Kentucky Rifle (1955) User Reviews

Shooting Blanks

[FightingWesterner · 4/10 · 27 March 2010]

Kentuckian Lance Fuller heads west with a wagon train and his one-hundred rifles meant for the settlers of California. When his wagon breaks an axel, he's forced to stay behind with a small disparate group and look for a large enough piece of wood to fix it, all the while contending with in-fighting and the lingering threat of Comanches.

This starts slow and only gets a little better as time goes on. Despite a few sparks along the way, this dull western never catches fire the way it should have. Chill Wills is good as Fuller's partner, but not good enough to inject much life into this very Luke-warm production. There is some good scenery though.

Viewers seeking out a nineteen-fifties color B-western can do a lot worse, but they can definitely do a heckuva lot better too.

A 50's western that feels as long as a Kentucky rifle's barrel.

[stevehaynie · 5/10 · 19 September 2004]

Kentucky Rifle is one of those movies that is immediately recognizable as having been made in the 1950's. The "western" accent used in the movies and television matches nothing I have ever heard anywhere else. The gritty version of the west was just starting to emerge at the time this movie came out, but it wasn't completely there yet.

Not completely void of a story, Kentucky Rifle gives us a simple plot that literally and figuratively goes nowhere. A wagon with a broken axle is left behind a wagon train that must keep its schedule. The wagon contains crated Kentucky Rifles that are of financial interest and a matter of personal honor to Jason Clay (Lance Fuller). Comanche Indians also have an interest in obtaining the rifles. From the start of the movie until the end we only see the characters arguing and reasoning for and against trading the rifles to the Comanches for safe passage once the wagon is repaired. Thankfully the philosophical dialogue is kept brief, and the action is given more weight in this production. Both Jason Clay and Tobias Taylor (Chill Wills) encounter the Comanches and work to keep the group of travelers together and alive for most of the movie. The wagon stays put the entire time. The most important attribute of the story is the will and leadership of Clay and Tobias, and the decisions they are forced to make.

Kentucky Rifle is not a total disaster, but it is hardly worth seeking. Enjoy it in a DVD collection like I did. I rated it with a generous 5, but I have a positive bias when it comes to westerns.

On the Wagon

[richardchatten · 5/10 · 2 May 2022]

Director Carl J. Hittelman's idea of staging is usually just to line up his cast of veterans talking at each other as if on a proscenium. Visual interest is however supplied by the contrast between the attractive locations and studio sets straight out of 'Star Trek'.

Awful Western that gets bad marks in every category.

[Slim-4 · 2/10 · 18 December 1999]

This is an awful western. The plot reminds me of "The Last Wagon", but it is far from having the polish of that film. The cast includes Cathy Downs and veteran character actor Chill Wills and is largely wasted. Chill Wills' performance is particularly annoying. He spends much of his time spewing almost unintelligible praise for the Kentucky rifle. While the Kentucky rifle was surely a fine weapon, it is not exactly the gun that won the West.

The premise for this film is dumb. A wagon loaded with Kentucky rifles belonging to star Lance Fuller breaks down. The Comanches want the rifles. The Indians offer a deal. The guns for their lives. Surprisingly, those in the wagon are willing to make a deal. The Indians waste no time betraying the foolish Whites, but they don't get the rifles. After a battle in which many of the Indians are killed by the sure firing Kentucky rifles the Indians promise to allow the wagons to proceed in safety. This time they keep their promise.

Technically, this film has serious problems. Much of it was filmed indoors, and the sets have a cheap look to them. The artificial rocks have a particularly phony look about them. The lighting is confused. Daytime scenes turn to shadows without warning. This aspect of the film reminds me of "Plan Nine from Outer Space".

I rented this film twice. I wanted to see if it was as awful as I remembered it from the first time. It was.

KY Rifles can't shoot blanks

[dighambara · 2/10 · 27 March 2011]

Filmed at Vasquez rocks and on a sound stage - obviously two different places as the by play shifts from scene to scene. Different scenes; wagon train, axle building, sound stage and location shots all have a different color quality, as if different brands of film were used at each location.

The best actors are in the roles of sidekick, Preacher and wagon master, while the lead actor seems to be asleep and the Indians a far from fierce...

TV shows of the time had better action and stage sets... Wagon Train, with Ward Bond had better sets, action and acting.

Chill Wills and Henry Hull should have thrown the script back in writer's face...

Strangely enough, some of the best scenes are the wood work and minor blacksmithing required to put the axle on the wagon.

I suspect those scenes were borrowed from another movie, just as some of the wagon train scenes were borrowed.

Horrible film, painful to watch.

[gc123517 · 1/10 · 3 July 2006]

This awful movie was really painful to watch. A small group from a wagon train linger behind to repair a broken down wagon in hostile Indian territory. They spend most of their time arguing and filibustering and take forever and a day to repair the wagon and attempt to catch up with the wagon train - I felt like I was watching Gilligan's Island. Any excuse to stay behind and mingle with the Indians was used to prolong the situation, (*spoiler*) including a slender pregnant woman who wasn't due anytime soon going into labor 3 days later (*spoiler* - NOT!...if you couldn't see this lame plot device coming, you must be living in a cave). The agony of this movie was painfully protracted. Of course, they have 4 cases of 25 Kentucky Rifles each (100 rifles) that must get through...or must they? Hmmm, why don't we show these rifles to the Indians and see if they want them? For that matter, why don't we see if the Iranians would like a few nuclear weapons? Yes, there is a lot of moralizing here, and if you don't know by now that giving your best weapons to your worst enemies because you are afraid of them is not an intelligent thing to do, then this movie will hammer that obvious point home and do it with a psychopathic vengeance that is firmly rooted in the belief that every dead horse requires a really good beating! But, then again, with the size of the wagon train and the firm belief that these rifles are excellent protection against hostile Indians, it would have made much more sense to distribute 4 or 6 rifles to each wagon for protection than to leave these vitally necessary items behind packed in crates on a broken down wagon. It would serve these dolts right if their entire wagon train was slaughtered by Indians. But then we wouldn't have a movie, would we? That would have been a blessing.

"Just one thing Jason, rifles and women don't mix."

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 12 May 2007]

Nor apparently, do rifles and Comanches, as the Indians are shown to be willing to fight and kill for them, or conversely, are willing to fight and kill once they have them. I couldn't help thinking while watching, as another viewer commented on this board, that here was a half century early preview of the politics of appeasement that the liberal Democrats are waging during the present day Iraqi War. Let's just give the enemy what they want and go on our way, because then they'll be satisfied and leave us alone.

The story, one might surmise, stays in one place literally and figuratively for it's entire run. A broken down Conestoga wagon remains behind for a wheel to be fixed as negotiations get under way as to how to deal with the hostiles. It's unfortunate that the nominal leader of this piece, Jason Clay (Lance Fuller) was the one to waver in his determination to get the wagon through with one hundred Kentucky rifles intact. That resolve was maintained by sidekick Tobias (Chill Wills), shown to be correct when the Comanches force their own hand by shooting their bargaining chip Foster (Jess Barker). Interesting how one can see more clearly when when one's life is on the line.

The sub plot of a romantic triangle among Clay, Foster and Amy Connors (Cathy Downs) wasn't particularly necessary for the story, and didn't wind up contributing to the finale. However it allowed for Chill Wills' character to fire off a couple references to how women and rifles don't mix, even if the connection was virtually negligible. It seems to me the run in with the Comanches would have occurred with or without women along for the ride.

I don't think it's necessary to be as hard on the flick as other posters for this film have been, but it sure did take a long time to get from Point A to Point B as has been pointed out. Sterling Holloway gets minimal mileage out of his home made still bit, and Wills is mildly entertaining with 'Sweet Bessie From Pike'. It gets a little embarrassing though to see how much confidence he places in his own Kentucky Rifle, especially when he offers up a prayer to help him shoot straight.

So putrid, that even Ed Wood would have done it better

[dbfirelo2 · 2/10 · 11 June 2006]

Out of the several hundred Westerns in my DVD collection, this one has to be the very worst. Totally incompetent. Hittleman must have been a better salesman than a movie maker to have even managed to raise what little money would have been needed to make this awful mess. It's devoid of even the campy charm that Ed Wood might have put into it. Wills, Downs, Holloway, & Cagney must have been hurting for money to have agreed to appear in something this bad. Released in 1956, the same year as George Stevens' Giant, Chill Wills must have been been rather amazed to find himself in two such different movie productions in the same year. I only wish that I could get back the time I wasted watching this trash.

Third Class Movie !

[rjaddou · 1/10 · 20 September 2018]

Everyone in this film is sooo clean and smelling of roses even though they are in the middle of nowhere, and BO is never a problem in the hot sun ! Cheap Western, shot mostly in a studio with a few external shots somewhere just outside ... Oh, and the bad guys are the Red Indians as usual .

Doesn't Exactly Feature an All-Star Cast

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 2 April 2014]

"Jason Clay" (Lance Fuller) and "Tobias Taylor" (Chill Wills) are two people who have decided to join a wagon train headed to California where they can sell a new rifle they call the "Kentucky Rifle". To get to California they have to venture into Comanche territory which is made even more dangerous due to the fact that the Comanche know about these new rifles and want them very badly. Also in this wagon train is a pretty blonde by the name of "Amy Connors" (Cathy Downs) who is engaged to a man named "Daniel Foster" (Jess Barker) but becomes somewhat enamored of Jason along the way. This proceeds to create almost as many problems as the Comanche. Now, as far as the merits of this movie are concerned, I would just say that whenever the lead actor is somebody like Chill Wills or Lance Fuller then it pretty much goes without saying that this film doesn't exactly feature an all-star cast. And that could partially explain why this movie lacked excitement. In any case, those who enjoy western movies from this particular period might like this one. But quite frankly I thought it was marginal at best and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

The Wild West

[StrictlyConfidential · 3/10 · 23 October 2021]

"Kentucky Rifle" was originally released back in 1955.

Anyway - As the story goes - Escorting a wagon full of Kentucky rifles through perilous territory two cowboys must protect the guns from falling into the hands of warring Indians. When their party is discovered they face an impossible trade - Their rifles in return for sparing their lives.

Kentucky Rifle

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 5 November 2023]

Hmmm. As B Westerns go, this has to be more of a C+ as Chill Wills really struggles to hold this together. He is "Taylor" who is in charge of repairing a busted wagon that's been left behind by the train - exposing it to a gang of marauding Comanches who want it's not-so-secret cargo of Winchesters. He's not helped by the fact that his colleagues are all a bit self-obsessed with each having their own agenda and who are all just a bit selfish. Can he get them all through safely without surrendering their lives and/or their weapons? I didn't really care, to be honest. The production is basic, the dialogue far too wordy and the characterisations, led by Wills but hardly augmented by the wooden as as spoon Cathy Downs ("Amy") and Lance Fuller's "Clay" do little to liven this rather procedural mix either. Henry Hull tries his best as the preacher, but by the mid-point I was the one praying: for the Comanches to do us all favour and put us out of our misery. One for list completists, I'd say - though quite what list this'd ever be on. Poor, sorry!

Kentucky Rifle review

[JoeytheBrit · 5/10 · 10 May 2020]

Modest low-budget Western in which a wagon is separated from its train when it breaks an axle deep in Comanche country. The unusual cast - Chill Will leads, Jimmy Cagney's sister provides support, Henry Hull plays a preacher, and the voice of Winnie the Pooh (Sheldon Leonard) provides what is presumably supposed to be comic relief - compensate for the bland but inoffensive material.