_**When the town marshal is better-looking than the saloon girls**_

After her lawman husband is murdered in Oracle, Texas, Rose Hood (Beverly Garland) takes over the job of marshal to track down those behind the slaying. Meanwhile the saloon owner (Allison Hayes) wastes no time in hiring a hitman to take her out (John Ireland).

"Gunslinger" (1956) is the sixth film directed by trailblazing Indie filmmaker Roger Corman (his seventh if you count his uncredited work on “The Beast with a Million Eyes”). Like his debut flick from the year prior, “Five Guns West,” it’s a quickie B Western shot in color, but this one’s superior due to its originality, filmed in seven days (instead of his usual six).

It was a troubled shoot with it raining five of the days and the corresponding mud. Corman described it as "one of the worst experiences of my life” with Hayes (Erica) wanting to leave the film after falling off her horse due to it slipping in the mud and breaking her arm. Meanwhile the unique love scene in the tree was plagued by biting red ants.

With a female protagonist and antagonist, not to mention overblown melodrama that borders on caricature, this Western is reminiscent of “Johnny Guitar” (1954), although not quite as surreal or exceptional. Corman doesn’t fail to continuously throw-in entertaining bits, like the dancing saloon girls, a knock-down drag-out catfight and the Little Man’s cute-but-doomed love for Erica (Jonathan Haze). Not to mention, the loveliness of the two stars doesn’t hurt, especially the stunning Allison Hayes (whose maliciousness detracts from her beauty).

Despite the difficult production, Beverly considered it one of her favorite roles, and understandably so since it was (I think) the first female marshal/sheriff role in a movie Western. She did a smashing job.

The film runs 1 hour, 23 minutes, and was shot at Jack Ingram Ranch in Topanga Canyon, Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California.

GRADE: B