The Gunfighter

The Gunfighter (1950) is the story of Jimmy Ringo, loosely based on Johnny Ringo's life.  Very loosely.  Actually, all they did was use his last name and made him an outlaw.  The title role was played by Gregory Peck.  The film is pretty good, as is the acting, but by the last few minutes, the end becomes pretty obvious.  There was no surprise as to how Ringo would end up.  And it wasn't anything like the way Johnny Ringo ended his life.

The Bit Actors in this one were excellent.  I only watched it once, and that was before reading the cast list on IMDb.  Richard Jaeckel (1926 - 1997) was in it, but I missed him.  That is tough to do.  I remember him well for his part in The Dirty Dozen (1967).

Helen Westcott (1928 - 1998) played the love interest, schoolteacher, and wife (?) of Ringo.  Westcott has 78 titles on IMDb, starting when she was just six years old.  She appears in The Our Gang Follies of 1938.  Not many big hits, but she is also in With a Song in My Heart (1952) and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), then a lot of TV work.  Her last movie was I Love My Wife (1970) starring Elliott Gould.

The marshal was played by Millard Mitchell (1903 - 1953).  He only has 38 titles listed, but what a career.  It really got off the ground near the end of his life when he is seen in Twelve O'Clock High (1949), Winchester '73 (1950), You're in the Navy Now (1951), and of course Singin' in the Rain (1952).

In only his seventh film, the young, tough "gunny" is played by Skip Homeier (b. 1930).  It was a great start and he played it well.  In the same year he is in Halls of Montezuma with Richard Widmark.  He went on to a total of 133 titles and did quite a bit of TV work.  I remember him on "The Addams Family."  He was in the Don Knotts film, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966), and at least two of the original "Star Trek" shows.

The Gunfighters was a great movie for Bit Parts.  Watch for the names above in movies you see.  And since tomorrow is a holiday, that will give you time to spend in front of the TV.  Have a nice Memorial Day.