People are voting emotionally.

One of my all time favorites.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In the first five minutes it is obvious that this film was made to be shown in 3-D. Objects are thrown directly at the camera to the point of distraction. Guns are pointed directly at the viewer.The movie is a B-grade western about robbing stagecoaches. The cast is headed by Randolph Scott (THE TALL T) and Claire Trevor (STAGECOACH), and also features George Macready (GILDA), Ernest Borgnine (BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK), and Lee Marvin (THE DIRTY DOZEN). Alfonso Bedoya (THE BIG COUNTRY) plays a rival Mexican bandit, cheerfully stumbling through his English lines. The acting is second-rate outside of the seasoned pros and the familiar story is not aided by clumsy action scenes and the annoying 3-D gimmick.It is amusing, though, to see some of the techniques used to enhance the 3-D experience. Sure, every loose object within arm's reach is picked up and hurled at the camera by hot-tempered cowboys. But there are also chase scenes that are rear-projected and filmed with rocks in the foreground (in front of the rear-projection screen) to simulate a sense of depth and perspective. The background image is very blurry, with the rocks in clear focus.In the story, Scott works as an inside man for gold robberies. But when things go too far, he decides he's playing for the wrong team, angering his boss. Macready leads the bandits, with Marvin and Borgnine as his trusty muscle. Bedoya is Macready's rival, and Scott plays the two against each other. Run-of-the-mill Western stuff.

"The Stranger Wore A Gun" qualifies as a standard issue Randolph Scott horse opera from the 1950s, not as overall satisfying as the westerns that he starred in for director Budd Boetticher, but entertaining enough to watch if you consider yourself a completist Scott fan. Indeed, this sprawling outdoors action epic presents Scott in one of his least sympathetic roles, and the violence here at times turns unsavory courtesy of original "House of Wax" helmer Andre De Toth whose films often explore the dark side. Like Boetticher, De Toth worked with Scott on five films, so the two must have gotten along pretty well. Veteran scenarist Kenneth Gamet of several Randolph Scott westerns, including "Coroner Creek" and "Ten Wanted Men," based his screenplay on the story "Yankee Gold" written by "High Noon" author John W. Cunningham. Despite the fact that Scott, Gamet, and De Toth worked together on several films, "The Stranger Wore A Gun" still ranks as one of their less luminous efforts. Although De Toth shows his usual flair for physical action—riding, shooting, and fist-fighting, Gamet's script comes up lame because he gives the good guy characters—the father & daughter who run a stagecoach/freighting outfit—the short shrift. In fact, none of the characters are at all interesting, compared to the endlessly interesting characters in the Boetticher films.The action opens during the American Civil War with the renegade Confederate guerrilla leader, General William Clarke Quantrill (James Millican of "High Noon") and his raiders, as they loot and burn Lawrence, Kansas, in one of the worst atrocities of the war. Quantrill's chief spy, Jeff Travis (Randolph Scott of "Ride the High Country"), has gathered a herd of horses and prepared a list of names and addresses for men that Quantrill wants to see. When Travis learns that Quantrill wants his second-in-command, Jules Mourett (George Macready of "Gilda"), to kill everybody named on the list, our hero decides to quit Quantrill and fight the rest of the war in a regular outfit. Nevertheless, the murderous Lawrence raid attaches an odium to our protagonist that he never entirely manages to sweep under the rug. In the second scene, on board a Louisiana paddle wheel, Travis has to defend himself from people who want to kill anybody that rode with Quantrill. What Travis doesn't immediately know is that Mourett was on board when people made death threats against our hero, and Mourett furnishes a distraction that allows Travis an opportunity to escape. Travis guns down two men and plunges over the side. Travis' gambling companion, Josie Sullivan (Oscar winning actress Claire Trevor of "Key Largo") has kept the flame burning for our hero in her heart since the Civil War. She advises him to jump over the side, swim to the riverbank, and ride out to the Arizona territory where she will meet him. Realizing that he has no alternative, Travis heads west to Prescott, Arizona, the same day that the U.S. Army is moving the territorial capital out of town. As the villain, Jules Mourett is a well-tailored fellow who plans to become a millionaire before he leaves Prescott. He explains to Travis that thousands of thousands in gold flow through the mines to the capitol and the only thing that stands between him and his fortune is the Conroy Stage and Freight Lines run by Jason Conroy (Pierre Watkin of "Mysterious Island") and his beautiful daughter Shelby (Joan Weldon of "Them!") along with an obnoxious Mexican bandit Degas (Alfonso Bedayo of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre") and his gang that constantly interfere in Mourett's best laid plans. Bedayo is the actor who uttered the immortal line: "We don't need any stinking badges" from the Bogart movie. Consequently, when Travis shows up in Prescott, Mourett wants him to spy on the Conroys and learn when they are going to ship the gold. Conroy has thwarted Mourett's men, Dan (Lee Marvin of "The Big Heat") and Bull (Ernst Borgnine of "The Dirty Dozen"), by not telling the coachman where the gold is and substituting rocks for the gold in the strongbox. In one scene, the outlaws take the strongbox filled with rocks, while the gold coins were kept in a cloth satchel. Consequently, Travis masquerades as a detective from the Collier Detective Agency and convinces the Conroys to trust him with information about all the gold shipments. At one point, the Conroys change their minds about loading the gold, and Dan and Bull beat a coachman to death when he refuses to divulge the whereabouts of the gold. The biggest problem with "The Stranger Wore A Gun" is that the villain allows the hero to string him along for far too long. Further, the henchmen are just plain stupid. They can stop a stagecoach in the middle of the desert and ride off with the strongbox and neither has enough sense to check the contents of the box at the scene of the robbery. Meanwhile, the Conroys are so gullible that they accept Travis' explanation for why he is so late helping them with their problem. Moreover, neither Conroy thinks to verify Travis' identity with the Collier home office in Chicago. Eventually, the hero learns that the authorities do not have a bounty on his head, only that Josie made up the story so that she could exercise some control over him. The ending when Travis chooses which girl he will wind up with is one of the biggest surprises in the movie.The cast is top-notch, but villainous George Macready doesn't sneer enough to be truly menacing. Director Andre De Toth maintains a brisk pace throughout the film's terse 82- minute running time. Most of the dialogue is expository, except for when Travis swaps threats and ultimatums with the Lee Marvin bad guy. "The Stranger Wore A Gun" is about as generic a western as it title implies, but a sturdy cast and the lively action sequence bolster this otherwise routine oater.

An enjoyable western, with a fair storyline. I especially liked the hot "fire scene". The confrontation between Randolph Scott and Ernest Borgnine was also fun - with Mr. Borgnine throwing junk at the camera! Borgnine and Lee Marvin are both fun to watch, in these early career roles. Claire Trevor is getting older, will Mr. Scott still choose her; or, will the sweet young thing give him a spin?"The Stranger Wore a Gun" was originally shot, by director André De Toth, in "3D"; this gives it a unique "look", I thought; and, some of the photography is very nice. I found the story difficult to follow, though. I really dig that statue in front of Juniper House. ***** The Stranger Wore a Gun (1953) André De Toth ~ Randolph Scott, Claire Trevor, Ernest Borgnine

I have a feeling that a lot of The Stranger Wore a Gun was left on the cutting room floor and if someone's ever interested in a director's cut it might explain some of the holes in this story.The film opens in the middle of raid on Lawrence, Kansas by William Quantrill. Disgusted by all the killing, Randolph Scott quits the outfit, but can't outrun his reputation. Going further and further west Scott gets himself involved with another ex-Quantrill man, George MacReady who's looking to set himself up in Arizona as another version of Quantrill.This is the last of four films Scott made with George MacReady, not counting their joint appearance in Follow the Boys. The first one they did together, Coroner Creek, is a classic among westerns. Sad to say the quality diminished as the two worked together until this one.I couldn't follow the story nor could see what Scott's motivations were for doing what he did. It might be a case of bad editing or maybe it wasn't that good to begin with. I think it's one of the weaker Randolph Scott westerns.Claire Trevor is yet again a saloon girl with a heart of gold and a yen for Randolph Scott and her rival is Joan Weldon, stage line owner. Doing almost a dress rehearsal for the parts they did in Bad Day at Black Rock are future Oscar winners Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin as a pair of MacReady gang members.I will say if you can sit and sift through the plot you will not be disappointed in the shootout between Scott and MacReady inside a burning saloon. Would that the rest of the film was as good.