Gunfight in Abilene

Solid B Western
This is a remake of the 1956 movie "Showdown in Abilene" ,and while not a carbon copy ,does stick pretty closely to the original movie .Bobby Darin - a perfectly good actor,underused in movies,-plays Cal Wayne ,a disillusioned Confederate army veteran who returns to Abilene after the Civil War .He refuses to use a gun since accidently shooting his best friend's brother some years previously .On his return he finds that his best friend is well on his way to being the Mr Big of the local area .He is Grant Evers( Leslie Nielsen)and Evers persuades Cal to become town sheriff believing he can easily be manipulated or killed should that need arise

Evers is not averse to using violence and intimidation to expand his Empire and he clashes with Cal and matters come to a head when a neighbouring ranch worker(Michael Sarrazin)is brutally whipped by Evers' men .Cal is forced to strap on his guns and go after his old friend .The relationship between the two men is also...

Looking forward to the DVD release
This was the bottom half of a Universal double bill shown in UK cinemas, but a perfectly watchable low budget western with Darin well cast, and shot on the familiar Universal backlot.
Bad guy Leslie Neilsen's ranch headquarters is the Shiloh set from 'The Virginian' as if anyone in a 1967 audience didn't recognise it! Ex Ford stuntman Frank McGrath (Wooster in Wagon Train) makes one his final appearances in a wheelchair.
Hopefully a good clean print will soon be added to the Universal Vault series.

Bobby Darin in a western?
"Gunfight in Abilene" is a faithful re-make of 1956's "Showdown at Abilene." Why anyone would choose to make another movie of this minor material, and why anyone would then decide to cast Bobby Darin in the role once played by Jock Mahoney, are mysteries for which there may be no solutions. By 1967, B-westerns had about run their course but as B-westerns go, this is competently made, despite its central miscasting, with occasional flashes of interest along the way. It has a pleasing song, (heard through the opening credits), which was written by Darin and it has a scene in which Michael Sarrazin is stripped to the waist, tied to the back of a wagon, and flogged. In the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies," this flogging ranks 58th. Otherwise, there's not much here to recommend but fans of B-westerns will probably find this "Gunfight" tolerable.

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