Une poignée de plombs

Titre original : Death of a Gunfighter

1969
PG
1h 34m

ÉVALUATION IMDb

6,2/10

1,7 k

MA NOTE

Richard Widmark and Lena Horne in Une poignée de plombs (1969)

A Texas town's council fires the town's old-fashioned marshal who refuses to resign, thus leading to violence from both sides.

Liretrailer1 min 46 s

1 vidéo

75 photos

Classical Western Drama Western

Ajouter une intrigue dans votre langueA Texas town's council fires the town's old-fashioned marshal who refuses to resign, thus leading to violence from both sides.A Texas town's council fires the town's old-fashioned marshal who refuses to resign, thus leading to violence from both sides.A Texas town's council fires the town's old-fashioned marshal who refuses to resign, thus leading to violence from both sides.

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

ÉVALUATION IMDb

6,2/10

1,7 k

MA NOTE

Voir l’information sur la production à IMDbPro

Anecdotes
Star Richard Widmark and original director Robert Totten had "artistic differences," and Totten was replaced by Don Siegel. When the film was completed, Siegel, saying that Totten directed more of the film than he did, refused to take screen credit for it, but Widmark didn't want Totten's name on it. A compromise was reached whereby the film was credited to the fictitious "Alan Smithee" (originally to be called Al Smith, but the DGA said there had already been a director by that name), thereby setting a precedent for directors who, for one reason or another, did not want their name on a film they made.

Gaffes
Near the end of the film you can see the electrical wires running (presumably buried for most of their length under the differently-coloured soil) to a man's body as he is 'shot'; the last yard or so of wire -which is presumably for the gunshot SFX- is clearly visible running towards the man's ankles.

Citations
Wil Oxley: Why did my father kill himself?
Marshal Frank Patch: I don't know, son.
Wil Oxley: Tell me! Tell me!
Marshal Frank Patch: A long time ago, a man was killed... shot in the back.
Wil Oxley: My father did it?
Marshal Frank Patch: Nobody knew for sure who did it.
Wil Oxley: You knew. Why didn't he hang?
Marshal Frank Patch: There was nothing to be gained by hanging. The dead man had a child - a son. Your father agreed to raise him as his own.

Connexions
Featured in Who Is Alan Smithee? (2002)

Bandes originales
SWEET APPLE WINE
Lyrics Carol Hall
Music Oliver Nelson
Sung by Lena Horne

Commentaires des utilisateurs32

Commentaire

Commentaire en vedette

7/10

A western based on a dramatic character

Many times western movies are concerned with battles against Indians, duels between gunfighter or just pure adventure centered in heroes like Zorro or Durango Kid.

That's not the case with 'Death of a Gunfighter'. This little and forgotten movie tell a story based on the life - or, to be exact, the last days of a life - of a Marshall called Frank (Widmark) in a little town at the end of Nineteen century, a town where the 'new times' are coming faster and faster and the way of life of a man like Frank is not anymore well accepted.

Like some other western like 'The Shootist' (the last movie of John Wayne) and the more recent TV movie 'Monte Walsh', this one is a movie about loneliness, full of sadness and at the same time with violence, a harsh cruelty that falls upon the men and the women that are not prepared to live in another time and another way of life.

Richard Widmark gives a strong performance, all the time blending sadness, disappointment and angriness with a compassionate composition of the Marshall Frank Persh. Lena Horne is a bit dislocated but the support cast is very good, especially Carrol O'Connor and John Saxon.

'Death of a Gunfighter' is a movie that made all of us think about our lives and how we deal with the challenges put in front of us every day, especially in a world always changing. It's not a movie about heroes and courage - like almost other western movies are - but a movie about fragility.

7 out of 10