AT GUNPOINT (1955) *1/2 Somehow a newspaper gets delivered to outlaw desperados hiding out in the wilds of the Texas desert. It tells of a self-defense killing in which they were involved. Sometimes the only way to write anything interesting is to go all opaque, even about matters too shallow to be transparent. Fred MacMurray is a doddering (what other kind could he be?) shopkeeper with a moment of good luck that turns bad through vicarious fear, affection and an experimental socialized candy program at the center of commerce. At one point he tells his wife that he loves her more than the principal, a collateral romance only hinted at. The outlaws return repeatedly offering erroneous prelude. Finally MacMurray informs a bar full of cowards that they are legalizing murder without voting, and this fully 8 years before the Warren Commission. Inspired by his thumbnail dissertation on American valor, instead of getting drunk they take up shotguns and knock out windows thereby frightening the outlaws into getting off their horses. Excellent example of how not to edit, what with all the jerky cuts into new scenes and abrupt changes of substandard musical themes (kind of a western Flight of the Valkyries for the outlaws, '50s elevator music for the MacMurray family at dinner), but only that.
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