In the 1960s,due to the very stiff competition from television and the European Spaghetti westerns, it was common for Universal to remake some of their low budget 1950s westerns in order to make more money and restore favour with the masses. GUNFIGHT IN ABELINE was made in 1967 and is a remake of their 1956 effort, SHOWDOWN AT ABELINE.During the American Civil war, Confederate soldier Cal Wayne(BOBBY DARIN)accidentally kills his friend in battle, traumatised and distraught, Cal vows never to use a gun again. At the end of the war, he returns home to Abeline,Kansas where he is pressured into taking the job of sheriff by ruthless entrepreneur Grant Evers(LESLIE NIELSEN)in order to keep tensions between the ranchers and farmers under control, but as range war looms will Cal be forced to use his gun once again...
GUNFIGHT IN ABELINE is a solid and plausible western, not one of the best I've seen, but still serviceable and entertaining. It has good, tight direction, it's excellently scripted, but a bit slow in some scenes, I found the whole love triangle uninteresting, it was handled much better in the original,I felt it didn't really bring much to this film, it just bogged it down and made it feel longer. As with most other westerns, I was impressed with the camera-work, but this was ruined by the terrible print shown by 5USA who showed it in 1:33:1 full screen rather than it's proper 2:35:1 widescreen,However,the shots of the horses riding and racing across the plains were fantastic and exhilarating, I thought the shots of the cattle were also terrific, even if they did look to be pinched from another film, it was great to see them as there were no such shots in the original. The storyline was really intriguing and gripping and tension is built up superbly as the film progresses. The main title song "Amy" was beautiful, one of the loveliest songs I've ever heard in a film, the performances were also very good, Bobby Darin was competent in the lead but Leslie Nielsen and Donnelly Rhoades gave magnificent performances which overshadowed his. Two scenes in the film which really stood out for me were the scene at the start where Cal kills his friend and the scene near the end in which Slade murders Evers,both scenes gave the film a fantastic new dimension in terms of the way they were filmed and acted and they were simply incredible. Darin chills the audience in the firstly mentioned scene with his raw disbelief, fear and desperation and in the second scene, the shot of Rhoades' face as he casually and coldly shoots Evers several times will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
The action scenes were exciting and incredibly put together, but they were done better and more briskly in the original, the final showdown between Wayne and Slade was a let down and was horrible compared to the one in the original, this one was just so anti climax it hurt. The suspense is built up amazingly and there are some awesome camera angles, but the part in which Wayne shoots Slade has got to be one of the worst death scenes I've ever seen in a film, Slade simply frowns and collapses to the ground, this ruined the film for me as from the beginning, tension had been built up remarkably and I was biting my nails waiting for an epic showdown. Another factor which tarnished my view of the film was the fact that the brutal whipping scene had apparently been omitted from the TV version. Before the character is about to be thrashed, the scene just fades away, making it appear to the viewer that the whipping was never included in the finished film, but according the IMDb message board for the film, the full whipping sequence was included uncut in a print that was shown on Encore westerns. I was gravely disappointed that Channel 5 committed it from their version, it let the whole film down completely and also ruined an incredible sequence in the film as this scene was exceptionally written and was probably the most taut, intense and chilling scene in the whole film. The battle montage at the beginning of the film was brilliant, the shots of the thundering cannons were both electrifying and spectacular and blew me away, something like this in the original would have looked outstanding.
It's nowhere near as good as the original, but GUNFIGHT IN ABELINE is an engrossing western drama with a powerful and interesting script and impressively acted scenes and strong characters.However it does have it's flaws, at times the dialogue really slows the film down as some of it is just pointless and mushy,the final showdown was terrible and the removal of the whipping scene really destroyed the film, but I think if it was to get a proper, uncut DVD release, then I would enjoy it as much as I should have done. It's well above average and sill has the energy to entertain and excite, it's a great film to watch on a dull, rainy afternoon.8/10.
GUNFIGHT IN ABELINE is a solid and plausible western, not one of the best I've seen, but still serviceable and entertaining. It has good, tight direction, it's excellently scripted, but a bit slow in some scenes, I found the whole love triangle uninteresting, it was handled much better in the original,I felt it didn't really bring much to this film, it just bogged it down and made it feel longer. As with most other westerns, I was impressed with the camera-work, but this was ruined by the terrible print shown by 5USA who showed it in 1:33:1 full screen rather than it's proper 2:35:1 widescreen,However,the shots of the horses riding and racing across the plains were fantastic and exhilarating, I thought the shots of the cattle were also terrific, even if they did look to be pinched from another film, it was great to see them as there were no such shots in the original. The storyline was really intriguing and gripping and tension is built up superbly as the film progresses. The main title song "Amy" was beautiful, one of the loveliest songs I've ever heard in a film, the performances were also very good, Bobby Darin was competent in the lead but Leslie Nielsen and Donnelly Rhoades gave magnificent performances which overshadowed his. Two scenes in the film which really stood out for me were the scene at the start where Cal kills his friend and the scene near the end in which Slade murders Evers,both scenes gave the film a fantastic new dimension in terms of the way they were filmed and acted and they were simply incredible. Darin chills the audience in the firstly mentioned scene with his raw disbelief, fear and desperation and in the second scene, the shot of Rhoades' face as he casually and coldly shoots Evers several times will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
The action scenes were exciting and incredibly put together, but they were done better and more briskly in the original, the final showdown between Wayne and Slade was a let down and was horrible compared to the one in the original, this one was just so anti climax it hurt. The suspense is built up amazingly and there are some awesome camera angles, but the part in which Wayne shoots Slade has got to be one of the worst death scenes I've ever seen in a film, Slade simply frowns and collapses to the ground, this ruined the film for me as from the beginning, tension had been built up remarkably and I was biting my nails waiting for an epic showdown. Another factor which tarnished my view of the film was the fact that the brutal whipping scene had apparently been omitted from the TV version. Before the character is about to be thrashed, the scene just fades away, making it appear to the viewer that the whipping was never included in the finished film, but according the IMDb message board for the film, the full whipping sequence was included uncut in a print that was shown on Encore westerns. I was gravely disappointed that Channel 5 committed it from their version, it let the whole film down completely and also ruined an incredible sequence in the film as this scene was exceptionally written and was probably the most taut, intense and chilling scene in the whole film. The battle montage at the beginning of the film was brilliant, the shots of the thundering cannons were both electrifying and spectacular and blew me away, something like this in the original would have looked outstanding.
It's nowhere near as good as the original, but GUNFIGHT IN ABELINE is an engrossing western drama with a powerful and interesting script and impressively acted scenes and strong characters.However it does have it's flaws, at times the dialogue really slows the film down as some of it is just pointless and mushy,the final showdown was terrible and the removal of the whipping scene really destroyed the film, but I think if it was to get a proper, uncut DVD release, then I would enjoy it as much as I should have done. It's well above average and sill has the energy to entertain and excite, it's a great film to watch on a dull, rainy afternoon.8/10.