Line #40 Film/FortyGuns


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/forty_guns_movie_poster_1957_1020193251.jpg]]
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3	''Forty Guns'' is a 1957 gothic {{Western}} film written and directed by Creator/SamuelFuller, filmed in black-and-white [=CinemaScope=] and released by the Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox studio. The film stars Creator/BarbaraStanwyck, Creator/BarrySullivan, and Creator/GeneBarry.
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5	The three Bonnell brothers are federal marshals. They arrive in Tombstone, Arizona, looking for an outlaw who has robbed the mail. They soon have to confront Jessica Drummond (Stanwyck), a hard-edged female rancher who makes the law around town with her forty hired guns at her side. She agrees to deliver the outlaw, one of the forty guns, to Griff Bonnell (Sullivan), but Jessica's goonish younger brother Brockie wants to declare war on the brothers.
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8	!!Tropes used in ''Forty Guns'' include:
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10	* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: Savage has lured Griff into an ambush. He has him in his gun sights. There is a shot, and Savage slumps forward, having been shot by Chico who has returned unexpectedly.
11	* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: During the final showdown, Griff shoots Brockie's pistol out of his hand. [[spoiler:He then proceeds to gun down the unarmed Brockie]].
12	* CallToAgriculture: Griff keeps trying to persuade Chico to give up being a gunslinger and instead return to their parents' farm in California. At the end of the film, he takes his own advice and returns to Califirnia, allowing Chico to become town marshal.
13	* CattleBaron: Jessica is the most powerful rancher in Arizona territory.
14	* ChekhovsSkill: Griff famed ability to shoot to wound.
15	* CircuitJudge: Judge Macy is the circuit judge for Cochise County, and completely in the pocket of Jessica Drummond. However, not even he will attempt to make a charge of murdering a USMarshal go away.
16	* CoincidentalDodge: Brockie attempts to murder Griff at Wes's wedding. However, at the moment Brockie fires, Griff bends forward to kiss the bride. Brockie's shot goes over and [[MurderByMistake kills Wes]].
17	* DeadGuyOnDisplay: After Charlie Savage is killed, Brockie pays the undertaker to put his body on display in his window alongside a sign claiming he had been murdered by the Bonnells. All this does is make the Bonnells angry.
18	* DeathGlare: Griff Bonnell has a stare so intense that, when he fixes Brockie with it during a showdown, Brockie freezes up and is unable to draw; enabling Griff to walk right up to him and [[PistolWhipping pistol whip]] him.
19	* DrivenToSuicide: Logan hangs himself after he realizes that Jessica doesn't love him and that he has thrown away his career for nothing.
20	* DrumBathing: The baths in Barney's Bathhouse are made from cut-down wooden barrels, although the bathhouse has wooden walls for some privacy.
21	* FiringInTheAirALot: Brockie and his cronies do this when they shoot up the town after shooting Chisolm.
22	* TheGunfighterWannabe: Brockie likes to think he his good with a gun, but his only successes come from shooting from ambush. In his first attempt to face down Griff in a showdown, he balks and lets Griff get close enough to [[PistolWhipping pistol whip]] him.
23	* HumanShield: In their final showdown, Brockie uses Jessica as a human shield: mockingly telling Griff that he wants to see him shoot through her to get to him. To Brockie's surprise, [[ShootTheHostage Griff does just that]]: wounding Jessica in such a way that Brockie cannot hold her up. This forces him to drop her and leave himself exposed.
24	* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: Sheriff Ned Logan is in love with Jessica Drummond and allows himself to be used as her catspaw; seeing himself as her partner and hoping that one day she will reciprocate his feelings. However, Jessica has no idea of his feelings and sees him only as an employee. On realizing this, and seeing that she has fallen in love with Griff Bonnell, Logan is DrivenToSuicide.
25	* ImpairmentShot: A shot from Chisolm's POV as he attempts to sneak out of town shows the audience exactly how bad his eyesight really is.
26	* IOwnThisTown: Jessica Drummond, through her wealth and her dragoons, controls all of Cochise County and, by extension, much of the Territory.
27	* IronLady: Jessica is an unbending CattleBaron who rules Cochise County with an iron fist (and a riding crop).
28	* MurderByMistake: Brockie attempts to murder Griff at Wes's wedding. However, at the moment he fires, Griff bends forward to kiss the bride, and the bullet hits Wes, killing him.
29	* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: The movie ends with Griff and Jessica in a wagon riding out of town on their way to start their new life in California.
30	* PantsPositiveSafety: When Griff first goes to face Brockie, he has just got out of the bath. Not having his holster, he shoves his revolver down the front of pants. Fortunately, he does not need to draw it till he is close enough to Brockie to [[PistolWhipping pistol whip]] him.
31	* PistolWhipping: When Brockie starts shooting up the town, Griff strides out to meet him. Griff's DeathGlare is so intense, that Brockie freezes, allowing Griff to walk right up to him and knock him out with his pistol butt.
32	* PublicBathhouseScene: The first thing the Bonnell brothers do when they arrive in Tombstone is to visit Barney's Bathhouse to get cleaned up. A later scene shows them, along with the bride's father, bathing as they prepare for Wes's wedding
33	* SacrificialLion: Wes Bonnell. Griff's brother is a major character for much of the film, and acts as Griff's 'second gun' in his showdowns. He is killed [[WidowedAtTheWedding at his wedding]] by a bullet [[MurderByMistake intended for Griff]]. This marks the point at which their is no going back for either side of the conflict.
34	* TheSheriff: Sheriff Ned Logan is a weak, cowardly, venal, lovesick fool who is completely in the pocket of CattleBaron Jessica Drummond.
35	* ShootTheHostage: Brockie uses Jessica as a human shield during his final showdown; mockingly saying that he wants to see Griff shoot through Jessica to get him. Griff does just that: shooting and wounding Jessica in such a way that Brockie is forced to drop her and leave himself exposed.
36	* TwilightOfTheOldWest: Although the film is set squarely in the WildWest (a comment from the [[WesternUnionMan telegraph operator]] indicates the date is around 1882), several characters can already see their time is ending. Griff foresees a time when gunfighters will be as anachronistic as Roman gladiators, and Jessica knows that Arizona becoming a state will spell an end to the way she does business and her use of a private army.
37	* USMarshal: The Bonnell brothers are a trio of U.S. Marshals who arrive in Tombstone to serve a federal warrant. When their prisoner is murdered while in their custody, they get drawn into the web of intrigue surrounding the county.
38	* WhatADrag: During the tornado, Jessica falls from her WhiteStallion. Her foot gets caught in the stirrup and she is dragged for a considerable distance along the ground. (Notably, Stanwyck did this stunt herself after her stunt double said it was too dangerous.)
39	* WhatTheHellHero: Griff refuses to help when Marshal Chisolm (supposedly an old friend) asks for aid in standing up to TheGunfighterWannabe Brockie Drummond: instead suggesting that he leave town. Several characters call Griff out about this, but he never provides a satisfactory explanation for his decision. Even after Chisolm is shot, Griff only gets involved when his brother Wes goes to defend the townsfolk from Brockie's cronies who are shooting up the town.
40	* WhipOfDominance: Ruthless CattleBaron Jessica uses her riding whip to maintain discipline among her men, using it on any who displease her. She is even shown hitting her brother with it when he's being a dumbass.
41	* WhiteStallion: Jessica rides a white stallion, and makes her first appearance in the movie upon it, leading the eponymous forty guns.
42	* WidowedAtTheWedding: Wes and Louvenia leave the church following their wedding and pause for their photographs to be taken. Wes invites Griff to kiss the bride, and as he bends forwards, Brockie shoots at him. The shot misses Griff and hits Wes, who collapses on top of Louvenia. Louvenia spends the rest of the film dressed in black.
43	* WrenchWench: Louvenia Spangler is an expert gunsmith. This is a large part of what makes Wes fall in love with her.
44	* YoungGun: Chico Bonnell has all of the skills needed to be a gunfighter--having been taught be his big brother Griff--but Griff wonders if he has the mindset needed to accompany it.
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Context Film / FortyGuns