Gunners and Guns: A Western where everyone forgets everything

Is it worth the watch?

If you have an hour to kill and like watching guys in dusty hats look very confused, then yes. You should probably skip this if you want a plot that actually makes sense for more than five minutes at a time. 🤠

It is mostly for people who collect weird old 1930s films that feel like they were written on a napkin during lunch. If you expect a 'masterpiece,' you are going to be very disappointed.

Alice, played by Ruth Runnell, comes home from college and she is supposed to be all fancy now. But she immediately gets dropped into a mess because her fiancé, Jack, is a total wreck.

Jack is the ranch foreman, but he has been moonlighting with gangsters. Why would a cowboy hang out with city mobsters? The movie never really explains it well, he just did.

The big problem is that Jack hid their stolen money and then promptly forgot where it is. Amnesia is such a cheap way to start a story, but here we are. 🧠

He just stares into space a lot. Jack Cheatham plays him like a guy who is trying to remember if he left the oven on back at the bunkhouse.

There is this one scene where the gangsters are talking to him and you can almost see the actor waiting for his cue. It feels a bit like a school play where the kids forgot their lines and are just vibing.

The gangsters look so out of place in the desert. They have these city suits that probably got very dusty and ruined during filming.

It reminds me a bit of the awkward pacing in North of Nevada. Everything just kind of happens because the script says it has to, not because it feels real.

I noticed that the horse, Black King, is actually a better actor than half the humans. He stands there with so much dignity while everyone else is running around screaming about money.

There is a lot of riding back and forth. Just... so much riding. I think they were just trying to fill the time because the story about the lost money is actually pretty short.

The indoor scenes are weirdly dark. It is like they only had one lightbulb and they had to share it between the actors. 💡

Alice is mostly there to look worried. She does a lot of that 'hand on the cheek' posing that was popular back then.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Gunners and Guns (1934) through its definitive frames.

She is way too patient with Jack. If my fiancé lost a bag of mob money and forgot where it was, I would probably just leave.

The writing is credited to four people, which is hilarious because the plot is so simple. You would think four writers could come up with a better reason for Jack to be a criminal.

It feels a bit like the melodrama you see in The Web of Life, but with more guns and fewer lessons. It is just a messy b-movie through and through.

One of the gangsters has a hat that is way too big for his head. I kept watching it to see if it would fall off during the fight scenes.

Speaking of fights, they are very clunky. It is mostly just guys grabbing each other's shirts and falling over into the dirt.

There is a moment where Jack looks at a rock like he recognizes it, and the music gets all dramatic. It goes on for about ten seconds too long. 🎵

I actually laughed when the 'big reveal' happened. It is not exactly a shocker where the money was hidden.

If you like this kind of goofy energy, you might also like Mama Behave. They both have that 'we are making this up as we go' feeling.

The ending is very abrupt. It is like the camera crew ran out of film and just decided to stop right there.

Overall, it is a strange little relic. It is not good, but it is definitely something you can watch while eating popcorn and not paying full attention.

I still think the horse should have gotten top billing. 🐴

It is a weird mix of a crime thriller and a western that does not quite fit together. Like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, but the peg is wearing a cowboy hat.

Don't expect any deep thoughts here. Just enjoy the hats and the confusion.