35541m A lot of 1960s B westerns turned out to be remakes of 1950s B films - especially those starring Audie Murphy - and this is no exception. Its a remake of Showdown in Abilene starring Jock Mahoney. This is so close to the original that the original writer of Showdown, Berne Giler, gets a 'screenplay' credit although I suspect that means Giler's original script was handed to the other credited writer, John Black, who made a few nominal changes to update it for the budget and to try and disguise that this was a remake by changing the character names.Looking suspiciously as if it was intended originally as a Murphy vehicle, this humdrum affair features singer Bobby Darin as a gunfighter who can't put on a gun again after accidentally killing his best friend but naturally is forced to do so at the end. Darin struggles in the acting stakes - someone must have told him to wear black gloves as a symbol of being psychologically disturbed (maybe he saw Kirk Douglas in The Last Sunset - of which more later) although no-one comments on this even when he wears them indoors - and bites his lips a lot. He's also too slight to be a feared gunman and looks faintly ridiculous in nicely pressed tight beige trousers.The background plot is a range war between cattlemen and sodbusters. However, being that this is a cheap film, all of the shots of cattle herds and civil war fighting are taken from other films shot on different film stock and it shows. This being a Universal release the production has been allowed to raid the Universal library and che civil war shots are from Shenandoah and many, if not all of the shots of cattle herds are from aforementioned The Last Sunset including shots of a cattle herd crossing a river into a town and being put into a cattle corral. So, instead of seeing any cattle everything is largely confined to the standing Universal western town set and a few indoor sets.The film is lamentable short on much action until the end. Further Darin's character came across to me as a complete cad. Darin's chopped off Leslie Neilson's arm, killed his brother and then tomcatted his fiancée(whom Darin also humiliates by being blatantly unfaithful too by screwing another woman virtually infront of her and then dumping this other gal when the ex-financee changes her mind). Neilsen should have shot Darin dead.I thought Don Galloway came off best as the laid back deputy quite happy to serve any sheriff, no matter how corrupt.

BigJohnPilgrim Cal Wayne (Bobby Darin) returns home from the Civil War a broken man, haunted and afraid to strap on a gun because he had mistakenly killed his friend. Upon return, he finds that his dead friend's brother, Grant Evers (Leslie Nielsen) has taken over the town with the help of a bullying sheriff, and is engaged to marry the woman Cal loves. With a supporting role by Michael Sarrazin in his big screen debut as a kind-hearted rancher who is flogged by the evil sheriff while returning a stray calf, and eventually dies from the beating (triggering the violent series of confrontations that ends the movie).The plot of this movie, while following a tried and true formula, does introduce some interesting twists and turns. However, Bobby Darin was a poor fit for the role. One inescapably concludes that Universal was trying him out in the western lead role, and he obviously failed as it was his only western.Darin's acting seemed forced, his scrawny frame swaggering around with an exaggerated chest-out, shoulders-back posture. His fight scenes with larger men were so forced and obviously scripted that they come off as feeble. His acting was a series of attempts to over-emphasize every word with uncomfortable pregnant pauses while we study his face in close-up. It's all rather bizarre. Even more bizarrely, he wears black leather gloves throughout the entire movie, and appears uncomfortable doing so, constantly tugging at them. Perhaps they were hiding small hands. Who knows, but they stuck out like a sore thumb (no pun intended). He clearly did not belong in this role. Watching him in this movie felt more like watching a low-grade soap opera.But along comes Leslie Nielsen with another brilliant performance to save the day (barely). Leslie's acting, as always, is smooth and professional and realistic. He plays someone who sits atop an empire with an evil sheriff supporting his power play, emanating barely perceptible evilness. But he also plays a good guy who helps Darin's return to his hometown by giving him back his old job as sheriff, and he doesn't try to force himself on Darin's former girlfriend even though he is engaged to marry her. At one point he even offers to postpone the wedding because he knows he doesn't have her heart. This is one of the interesting plot twists, that Nielsen's character generously offers to give up the girl because he knows she is really in love with Darin's character.But even Nielsen's film-saving performance and Michael Sarrazin's supporting and sympathetic role in his first appearance on the big screen aren't enough to salvage Bobby Darin's attempt at a leading western man. At times he appears to be trying to emulate Dean Martin in appearance and manner, but fails miserably. Barely made a 6-star rating in my book, and only because of Nielsen and Sarrazin.

Spikeopath Gunfight in Abilene is directed by William Hale and adapted to screenplay by John Black and Bernie Giler from the story "Gun Shy" written by Clarence Upson Young. It stars Bobby Darin, Emily Banks, Leslie Nielsen and Don Galloway. Music is by Darin, with Joseph Gershenson overseeing things, and cinematography is by Maury Gertsman. Out of Universal Pictures it's a Technicolor/Techniscope production.Young's story had already made it to the big screen in 1956 as Showdown at Abilene, where Giler also adapted the screenplay and Howard Christie again produced. That Jock Mahoney starrer is a decent Oater, a safe story of formula with a solid lead performance, but certainly nothing to get excited about. But by comparison to the 1967 remake it's a masterpiece! Plot sees Darin's Confederate soldier accidentally kill a pal during the war and swears off guns forever. Upon the war's end he returns to Abilene, gets coerced into becoming the peaceable sheriff and has to clean up the town without using guns. Not easy since there is a war raging between the cattlemen and the farmers and he is pitched into the middle of it. Will he take up arms again? Will he find contented love in the arms of Amy Martin? (Banks) Will the accidental killing of his pal in the war surface in Abilene? Will you even care some hour and a half later? Answers on a postcard please.What few reviews of the film on line there is, sees it having a mixed reputation. The positive ones, you feel, have to come from Darin's adoring fans. But hey! I'm a fan of his music too, but watching him in this I kept thinking it would be so much better to hear him suddenly sing Mack the Knife instead. Same thing with Leslie Nielsen, who whilst desperately trying to make a go of playing a villain, just has one thinking of certain comedies down the line! Banks is pretty but pretty dull as an actress, the Technicolor is sub-standard (the Techniscope format exasperating this fact), and outdoor scenery is minimal since picture is 99% shot on the Universal sound stage.There's a good fist fight in the mix and the final show down is well staged and shot in off kilter angles. But this is poor and only really for Darin purists and very undemanding Western fans. Perhaps the last word should rest with Darin himself, who with a smirk on his face once quipped that the film was better titled as Gunfight at S**t Creek! 4/10

Joan Daniels I am, of late, a serious Bobby Darin fan. I didn't see Gunfight in 1967 when it was released, but was fortunate enough to track down a copy just recently. The film was badly panned by the critics in its day, but I gotta tell, I loved it. It's one of the few films Bobby Darin made in which he's the central character and he's on-screen throughout the movie. For this reason alone, it's a must-see for true Bobby Darin fans. I think that Bobby Darin was a good actor and very much underrated. Gunfight is fast-paced, entertaining, and if the plot is a bit predictable, well probably most westerns back in those days were somewhat predictable. Bobby Darin also wrote the musical score for this film, including a beautiful song called "Amy." And, of course, he sings the title song. I think it was one of his finest efforts and it's one my personal favorites.