The Gun That Won the West is a 1955

1955 in film

The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released....

 Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

 Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 film starring Dennis Morgan

Dennis Morgan

Dennis Morgan was an American actor-singer. Born as Earl Stanley Morner, he used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting his professional name....

, Paula Raymond

Paula Raymond

Paula Raymond was an American model and actress.In 1950, she was put under contract by MGM, where she played opposite such leading men as Cary Grant and Dick Powell...

, Richard Denning

Richard Denning

Richard Denning , was an American actor who starred in such movies as Creature from the Black Lagoon and An Affair to Remember , and on radio with Lucille Ball as her husband George Cooper in My Favorite Husband , the forerunner of television's I Love Lucy, for which Denning was replaced by Ball's...

, Chris O'Brien

Chris O'Brien

Chris O'Brien may refer to:* Chris O'Brien , former owner of the Chicago Cardinals and a co-founder of the National Football League* Chris O'Brien , Australian oncologist and surgeon...

, Michael Morgan

Michael Morgan

Michael Morgan or Mike Morgan may refer to:* Michael Ryan Morgan , soldier* Michael K. Morgan , Australian neurosurgeon* Michael J...

, Roy Gordon, Robert Bice

Robert Bice

Robert Bice , was an American television and film actor. Bice was born in Dallas, Texas, United States.-Career:Bice appeared in 199 films and television programs between 1943 and 1967...

, directed by William Castle

William Castle

William Castle was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Castle was known for directing films with many gimmicks which were ambitiously promoted, despite being reasonably low budget B-movies....

 and produced by Sam Katzman

Sam Katzman

Sam Katzman was an American film producer and director. Born into a poor Jewish family, Katzman went to work as a stage laborer at the age of 13 in the fledgling East Coast film industry...

. The screenplay was written by Robert E. Kent

Robert E. Kent

Robert E. Kent is an American film writer and film producer.He began as a rapid screenwriter for Sam Katzman at Columbia. He later formed his own production company, and Admiral Productions together with Audie Murphy....

. The original music score was composed by Irving Gertz

Irving Gertz

Irving Gertz is an American composer recognized for his compositions for many fantasy and horror B-movies and TV series of the 1950s and 1960s....

.

Plot

Colonel Carrington (Gordon) and his command are assigned the job of constructing a chain of forts in the Sioux Indian territory of Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 during the 1880s

1880s

The 1880s was the decade that spanned from January 1, 1880 to December 31, 1889. They occurred at the core period of the Second Industrial Revolution. Most Western countries experienced a large economic boom, due to the mass production of railroads and other more convenient methods of travel...

. The Colonel recruits former cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 soldiers turned frontier scouts Jim Bridger

Jim Bridger

James Felix "Jim" Bridger was among the foremost mountain men, trappers, scouts and guides who explored and trapped the Western United States during the decades of 1820-1850, as well as mediating between native tribes and encroaching whites...

 (Morgan) and "Dakota Jack" Gaines (Denning), now running a Wild West Show, to head the fort building.

Bridger and Gaines are friendly with Sioux chief Red Cloud (Bice) but have reservations about the chief's 2nd in command, Afraid of Horses (Morgan). Both Bridger and Gaines are confident a peace treaty with the Sioux can be made. However, if war breaks out, the cavalry is depending on getting a new type of breech loading Springfield Model 1865

Springfield Model 1865

The Springfield Model 1865 was an early breech-loading modification of the Springfield rifle musket design.During the U.S. Civil War, the advantage of breech loading rifles became obvious. The rifled muskets used during the war had a rate of fire of 3 or 4 rounds per minute...

 rifle. Gaines, Mrs. Gaines (Raymond), and Bridger arrive at the fort for the conference. Gaines gets drunk and attempts to intimidate the Indians into signing a treaty. Chief Red Fox threatens war if his territory is invaded by any troops building forts.

Production

The film features a large amount of stock footage

Stock footage

Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...

 from Buffalo Bill

Buffalo Bill (film)

Buffalo Bill Technicolor is a biographical Western about the life of the legendary frontiersman, starring Joel McCrea and Maureen O'Hara with Linda Darnell and Anthony Quinn in supporting roles.-Cast:*Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill Cody...

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