John Chard

The Most Famous Detective In The West! Money, Women and Guns is directed by Richard H. Bartlett and written by Montgomery Pittman. It stars Jock Mahoney, Kim Hunter, Tim Hovey, Gene Evans, Tom Drake and Lon Chaney Jr. Music is by Joseph Gershenson and CinemaScope photography is by Philip Lathrop. A strange bag of oats is this one. The makers have offered up CinemaScope and parked up at Lone Pine to film it. The colour lensing is beautiful, while the story has promise unbound, yet it still struggles to come out in credit. Story sees an old prospector murdered at pic's start (we don't see who done the deed), so in comes detective Silver Ward Hogan (Mahoney). Hogan sets out to find the killer and also an heir to the dead man's fortune. And thus we have a sort of Hercule Poirot in the Wild West. Which is fun, and the mystery element is engaging and constantly strong. Yet the Scope potential is barely utilised, action is in short supply, and the acting performances - whilst adequate - reek of easy paycheck time. Not a waste of time by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure as hell is frustrating. 6/10