Naked Gun (1956 film)

Naked Gun is a 1956 American western film directed by Eddie Dew and starring Willard Parker, Mara Corday and Barton MacLane.

This article is about the 1956 film. For the unrelated comedy franchise starring Leslie Nielsen, see The Naked Gun.

Naked Gun
Willie Parker breaks up a fight between blonde Veda Ann Borg and brunette Mara Corday in lobby card from the 1956 movie Naked Gun
Directed byEddie Dew
Written byGuy Tedesco
(additional dialogue)
Screenplay byRon Ormond
Jack Lewis
Produced byRon Ormond
StarringWillard Parker
Mara Corday
Barton MacLane
CinematographyJohn M. Nickolaus Jr.
Edited byGilbert Warrenton
Music byWalter Greene
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Ron Ormond Enterprises
Distributed byAssociated Film Releasing
Release date
  • November 1, 1956 (1956-11-01)
Running time
69 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

American insurance agent Breen Mathews is hired to transport a family treasure from Mexico to the United States. The treasure was stolen from Indians to finance the overthrow the Mexican government. Unbeknownst to Mathews is the curse that has been placed on the treasure. Traveling by stagecoach to San Francisco, Mathews stops at a small town in Texas. As the treasure is too big for a safe, he arranges to have it locked up in the town jail for safekeeping, but the following day discovers that it has been stolen. While in the town, Mathews falls in love with Louisa, one of the saloon girls. He soon suspects the local judge is involved in the theft. Eventually, Mathews finds the chest and kills the judge and several of his accomplices in a fight. He then resumes his journey, along with Louisa, to return the treasure to its rightful owner, the Indians and lift the curse.[1][2]

Cast

Production

According to Mara Corday, the movie's name changed several times while being filmed. Originally titled as the Sarazin Curse, it was retitled to The Hanging Judge and then finally to Naked Gun. Decades later, in an interview with Tom Weaver, Corday called the movie "horrible", saying "I knew it was going to be atrocious when the producer said to me 'Do you want to be the ingenue or the heavy?' Right then, I knew I was in trouble."[3][4]

Primarily a television director, Eddie Dew was hired with the intent of filming the entire movie in five days. Dew was unable to work effectively with the prominent actors starring the film, and his work was subsequently criticized by those involved in the production, with several of the scenes needing to be re-shot after the movie's completion.[5]

References
  1. "Naked Gun". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  2. "Naked Gun". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  3. Weaver, Tom (1996). It Came From Horrorwood: Interviews with Moviemakers in the SF and Horror Tradition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-0-7864-2069-8. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
  4. Magers, Boyd (2004). Westerns Women Interviews with 50 Leading Ladies of Movie and Television Westerns from the 1930s to the 1960s. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 288. ISBN 0786420286. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  5. Lewis, C. Jack (2002). White Horse, Black Hat A Quarter Century on Hollywood's Poverty Row. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 103–108. ISBN 978-0-8108-4358-5. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.