Glenn Ford stars in this action-packed Western featuring a star-powered cast. Ford stars as a gunman gone good named George Temple, who with his wife Dora (Jeanne Crain) are trying to live a peaceful life. But George’s gunslinging ways are legendary – and attract the attention of other gunmen who feel up for a challenge. The couple moves to a new town in the hopes of finally finding a normal life. When George gets drunk and spills the beans, can he and Dora trust the townsfolk to keep their secret? A Western with a message that the whole family can enjoy.

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Video Quality

Warner Archive presents The Fastest Gun Alive with a splendid new 1080p transfer sourced from a new 4K restoration of the Original Camera Negative. From the opening moments of the picture, you can tell you are in for a visual treat. When surveying the vast desert landscapes, you are greeted to such rich texture and clarity within the dirt and dust. The film features some stunning black-and-white photography from George J. Folsey which shimmers with the perfect amount of natural film grain intact. Black levels are deep with great stability throughout, and the highlights hold firm with nothing appearing too hot. The film appears to be free of damage with no perceived instances of wear-and-tear or dirt making an appearance. Compression artifacts, banding and other such anomalies do not show up in this transfer. Warner Archive are in a league of their own.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a restored DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that delivers effortlessly. Dialogue and background noises are rendered with precision along with the formidable score from Andre Previn. The restoration has eliminated pretty much all instances of distortion to the track such as hissing and popping. Dialogue always comes through crisp and clear without being overshadowed by other elements. The more lively moments such shootouts are handled with ease and give the track a bit of life. This track makes sure everything comes through with perfect fidelity. Warner Archive has provided a top notch audio presentation. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film.

Special Features

Blue Cat Blues: The seven-minute Tom and Jerry short is provided here in HD which finds a despondent Tom recalling an amorous escapade gone wrong.

Down Beat Bear: The nearly seven-minute Tom and Jerry short is provided here in HD which finds Tom becoming the reluctant dance partner of an escaped dancing bear.

Original Theatrical Trailer: The three-minute trailer is provided here.

Final Thoughts

The Fastest Gun Alive is a terrific western tale which embraces the idea that violence is not something to be admired or celebrated. The conflict that our main character faces gives him quite a bit of depth as he wrestles with who he is and what his responsibility is to the town. The performances do a good job of translating this thematically weighty material into something that is riveting to watch on screen. The spritely runtime only elevates the film further as nary a moment feels wasted. Warner Archive has released a Blu-Ray that features a terrific A/V presentation and a couple of fun supplemental shorts. If you are a western fan, you should consider this a fine addition to your collection. Recommended

The Fastest Gun Alive can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or through various other online retailers.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Warner Archive has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.