Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (August 8, 2023)
Among Westerns, the “reluctant hero” acts as a subtheme. For an example of this, we go to 1956’s The Fastest Gun Alive.
In the town of Cross Creek, George Temple (Glenn Ford) lives with wife Dora (Jeanne Crain). He operates a general store and seems to enjoy a sedate existence.
However, word gets out that George boasts immense talent as a gunman. This creates issues because ultra-competitive pistolero Vinnie Harold (Broderick Crawford) seeks out George to prove his talent.
For Gen Xers like me, our first exposure to Glenn Ford likely came from 1978’s Superman. Even though I’m sure I’ve seen him in a dozen or more earlier films since then, it still feels weird to watch Ford in roles that depict him as anything other than a gentle, thoughtful older man.
(Though I now find it slightly terrifying to realize Ford was only 61 when he shot Superman. That’s only a few years older than I am now!)
That said, George feels closer in spirit to Pa Kent than to other notable Ford roles of the era. With his desire to embrace his peaceful side, George seems a world away from characters like Ford’s sleazy gambler in 1946’s Gilda.
I thought Ford performed well in Gilda, though I suspect it didn’t take much to act infatuated with circa 1940s Rita Hayworth. Nonetheless, the kind of part represented by George here comes across as an easier fit for Ford.
That said, George doesn’t play as a simple “nice guy” ala Pa Kent. Indeed, Ford’s performance feels influenced by James Dean, as he makes George a tortured soul.
This creates an interesting angle, as it gives Ford more complexity than imagined. I figured George would emerge in the stoic vibe ala Gary Cooper’s High Noon sheriff and not an angst-ridden gunman with a troubled past.
Indeed, George occasionally feels like a non-irradiated version of Bruce Banner. George needs to bottle up his emotions and stay calm so the monster inside doesn’t rear his ugly head.
I like this layer of depth and think it adds to the psychological drama of Alive. However, the movie doesn’t fully engage in these domains, as it tends to only connect on an intermittent basis.
Even at a mere 90 minutes, Alive can feel padded. In particular, this occurs when the movie features a handsome young man played by Russ Tamblyn who appears to exist solely as sop to attract a female audience.
Tamblyn’s Eric Doolittle lives up to his name, as he does little in the story. Out of nowhere, Alive prompts Eric to perform an acrobatic dance scene completely irrelevant to the narrative, and then he totally disappears from the film outside of a background presence in a couple of scenes.
It feels like Alive introduces Eric as a probable aspiring gunman who creates issues for George. Instead, he just does his dance and we barely see him again.
Described as “popular Russ Tamblyn” in the movie’s trailer, he gets prominent placement there, and that reinforces my belief the producers shoehorned in a superfluous role solely for box office bucks. I imagine a lot of teen girls left Alive disappointed when they realized Tamblyn only appeared in maybe five minutes of the film.
Even without this bizarre distraction, Alive tends to come across like a short tale expanded to feature length without quite enough substance to sustain it. Like High Noon, it comes with a ticking clock, here depicted by the impending arrival of Harold.
However, Alive doesn’t milk tension in the same way, perhaps because Noon came with a literal countdown. The audience knew that the characters had until the title hour, whereas in Alive, it seems less specific in terms of when Harold will get to town.
We still find an anxious vibe, but whereas Noon expanded its characters and themes in an engaging way, Alive mostly seems to stall. It just wants to extend matters long enough to get to 90 minutes and qualify as a full-length feature.
Alive does manage to remain fairly involving even with these issues. Ford offers a solid performance, especially in the way he depicts George’s downward spiral as pressures mount.
Still, I can’t help but wish Alive came with a bit more meat on the bone. It just lacks both the narrative and emotional depth necessary to make it better than semi-good.
