Customer Reviews

No Name on the Bullet

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As others reviewers have noted, 1959's "No Name on the Bullet" is far from being a typical Audie Murphy western. Under Jack Arnold's expert direction, the focus here is on suspense and tension, rather than action. When gunman John Gant rides into town, most of the local citizens are justifiably nervous. Gant is a hired killer, and he seldom visits a town just to see the sights. Much of the film revolves around the questions--why is he here ? Who is he after ? Which of the town's citizens will die ? Since Gant isn't the talkative type, the suspense keeps building, not to mention the nervous paranoia of the townfolk.

As Gant, Murphy delivers a chilling performance. You never doubt that, behind that baby face and modest build, is a man not to be crossed ( by all accounts, in real life, as well as in movies ). He is not intimidated by anyone, not even a hostile crowd who thinks that, by sheer numbers, it can scare him away. As the town's doctor who tries to befriend Gant, Charles Drake delivers a strong performance as he comes to realize that he cannot distract the killer from his purpose.
Other fine supporting actors further add to the quality of the film--Whit Bissell, Karl Swenson, Warren Stevens and Virginia Grey. Apart from one climactic scene with Mr. Murphy, leading lady, Joan Evans ( not to be confused with the popular comedienne ), has little to do but make coffee for her "man", Charles Drake.

I found the ending to be memorable, and--for those of you who like action--there is gunplay at certain crucial parts of the movie.

The DVD has beautiful colour, is widescreen and mono sound. The only extra is the original trailer.

Audie Murphy made a lot of westerns in the 1950s and 60s. "No Name on the Bullet" is not the most action-packed, but it is certainly one of the most interesting, and features one of his best perfomances. If he is not yet represented in your western DVD collection, this is an excellent title to start with.

Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier of World War II. After the war he got involved with movies -- predominantly westerns. Frankly, his films are highly variable in quality. Some are pretty bad B movies. But given a good script, good direction, and good supporting actors, Murphy turned in several surprisingly fine performances. No Name on the Bullet is a case in point. Murphy convincingly plays John Gant -- a cool, deceptively-likeable hired killer with a reputation for goading his intended victim into attempting to draw first so that Gant can always get off by claiming self defence. This movie is a study of the effect of Gant's arrival in a town on it's citizens. While Gant quietly drinks coffee in the hotel bar or plays chess with the local doctor, the town's leading citizens go to pieces because their secret guilts convince each of them that he is Gant's target. The finale of this tense psychological drama is surprising but not contrived. This is a very good western by any standard and probably Audie Murphy's best. I hope its availability on DVD will find it the wide audience which it richly deserves.

Audie Murphy gives one of his best performances as John Gant, the hired assassin, whose arrival in town pricks a lot of guilty consciences. No one is absolutely certain who he came to kill, but that doesn't stop a few restless townspeople from getting nervous and cracking under the pressure as Gant plays it cool and bides his time. He seems unsurprised by the effect his presence has in town. As Gant eloquently puts it, he doesn't have to deliver a bullet to those types of men because "they are already dead," suffocated by the weight of guilt caused by past sins. Gants kills only who he is paid to kill, and only time will tell who he has really come for.

But there's more to this cold-blooded avenger than meets the eye. Or so thinks Luke, the town's likeable physician, who is a paragon of civic and moral virtue. Juxtapposed against each other, the two seem to be exact opposites, but a sort of friendship develops as Luke tries desperately to get into Gant's head and somehow turn him around before he does what he came to do. No Name on the Bullet explores many interesting issues such as vengeance, justice, law and the burden of sin. Audie Murphy reveals his darker side as he plays the self-named "avenging angel." He even tries to compares himself to his new friend Luke because in his mind, he too is concerned with eliminating "public health problems," namely those who are guilty but unpunished.

Just like Murphy himself, there's more to this film than meets the eye. And the plot takes a surprising turn at the end, too, so it's altogether unpredictable. As evidenced by another great performance in To Hell and Back, Audie Murphy was certainly a great soldier on screen and off. Although he was the most decorated soldier of World War II, like many other greats of his day (John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart) Murphy probably felt he was just doing his duty. There are those who think this may be just another Audie Murphy western, but this is not true at all. It's a stellar film that stands alone in its brilliant performances and handling of the fallen human condition.

Everyone always talks about Audie Murphy's baby face and his slight build. But take a close look at his eyes. He was a cold-eyed individual, brought about largely by his 2 years in combat and subsequently suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. If he had been born during the Old West times, he would have been a killer. "No Name on the Bullet" personifies Murphy's personality had he lived during those times.

Murphy gives a splendid performance as John Gant, a hired killer whose presence in Lordsburg causes total chaos, even though he does nothing at first - just sitting around drinking coffee and playing chess with the local physician.

Murphy's facial expressions were great as he smugly looked around and watched the carnage his name and reputation created. The banker winds up killing himself (even though he wasn't Murphy's target), and another man in town tries to get drunk enough to have the courage to face Gant, who stares him down and sends him fleeing from the bar.

This was probably Murphy's finest performance outside of "To Hell and Back," when he was not really acting but working on raw emotion, adrenaline and painful memories of the war.

Even when the town bands together and comes to make him leave, Gant remains cold as ice and backs them down. He knew they could kill him, but the question was "How many could Gant kill before they killed him?" None of them were willing to die to get rid of Gant.

Charles Drake also delivered a great performance as the physician opposite Murphy's character. While the entire town was in panic and chaos, wondering who Gant had come for, Drake calmly plays a game of chess with the gunman, trying to get inside his head and figure out what "makes him tick."

A suspenseful thriller with a minimum amount of violence, "No Name on the Bullet" comes highly recommended.

There are people who love to do "lists" on AOL with regard to movies and such, and you can usually tell something about their age and their overall exposure to artistic genres by what they list in terms of their notions of "the best". Most such lists don't don't usually reflect much other than abysmal ignorance of the subjects they address.

Any list of supposed "best westerns" that doesn't include Audie Murphy's awesome "No Name On the Bullet" is about as hare brained as one that doesn't include "The Ox Bow Incident" , "The Virginian", "The Gunfighter", "Broken Arrow", "Red River", "Dodge City", "The Searchers", "Shane", "Rio Bravo", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "Winchester 73", or John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy on it.

Fact is , the most decorated soldier...not just of World War Two...but in the entire history of the U.S. Armed Forces...could not only call artillery down on himself while he machine-gunned down an entire enemy rifle company with a .50 calbre machine gun mounted on the back of a disabled, burning tank destroyer (earning a Congressional Medal of Honor in the process)...he could also ACT. AND, if given good material and capable direction, he could do some FINE acting.

"No Name On the Bullet" is vivid, engrossing proof of that contention. This is a western that is anything BUT "run of the mill". Put it up against "High Noon" and it has twice the tension and edginess, and Audie Murphy's "John Gant" would have Gary Cooper's "Marshal Will Kane" leaving town so fast he'd leave a windstorm in his wake.

Murphy's Gant is a hired killer who rides into Lordsburg one day and sets the entire town on edge. Gant's reputation is considerable. He is said to be lightning fast with a six gun and deadly accurate.He is also known to have put many men into the ground, a lot of whom were considered good gun-hands themselves.
Gant's methodolgy is to goad his target into a shootout. In this manner the killing is waived as a "self-defense" claim...quite common and effective in the 19th century West.

In Gant's case, nobody knows who he intends to kill until the event actually goes down. And here in Lordsburg everyone from bankers to miners to saloon-keepers to store-owners worries that it might be THEM...("Everybody has enemies")

From the hour Gant hits town, stress and paranoia begin to take over. People all over town are convinced that THEY are the targets and some neighbor of theirs might be the one who hired this killer to "do" them. People turn against each other and the entire town becomes a powderkeg of volatility.

And Gant enjoys every minute of it. He enjoys psychologically terrorizing these people. Playing them. He enjoys the effect his name has on them, how they "kowtow" to him and cringe when he walks by. Oh, he plays nicey-nice and ambivalent at all times. He is polite, well-spoken, obviously sophisticated, educated, and well-read (a friend commented to me once that, if t.v.'s "Have Gun, Will Travel" Paladin character were written to be a clean shaven, babyfaced psychopath, then this would be him).
Yet there is a smug little smirk he carries around with him, and a glinting look that comes into his eyes at times that say.."watch yourself around this boyo...he's not playing with a full deck of cards". Or does he just lack true depth of feeling or conscience?

One intriguing scene has a mob of townsmen accost Gant at the porch of the city hotel. They are going to try to frighten him off...tell him to get out of town before they all cut loose on him. He looks at them withn utter contempt and urges them to have at it. He tells them which ones he's going to kill right off and then tells the rest they can take their own chances before he drops. The mob scatters quickly. They want none of what he is selling. The scene works because of the steely-eyed believability of Murphy's performance...AND because of the psychological awareness by the audience that this IS Audie Murphy on this porch...someone who in real life could street-slap "Scarface".

Gant is a very complex character as played by Murphy. He is both likable and scary at the same time. And Murphy the actor works the nuances that swing him back and forth BETWEEN the likable and the scary in brilliant fashion. This is GOOD acting
here. Murphy delivers a cowboy "boogeyman" on par with Robert Mitchum's evil preacher in "Night of the Hunter", and, on the strength of this performance in "No Name", one would have to consider that Audie Murphy could have turned in a hair-raising Norman Bates in "Psycho" if Anthony Perkins had not gotten the role.

Everyone else in this film does a great job. Filled with familiar character-actor faces throughout, the story moves along with nary a drag and just pulls you into its multi-faceded story line and holds you there right to the end.

"No Name On the Bullet". Remember that title. If you're a fan of westerns,or good movies in general, you need to be aware of it and sit yourself down to watch it sometime. It's a "Good'un".

Audie Murphy portrays a young outlaw who kills for money in this psychological thriller, a genre of Westerns, that deals with the impact of people's pasts in a small western town. Chaos breaks out when the threat of consequence for past immoralities causes townspeople to face their guilt. Subtle, simple, Murphy depicts a cool, level-headed killer amused by the effects his presence in town is having, yet occupied only with killing the man he was sent to murder. In this town, there is no name on the bullet, and everyone thinks its headed for them. Great flick.

Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier of World War II. After the war he got involved with movies -- predominantly westerns. Frankly, his films are highly variable in quality. Some are pretty bad B movies. But given a good script, good direction, and good supporting actors, Murphy turned in several surprisingly fine performances. No Name on the Bullet is a case in point. Murphy plays John Gant -- a cool, deceptively-likeable hired killer with a reputation for goading his intended victim into attempting to draw first so that Gant can always get off by claiming self defence. This movie is a study of the effect of Gant's arrival in a town on it's citizens. While Gant quietly drinks coffee in the hotel bar or plays chess with the local doctor, the town's leading citizens go to pieces because their secret guilts convince each of them that he is Gant's target. The finale of this tense psychological drama is surprising but not contrived. This is a good western by any standard and probably Audie Murphy's best.

Audie Murphy excels in this low-key suspenseful western. His portrayal of [...] John Gant is one of his finest roles: stoic, pragmatic and cooly emotionless, yet not without humor and even a soft side. Those who like Audie Murphy westerns will enjoy this movie.

The rest of the cast is great, and the suspense created by the characters not knowing which town citizen will be Murphy's victim is truly nail-biting. The over reactions and false conclusions of those who feel they will be the victim lead inevitably to tragic consequences.

At a compact hour and seventeen minute run time, this movie is a lot of fun and doesn't waste any time getting right to the action. A forgotten western gem that has finally debuted on DVD.

This is a very watchable Western featuring Audie Murphy and co-starring Charles Drake (Audie's co-star in "To Hell and Back"). If this film had been made ten years later, it would have been a good vehicle for Clint Eastwood. Audie Murphy plays a Western "hit man" who is famous for killing his prey not by out-and-out murder, but through self-defense or other means. Charles Drake plays the town doctor who becomes friendly with Audie, despite his personal feelings about Audie's quest.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Universal has released this on video - hopefully, they'll release some more. If you like Westerns, see this film - if you're not familiar with Audie Murphy's work or have heard less than flattering things about his acting, you will be pleasantly surprised!

I've been watching movies a long, long time. I've seen many westerns in my time and like most of them. So imagine to my surprise when I found out that until I saw this film I had never seen an Audie Murphy film. Imagine my shock when I watched in amazement as this story unravel. A western, but a different kind of western. A psychological western. Audie is the bad guy. A man come to town to kill someone. Question is who. The town goes bonkers trying to find out his little secret. Paranoia runs rampant throughtout. Everyone is basically played off against each other until the secret is out who Audue is there to take out. Watching the townspeople go nuts was fantastic. Just a tad let down at the end, but seems typical for the late 50's film that it is. I'm not going to give it away. You see for yourself. Now that I've seen this film I want to see other films of Audie Murphy. Enjoy this one. You will not be disappointed if it is a good western you are looking for.