If Roger Corman had quit directing after his first film and become an industrial engineer (what he studied at college), Five Guns West would not be remembered at all, a completely obscure b-movie with no stars, a forgettable script and somewhat sloppy filmmaking. But Corman would later come to be thought of a real artist despite his home at American International Pictures, so some of the directors fans will be intrigued at check out this movie. They will find a work by a director who was just learning his trade, and without much inspiration.
The only thing that's distinguishable about this picture at all is its surprising level of sleaze and violence (for 1955). The story involves a group five convicts spared from the death penalty by the Confederate government near the end of the Civil War, because there is a desperate mission they don't want to spare anyone else to go on. A Southern spy named Jethro (Jack Ingram) has defected to the north with a chest of $5,000 worth of gold, and is one a stagecoach to escape to the Union. The five criminals are to head to a station along the way and intercept the stagecoach carrying Jethro. They include Sturges (John Lund), the de facto leader, John Candy (R. Wright Campbell, who also wrote the script), and his psychotic brother, Billy (Jonathon Haze), the older but tough J.C. Haggard (Paul Birch) and the devious but intelligent Hale Clinton (Mike Connors). Immediately the five begin to scheme against each other, making alliances to steal the $5,000 for themselves (almost like an episode of Survivor). Once they reach the station, the men get really horny and go after Shalee (Dorothy Malone) who lives alone there with her uncle (James Stone).
This is the kind of movie that Quinten Tarintino must have watched a million variants of during his employment at the California video store. The movie is not laughably bad (except during its absurdly fake fight scenes), but despite its sleaze and bad dialogue it there is nothing to recommend to a contemporary audience, as we can see all the plot developments ticked off. Corman would find a way to work through his small budgets and make some of the greatest films of the 60's, but he had not found that here. This is a quickie made as an excuse for teenagers to watch it at a drive in theatre, and for something to make out during, it probably fulfilled its purpose.
Five Guns West (1955)