Ellen Belden (Anne Francis) is set to be hanged for her husband's murder in Texas. Ellen's uncle has one of his ranch hands bust her out of jail and escort across the New Mexico border.
Rory Calhoun co-produced this modest but predictable Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer oater about a professional gunslinger who tracks down an escaped murderer who was scheduled to hang at the outset of this tightly-paced western. Clocking in at a minimal 64 minutes, director Ray Nazarro's "The Hired Gun" is a tolerably entertaining horse opera.
A very short western,clocking at hardly 70 min,but a fast moving one,well acted and with a screenplay which can appeal to ladies ,which is not obvious a far as this genre is concerned ;the background may be the wild west ,but the plot is sometimes close to detective story ,a whodunit (although you would have guessed who the culprit is in the first minutes!) ' Annee Francis portrays a young widow,falsely accused of her husband 's murder and sentenced to death (rare in westerns for a girl!
Anne Francis is about to hung for the murder of her husband, the son of the local Ponderosa owner John Litel. But her uncle sends Chuck Connors to rescue her and he does, taking her across the Texas state line to New Mexico territory where he, Robert Burton is the local Ponderosa owner.
The Hired Gun opens with a camera shot through the noose that is scheduled to go around the pretty neck of Ellen Beldon (Anne Francis), the first woman ever to face hanging in Texas. When she's rescued by Judd Farrow (Chuck Connors) and taken back to her family's ranch in New Mexico, the Texans hire Gil McCord (Rory Calhoun) to bring her back in order to carry out the sentence.
Rory Calhoun co-produced this modest but predictable oater about a professional gunman who tracks down an escaped murderer who is scheduled to get hanged at the outset of this tightly-made western. Clocking in at 63 minutes, "The Hired Gun" is entertaining potboiler with several future stars, such as Chuck Connors and Vince Edwards, fleshing out a convincing cast.
