511-Gunslinger

Film Year:  1956
Genre:  Western
Director:  Roger Corman
Starring:  Beverly Garland, John Ireland, Allison Hayes
MST Season:  5

The Movie

Beverly Garland plays Rose, a woman who’s US marshal husband is killed.  Logically, Rose is made marshal because why the hell not?  After pissing off a local saloon owner, Rose finds herself the target of a gun for hire…who also falls in love with her.

I hate westerns.  Okay, wait let me rephrase that.  I hate lazy, insipid, cliché westerns.  Movies that were made on the cheap to cash in off of genre popularity.  My father, on the other hand, loves them.  If you were to ask him, there was probably never a bad western made.  He has probably seen and has enjoyed Gunslinger, and if I were to have shown him this MST version, he probably would have been irritated at the fools at the bottom of the screen that won’t shut up during this “classic.”  The western isn’t my genre.  Hell, I mostly am confused why this particular time period in our history deserves its own genre label when very few, if any, others do.  I guess there is the war movie, but that is extensive to different time periods as well.  I don’t feel any particularly fond attachment to the late 1800’s, when I feel there are more interesting periods in history worth visiting on celluloid.

However, if I were to compare the western to a genre/subgenre I do enjoy, let’s say the superhero subgenre.  This category isn’t for everybody, but for those who enjoy it, they love it.  There are even those like me who enjoy the lazy, insipid, cliché ones that were made on the cheap to cash in off of genre popularity, because hey, it’s part of that genre I enjoy.  So I get where my dad is coming from, at the very least.

But what about Gunslinger?  It’s one of those lazy, insipid, cliché ones made on the cheap to cash in off of genre popularity.  Sure, having a female heroine at the center was probably quite inventive in the 1950’s, but this just simply isn’t the production to give a rat’s ass about it in.

But Gunslinger is more watchable than most westerns of its type.  It’s a goofball production that’s amusing in how shoddy it is at any rate.  It doesn’t inspire any interest storywise, but if the words “Directed by Roger Corman” don’t excite you, then mosey along (unless you’re a western nut like my dad).

The Episode

Well, they had to have SOMETHING before Mitchell.

There’s a lingering shadow over Gunslinger, being the penultimate episode of the Joel era.  You know while watching it that everybody working on it is preparing for Joel’s exit, which gives it a bit of a melancholy bitterness.  As such, it’s hard to view the episode as anything but “The one before Mitchell,” though putting it out of context, the episode holds its own.  The movie is wonderfully sloppy (“Cue the horses!”) and the riffing links up with the movies shortcomings to bring them to a wonderfully high elevation.

Host segments are amusing.  I like the opening of turning Tom into a game of Kaboom, the Gypsy Express delights, and Tom’s Quantum Linear Super-Imposing segment is a gas.  The invention exchange features the SOL crew running with the concept of a whiffle ball and the Mads running with  the concept of Scanners.  Also present is a host segment where Joel ponders death with the bots, which comes off as an odd funeral for the era that is about to end.

The episode isn’t Mitchell, and preluding a powerhouse like that is no easy task.  On its own Gunslinger is a wonderful episode that demands to be appreciated.  I’ve hardly ever heard it mentioned in fan circles, but it’s one that always busts my gut.

Good

The DVD

While the episode was among Rhino’s VHS releases, Rhino didn’t finally release a DVD of the damn thing until Volume 6, after they had three different releases featuring nine new episodes (and one they had already released on DVD even).  Picture and audio were good, though.  There weren’t any bonus features.

The episode was rereleased by Shout Factory as an individual.  There were also no bonus features.  Eventually Volume 6 was also re-released by Shout Factory, also without bonus features.