Two Guns and a Badge (1954) [NR]
Featuring:
Wayne Morris, Morris Ankrum, Beverly Garland
Written by:
Daniel B. Ullman
Directed by:
Lewis D. Collins
Release Date:
September 11, 1954
Original Title:
Two Guns and a Badge
Genres:
Western
Production Companies:
Allied Artists Pictures
Silvermine Productions
Production Countries:
United States of America
Ratings / Certifications:
US: NR
Runtime: 69
A LAWMAN'S GUNS!...A KILLER'S REPUTATION!
In the last of his four western programmers for Allied Artists, Wayne Morris plays frontiersman Jim Bisby. Mistaken for a notorious gunslinger, Jim is appointed deputy sheriff of a wide-open cattle town. Playing along, our hero gets down to business -- and by the time his true identity is revealed, it hardly matters, since most of the bad guys are pushing up daisies on boot hill.
If the definition of a B-Western series is that of a number of films made by the same production company or studio starring the same actor, then this film qualifies as the last of the B-western series films made for theatre distribution, although there were many cheap-jack B-westerns made after "Two Guns and Badge".(Check out Johnny Carpenter, Sam Katzman and the TV listings from 1954 to the present.) This was also the last theatre-released film directed by the prolific Lewis D. Collins, whose early 25-year career was primarily Poverty Row non-westerns in the 30's, a series of Jack Holt action-adventure films for producer Larry Darmour and Columbia (a high water mark relative speaking), and westerns, serials and some musical shorts in the 40s, and nearly all westerns in the 50s. His long-time friend, actor Lyle Talbot, said that Lew Collins was the only man in Hollywood that had less use for horses than he (Talbot) did, so... "naturally we both ended up doing nothing but B-westerns, usually together." Writer Dan Ullman dusts of the old mistaken-identity gimmick in this one as ex-convict Jim Blake is mistaken by the lawful element of an Arizona town as the gunman they had sent for to rid the territory of outlaws and rustlers. When his past eventually catches up to him, he owns up to it, finishes the job that was handed to him, becomes the regular sheriff and finds romance with Gail Sterling.
