source: Five Guns to Tombstone

Five Guns to Tombstone is directed by Edward L. Cahn and collectively written by Ricahrd Schayer, Jack De Witt and Arthur Orloff. It stars James Brown, Walter Coy, Robert Karness and Willis Bouchey. Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter share composing duties and Maury Gertsman provides the cinematography. Not a lot to write home about here, where the plot treads familiar ground as reformed outlaw gets roped into bad ways again, and his brother is involved in the mess that follows. As some Western fans have rightly spotted, this is a remake of Ray Nazarro's Gun Belt from 1953. Itself not a great film, it is however the one to seek out in preference to this offering. Though made in 1960 this actually feels more like a 1940s Western, where an air of serial sogginess hangs over proceedings. Cahn appears to be one of those jobbing directors who studios turned to to haul a pic in on time. Everything is competently staged, the action etc, and the landscapes pleasing, but excitement is in short supply and the finale doesn't pay off for time invested in viewing. 4/10

This black and white film is an exact remake of the 1953 oater, GUN BELT, starring George Montgomery, almost word for word and scene for scene. The main difference is that GUN BELT was in Technicolor. James Brown does a credible job as the protagonist and John Wilder tries hard to duplicate Tab Hunter's performance in his third movie. Character actor Willis Bouchey appeared in both versions. The story line is so faithful to GUN BELT, it even requires the two main characters, during a fight, to tumble into a pond. Many of the sets are precise duplicates. Frankly, it's difficult to understand what motivated the producers to turn out this mediocre mirror image.

As the other viewers said, this is only a GUNBELT bland and useless remake. I don't rememebr if it is scene for scene but I don't advise you to watch the Ray Nazzaro's film before, it could spoil the pleasure for this one. If it is still possible to take enjoyment from this junk, destined to red neck audiences, saturday evening drive-in audiences. But if you are only a grade Z westerns from the late fifties and early sixties fan, gem digger, you can try. After all, this is an Edward L Cahn's movie. Cahn made so many movies, especially westerns, six films per year, that it was impossible to deliver masterpieces for each of them.

This movie is a word for word remake of a 1953 movie called "The Gun Belt". Unfortunately, unlike wine, this one didn't improve with age...

I thought that there was something similar when I watched this movie. I was watching the Western Station ,and as I got into the movie,I realized that I had seen the same plot just the week before. After some searching,I realized "Five Guns To Tombstone" was exactly the same as "Gun Belt" that came out in 1953.The plot was exactly the same in each movie.The lead character,Billy,was Billy Ringo in "Gun Belt" and Billy Wade in this movie.George Montgomery and Tab Hunter were uncle and nephew in "Gun Belt" and had the same feelings for each other as the uncle and nephew had in this one. Ike was the bad guy in both and did exactly the same murderous deeds in both movies.The movie ended the same in both movies.Both movies were lousy.The acting was bad in both except "Five Guns To Tombstone" was probably worse only because George Montgomery and Tab Hunter were better actors. Looks like the writers of this movie must have had writers' block and someone said,"Hey.let's remake "Gun Belt".VERY BAD DECISION!!

A remake of the 1953 Western, Gun Belt (story by Arthur E. Orloff). Gun Belt was filmed in color and Five Guns to Tombstone is in black & white. Jim Brown gives a pretty good performance in the role of Billy Wade. I would guess Jim Brown is best known as Detective Harry McSween in the night time soap, Dallas. Jim had a great voice. These two films employ some of the same actors, Willis Bouchey, Red Morgan and Boyd Stockman. Also watch for Gregg Palmer as Mel Dixon in Five guns, Gregg was in a lot of John Wayne films. Gun Belt uses the character names, Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Ringo and Ike Clinton (a 'take' on Clanton). These characters don't show up in Five Guns to Tombstone, but the story comes off just as well without them. These films are both 'middle of the road', but entertaining. If I had to choose between the two films, I would pick Five Guns to Tombstone. Although the story is the same, 'Five Guns' seems to progress more smoothly.

Great name for a Western flick, but that's the only draw for this run of the mill 'B' programmer that doesn't even have a name actor in the leading role. You'll have to keep track of a good guy being a bad guy being a good guy before it's all over, as Billy Wade (James Brown, but not any of the ones you know) tries to get the drop on villain Ike Garvey (Walter Coy) and convince his nephew Ted (John Wilder) that he's not part of the Garvey gang. There's a half million dollars in cash riding in on the stagecoach to make things interesting, but didn't it strike you as odd that Garvey would empty those two strongboxes filled with bills and coins right out on top of a massive rock outcrop? Couldn't you just picture a big wind whipping up a la 'Sierra Madre' and blowing the whole shebang away in a heartbeat? You know, they never showed the cash again, so who knows? Caught this on the Encore Western channel today, intrigued by the title, but not much of a thriller. No Wyatt Earp or OK Corral, just your standard formula Western with the hero committed to a date at the altar in the finale, which even a bullet couldn't prevent.

Wow, this is not a very good movie. The story line is really lame. One character shows up in town after a bank holdup in which he was not involved - but one of the robbers said he was, so when he comes to town everyone is ready to hang him immediately based on the say-so of a robber who WAS there robbing the bank. Not very likely. And when Ike Garvey opens the strongboxes full of cash onto an uneven-surface rock, what was he thinking? I could just see the money falling off and all over the place. Worst of all perhaps, I had to feel sorry for the horses - 3/4 of the actors in this film were somewhere between chubby and downright obese. Ike Garvey (again), the main bad guy, was particularly huge - from the back he looked just like his horse. I think his gun belt was full of Tootsie Rolls where there normally would be bullets. Anyhow, I've actually seen worse Westerns, but offhand I can't think which one(s). This movie is really lukewarm; the only actor I liked at all was James Brown, who was the marshal in the movie Gun Street. He plays a pretty good 'perturbed by life' Western character. The rest of 'em can all go to Weight Watchers.

Moviecut—Five Guns to Tombstone