Work and play, Mrs. Adams, play and work.

by chuckofish

Having made it through the last week of classes and several exceedingly tedious Zoom meetings,* I rewarded myself by watching a Yul Brynner movie that I had never seen before called Invitation to a Gunfighter.

Yul is definitely the headliner of this 1964 B movie, although you will recognize many of the supporting cast, including a young George Segal, Brad Dexter, Janice Rule and Pat Hingle. Strother Martin even has a cameo, although I can’t say I ever noticed him.

After the conclusion of the Civil War, former Rebel Matt Weaver (George Segal) returns home to his farm in New Mexico Territory only to discover that his mother’s grave has become overgrown with weeds, and the local bigwig Sam Brewster (Pat Hingle) has sold the property illegally to someone else.

The flowers are dead, but I only left them here four years ago!

Matt is both heartbroken and incensed. After running off the new settlers (who never get mentioned again), Matt gets himself shot in the arm and holes up in his house while Brewster sends for a professional gunfighter to kill Matt. Before accepting the job, the newly arrived killer gives a tutorial on how to pronounce his Creole name, which he helpfully writes for them on the Stage chalkboard.

My name is not pronounced Jewel!

The locals have never met anyone as suave, exotic and manly as Jules, and they find him rather disturbing.

Meanwhile, Brewster forces Crane Adams, a disabled Union veteran, and his wife Ruth to give Jules a room in their house. Jules is drawn to this lady with the prodigious hair extensions, and she cannot resist his animal magnetism.

Jules, who has no hair of his own, finds Ruth’s mesmerizing.

She is amazed to discover that this icy killer can also play the pianoforte — and in the middle of the night, too. What hidden depths!

If only he would remove his hat while in the house and play during the day!

Poor Ruth. She is trapped in a loveless marriage and torn between her old love, Matt Weaver, and this exotic, mysterious gunman.

Matt is also fascinated with Ruth’s hair.

However, Jules realizes that he cannot have Ruth, because she belongs with sweet (but kind of stupid) Matt and also because — drum roll — Jules doesn’t have a tan; his mother was a slave! The film tries to highlight the ill effects of prejudice, both political (between Union and Rebel) and racial (downtrodden Hispanic locals and mixed-race Jules), but doesn’t quite pull it off.

In true heroic fashion Jules decides to take matters into his own hands. First, he gets drunk, wrecks the town, and kills Crane Adams, thereby freeing Ruth and forcing Brewster to ask Matt Weaver, the only other man in town capable of using a gun, to kill Jules. It would be so wrong to spoil the finale for you, so I’ll leave you with this tantalizing picture.

Just how did that blood stain spread upward?

I must say that finding a new (to me) Yul Brynner movie really made my week! He’s such a pro that he can even make a bad western watchable.

*Thanks to my niece Susie for emailing an adorable photo of Katiebelle! Her sweet face got me through more than one awful Zoom meeting (I have two computer monitors). To give you an idea of the annoyance level of said meetings, during one I became so irritated that I muted my video and walked away from my desk loudly declaring “this is such B&*@ S^%#”, only to discover that I had not muted the sound. Mea culpa!

Have a great weekend and don’t forget to check your settings when you Zoom!