Gunsmoke (film)


Gunsmoke is a 1953 Western film directed by Nathan Juran and starring Audie Murphy, Susan Cabot, and Paul Kelly. The film has no connection to the contemporary radio and later TV series of the same name. The film was based on the 1951 novel Roughshod by Norman A. Fox.

Plot

Murphy stars as Reb Kittridge, a wandering hired gun who is hired to get the deed of the last remaining ranch not owned by local boss Matt Telford. That last hold-out ranch is owned by Dan Saxon. Though Reb has not yet accepted the job he is ambushed by Saxon's ramrod, ranch foreman Curly Mather and challenged to a gun fight by Saxon, both attempts to kill him being unsuccessful.
Saxon, a former wild outlaw who settles down senses Reb has good in him and when he hears Reb's goal in life is to own his own ranch he loses the deed of the ranch to Reb in a card draw. Reb takes over the ranch and moving its cattle herd to a railhead for sale to the workers. Telford hires Reb's fellow gunslinger Johnny Lake to stop the herd and Reb.
Reb has also fallen in love with the rancher's daughter who currently is in love with Mather.

Cast

The movie started filming in June 1952 under the title of Roughshod. It was the first of three Westerns Murphy made with Nathan Juran over two years. Filming took place in Big Bear Lake, California.