THE MOVIEGOER

It is hard to find an unglamerized western. "Gunfighter" is one of them, a tight, tense, carefully-timed motion picture that can spit lead with the best, and still remain highly plausible.

"Gunfighter" is the story of a man who is too good. He is Jimmy Ringo, an unimposing man with a soft voice-and the quick coordination of hand and eye which can pull a .45 out of its holster while another man's gun is still on the way up to his hip. Ringo is the "Biggest Gun in the West," attracting crowds of admirers ranging up from schoolchildren to bartenders; he also attracts a collection of youths with poor complexions and fancy cartridge belts--each hunting the fame of shooting down the Biggest Gun.

Ringo meets these youths in every bar. They sneer at him, strut, and mutter that "he only has two hands, hasn't he." Then they very quickly draw and die. "Gunfighter" tells of Ringo's attempts to escape from these youths and from his own ability, and of the youth with an incipient moustache who is responsible for his final failure to escape.

Gregory Peek plays Ringo quietly and earnestly; his chaps do not slap and his spurs do not jingle. Nobody gallops in pursuit of anyone else, and there is a large mud puddle in the middle of the main town's main street. The supporting cast is large and lazy and authentic. "Gunfighter" is a western which deals in people--not just in firepower.