Dull and forgettable, The Gatling Gun is a low-budget Western populated by C-list actors
giving mindless performances in the service of a story so thin it barely
exists. The title comprises virtually the entire premise, because the gist of
the piece is that pacifist priest Rev. Harper (John Carradine) has stolen a
Gatling gun from a U.S. Cavalry troop that’s battling an Indian band led by
Two-Knife (Carlos Rivera). A group of soldiers under the command of Lt. Malcolm
(Guy Stockwell) chases Rev. Harper and his followers into Indian territory, where
Rev. Harper realizes that Two-Knife is just as bloodthirsty as the soldiers
from whom Rev. Harper was trying to provide protection. A back-and-forth battle
for possession of the gun ensues, with heavy casualties on all sides. There’s a
teensy bit of “oh, the humanity” gravitas to the end of the story, but getting
there isn’t worth the effort. The film’s production values are so bland that The Gatling Gun looks less impressive
than an average episode of Gunsmoke,
and the picture is marred by several unintentionally funny moments. For
instance, at one point, Rev. Harper gives a speech about human compassion even
as he’s being impaled with arrows fired from unseen Indian assailants. It’s a
little much. Carradine, a fresh-baked ham on the best of days, delivers a
performance so overripe that it’s off-putting, and even the normally
respectable Woody Strode’s stoic screen persona gets bludgeoned by the overall
mediocrity of the endeavor. Leading man Stockwell is a non-entity, while bargain-basement actors including
Barbara Luna (a sexy regular on ’60s TV shows) and Patrick Wayne (son of John)
deliver amateurish supporting work. At best, The Gatling Gun rises from substandard to mediocre, as
when familiar character actor Pat Buttram lays on hokey “charm” as the Cavalry group’s smart-mouthed chef, Tin Pot. But to say that you’ve
seen it all before doesn’t come close to communicating how numbingly trite this
movie feels as it grinds through 93 long minutes. Finally, it should come as no surprise to learn that The Gatling Gun sat on a shelf for several years—it was filmed in 1969 and originally bore the title King Gun.
The
Gatling Gun: LAME
3 comments:
Thanks Pete.
Spot on, I couldn't have said better myself.
This plays like a movie from 1953, not 1973. Strangely, it and 'Cry Blood. Apache' show up regularly on bargin bin Euro-western DVD sets.
It doesn’t play like a movie from 1973 because it was actually filmed in 1969 under the title King Gun
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