Top Gun (1955 film)

Top Gun

Directed by	Ray Nazarro
Produced by	Edward Small
Screenplay by	Steve Fisher Richard Schayer
Story by	Steve Fisher
Starring	Sterling Hayden William Bishop
Music by	Irving Gertz
Cinematography	Lester White
Edited by	Henry Adams Dwright Caldwell
Production company	Edward Small Productions Fame Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	December 1955 (1955-12)
Running time	74 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Top Gun is a 1955 Western film about an ex-gunslinger (Sterling Hayden) who arrives in a small town warning of an impending attack by his old gang. The film features Rod Taylor in one of his first American roles.^[1]

Plot

Rick Martin returns home to Casper, Wyoming, where he is unwanted. A grave marker beside his mother's has Rick's name on it, and the town council orders Rick to leave town by midnight. Rick informs townspeople that outlaw Tom Quentin's gang is on its way, but his warnings go unheeded.

Rick still has friends in town, including Marshal Bat Davis and hotel owner Jim O'Hara. He rides to former sweetheart Laura Mead's ranch to ask her to marry him and move to California, but she is engaged to a wealthy council member, Canby Judd.

Rick learns his mother was cheated out of her ranch by Judd and murdered by him. After a fistfight, Judd hires gunfighter Lem Sutter to ambush Rick, but when Sutter ends up dead, Bat has no choice but to place Rick under arrest. Bat tries to head off Quentin on the trail, but is shot. Townspeople now beg Rick for help. He is able to kill Quentin in a fair fight, and Laura does likewise to Judd when he tries to shoot Rick in the back. Rick and Laura pack up and leave for California.

Cast

Sterling Hayden as Rick Martin
William Bishop as Canby Judd
Karin Booth as Laura Mead
James Millican as Marshal Bat Davis
Regis Toomey as Jim O'Hara
Hugh Sanders as Ed Marsh
John Dehner as Tom Quentin
Rod Taylor as Lem Sutter
Denver Pyle as Hank Spencer

Production

Filming started June 1955.^[2]

Female lead Karin Booth was married to the grandson of Allan Pinkerton—founder of the world-famous Pinkerton Detective Agency—and producer Edward Small announced plans to star her as a female Pinkerton detective, but no film seems to have resulted.^[3]

References

↑ Stephen Vagg, Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood, Bear Manor Media 2010 p 50
↑ Hayden Next Will Star in Top Gun: Cole Porter 'Wonderland' Readying Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 21 Mar 1955: B9.
↑ Pinkerton Production on Hot Slate; 'Hired Guns' Speeds Project Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File) [Los Angeles, Calif] 21 June 1955: 19.

External links

Top Gun at the Internet Movie Database
Top Gun at TCM

Films produced by Edward Small

1910-20s	Who's Your Neighbor? (1917) The Sporting Lover (1926) The Cohens and Kellys (1926) The Gorilla (1927) McFadden's Flats (1927) Ladies' Night in a Turkish Bath (1928) The Cohens and the Kellys in Paris (1928) My Man (1928) Companionate Marriage (1928) Song of Love (1929)

1930s	Clancy in Wall Street (1930) Igloo (1932) I Cover the Waterfront (1933) Palooka (1933) The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934) Let 'Em Have It (1935) Red Salute (1935) The Melody Lingers On (1935) The Last of the Mohicans (1936) The Bride Walks Out (1936) We Who Are About to Die (1937) Sea Devils (1937) New Faces of 1937 (1937) Super-Sleuth (1937) The Toast of New York (1937) The Duke of West Point (1938) King of the Turf (1939) The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)

1940s	My Son, My Son! (1940) The Son of Monte Cristo (1940) South of Pago Pago (1940) Kit Carson (1940) International Lady (1941) The Corsican Brothers (1941) A Gentleman After Dark (1942) Twin Beds (1942) Miss Annie Rooney (1942) Friendly Enemies (1942) Up in Mabel's Room (1944) Abroad with Two Yanks (1944) Brewster's Millions (1945) Getting Gertie's Garter (1945) Temptation (1946) The Return of Monte Cristo (1946) T-Men (1947) The Black Arrow (1948) The Fuller Brush Man (1948) Raw Deal (1948) Walk a Crooked Mile (1948) Black Magic (1949)

1950s	Davy Crockett, Indian Scout (1950) The Iroquois Trail (1950) Valentino (1951) Lorna Doone (1951) The Texas Rangers (1951) Indian Uprising (1952) Scandal Sheet (1952) The Brigand (1952) Cripple Creek (1952) Kansas City Confidential (1952) The Bandits of Corsica (1953) Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953) Dragon's Gold (1953) Gun Belt (1953) The Neanderthal Man (1953) 99 River Street (1953) Raiders of the Seven Seas (1953) Sabre Jet (1953) The Steel Lady (1953) Wicked Woman (1953) Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (1954) Khyber Patrol (1954) The Lone Gun (1954) Overland Pacific (1954) Return to Treasure Island (1954) Southwest Passage (1954) Down Three Dark Streets (1954) New York Confidential (1955) The Naked Street (1955) Top Gun (1955) Comanche (1955) Gun Brothers (1956) UFO (1956) Chicago Confidential (1957) 5 Steps to Danger (1957) Gun Duel in Durango (1957) The Iron Sheriff (1957) Monkey on My Back (1957) Curse of the Faceless Man (1958) Hong Kong Confidential (1958) It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) Toughest Gun in Tombstone (1958) Witness for the Prosecution (1958) The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) Guns Girls and Gangsters (1959) Inside the Mafia (1959) Invisible Invaders (1959) Pier 5, Havana (1959) Riot in Juvenile Prison (1959) Solomon and Sheba (1959) Timbuktu (1959) (had name removed from credits) Vice Raid (1959)

1960s	Cage of Evil (1960) Dog's Best Friend (1960) Gunfighters of Abilene (1960) The Music Box Kid (1960) Noose for a Gunman (1960) Oklahoma Territory (1960) Three Came to Kill (1960) The Walking Target (1960) Boy Who Caught a Crook (1961) The Cat Burglar (1961) Doctor Blood's Coffin (1961) Frontier Uprising (1961) Five Guns to Tombstone (1961) The Flight that Disappeared (1961) The Gambler Wore a Gun (1961) Gun Fight (1961) Mary Had a Little... (1961) Operation Bottleneck (1961) Police Dog Story (1961) Secret of Deep Harbor (1961) The Snake Woman (1961) Three on a Spree (1961) When the Clock Strikes (1961) You Have to Run Fast (1961) The Greengage Summer (1961) Beauty and the Beast (1962) The Clown and the Kid (1962) Deadly Duo (1962) Gun Street (1962) Incident in an Alley (1962) Jack the Giant Killer (1962) Saintly Sinners (1962) Tower of London (1962) Diary of a Madman (1963) Twice Told Tales (1963) I'll Take Sweden (1965) Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) Frankie and Johnny (1966) The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968) The File of the Golden Goose (1969) The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970)

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