Watching Gunfight at Comanche Creek in 1963, audiences may well have wondered if they hadn't seen this story before. They'd have been right: it had already been the basis for four Westerns over the previous 18 years. In 1945, the bottom-rung studio PRC produced Flaming Bullets, written and directed by Harry Fraser. In 1951, Monogram remade it as Wanted: Dead or Alive, written by Clint Johnston. In 1953, Allied Artists (formerly Monogram), turned out another version, Star of Texas, written by Daniel Ullman, who re-tooled it for another Allied take in 1957, Last of the Badmen, in CinemaScope and color. Gunfight at Comanche Creek, written by Edward Bernds for Allied yet again, is practically a carbon copy of that 1957 film, again in color and widescreen Panavision.

All five films contain virtually the same story idea: an outlaw gang bust criminals out of jail and makes them join in for bank robberies, ensuring that the criminals' faces are seen during those robberies; then, when the price on the exposed criminals' heads shoots up, they kill them for the bounty. In Gunfight, Audie Murphy plays the detective who infiltrates the gang to try and stop them.

The film was shot in April 1963 and released that November. Leading lady Colleen Miller recalled: "We shot that very quick--in only days. The film wasn't that good. I think it needed some more script... Audie played the guitar and would sing songs to me--and every other woman who was around."

This was the next-to-last feature film credit for director Frank McDonald, who had made a career in B movies and television. He was under contract to Republic for several years starting in 1939, and later he directed some very low-budgeted films for Paramount, produced by William Pine and William Thomas, known in Hollywood as the "Dollar Bills" for their penny-pinching ways. Starting in 1944, McDonald directed many Roy Rogers Westerns, including Bells of Rosarita (1945) and My Pal Trigger (1946), arguably two of Roy's best. In the 1950s, McDonald turned to television Westerns (including 149 episodes of The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp starring Hugh O'Brian), while still turning out low-budget features for Monogram and Allied. Those he worked with described him as having a ribald sense of humor, well-dressed and with a constant walking stick.

Reviews of Gunfight at Comanche Creek were perfunctory but not bad. "Devised and executed with journeyman efficiency," said Variety. "Tailor-made to satisfy the tastes of Audie Murphy [fans]." Film Daily declared "it should easily please the Western fan," and The Hollywood Reporter deemed it "a fairly good story with some suspense turns here and there." The review noted that because it was shot in springtime, "the customary dull colors of the brush are enlivened by spring flowers and fresh greens."

Look for DeForest Kelley, later to play "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek, as Amos Troop--one of several western heavies he played at this point of his career.

SOURCES:

Francis M. Nevins, They Called the Shots: Action Directors From Late Silents to the Late Sixties
Bob Larkins and Boyd Magers, The Films of Audie Murphy

By Jeremy Arnold