Cane Miro: I'll make you a deal -
I won't try to make you a bad woman, if you stop trying to make me a good man.
Rose Hood: You're not bad, you're just no good.
Cult bombshells Beverly Garland and Allison Hayes star in this low-budget 1956 panthecolor feminist Western directed by
Roger Corman.
When Marshal Hood of Oracle, Texas, is killed by a hired gunman, his quick-shooting widow, Rose (Garland), straps on his gun and star, puts on some pants, and aims to find out who did the hiring. She has her suspicions about the local saloon owner-slash-madam Erica Page, but doesn't have any proof. Still, Erica becomes worried about Rose interfering with her railroad real estate scheme, and sends for a hired gunman to take care of her.
The gunman, Cane Miro, hits it off with Rose soon after arriving in town, and begins trying to stretch the terms of his contract to avoid killing her. However, he has an old
Civil War grudge against the town's mayor, and Rose finds her hands full trying to keep the man alive and Cain out of trouble. Can Rose stop Erica's plan? Will Rose redeem Cane before it's too late?
See
here for the
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode.
Gunslinger contains examples of the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Rose.
- Boom, Headshot: How Rose kills Cane. Though...
Joel: (as Rose shoots, his hat is knocked off and he slumps over.) Ohhh, shot him right in the hat.
- Dating Catwoman: The main storyline between Rose and Cane.
- Determined Widow: Rose
- Failed a Spot Check: How many people in this film hide in plain sight? At one point, Rose and the Mayor discuss how they've hidden him from Cane at a safehouse, while not noticing him sitting on a horse, spying on them, just a few yards away in the center of the road.
Joel: Apparently they haven't invented "peripheral vision" yet.
- In the beginning of the film, thanks to the poor camera angle, Rose slips into the sheriff's office while two criminals are waiting around the corner!
Joel: Ah, cue the horses!
Crow: [Under his breath] Corman...
Joel: [as the criminals ride up to the office.] Boy, she is slick. How did she get by us?
- Kill 'em All
Crow: Well, now she's the sheriff of herself.
- Love Dodecahedron: Rose, Cane, Erica and Jake
- Number Two For Brains: Jake can never live up to Erica's expectations.
Jake: Want me to do it?
Erica: Do what?
Jake: Kill 'em?
Erica: No, Jake, you're too stupid.
- Replacement Love Interest: How long is Marshall Hood dead before Cane comes along? A month?
- Stuffed in the Fridge: Rose's husband is dead before the opening credits roll, and he only seemed to exist to motivate Rose to seek vengeance against his killers.
- Troubled, but Cute: Cane.
- Zany Scheme: The Mayor sees Erica's plot (buying up all the land in town in hopes that a new railroad will make property values skyrocket) as this. Particularly since it's not even guaranteed that the new railroad will run through Oracle. It won't.
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