the lead, but Malone is feisty and appealing, and future 'Mannix' star Mike Connors is fun as lusty, greedy gambler Hale Clinton. Co-starring are Corman stock company player Jonathan Haze, screenwriter R. Wright Campbell, and Paul Birch (the evil alien in Cormans' "Not of This Earth") as the rest of the gang. A young James Sikking, future co-star of TV's 'Hill Street Blues' and 'Doogie Howser M.D.', makes his film debut as a Union sergeant.Overall, "Five Guns West" is reasonably engaging, if understandably not too well known. It is worth a look for those who want to see the earliest efforts in Cormans' career.Seven out of 10.

alexandre michel liberman (tmwest) Five guns west is a western made with a low budget, but with surprising results. It tells the story of five prisoners which are released on the condition that they will go on a mission for the confederates. There was a similar story in 'Only The Valiant'(1951) and later on 'The Dirty Dozen'(1967). I wonder who came out first with this idea, it proved to be a great source for films. There is no glamor here, no handsome hero, the handsome guy (Mike Connors) is really a crook and the leader is John Lund.Dorothy Malone is the girl who lives with her uncle in a deserted town, and you feel she is starving for a man, it is hard to accept her loneliness. When she dances with each of the men, you feel she is breaking so many of her own rules, that for her it is almost as if she was making love to them. The Candy brothers, Bob Campbell and Jonathan Haze are as real as it can be, one a man with no morals and the other so limited that he does not know what morals are. Paul Birch is the good bad guy who unwillingly got into trouble with the law. They are all waiting for the stagecoach and when it comes, there are some good action scenes. Roger Corman is the type of guy who seems to succeed in anything he does, and he certainly knew how to make a western.