The Left Handed Gun (1958)

John Chard

7.0

Aug 28, 2014

The demythologised account of Billy The Kid. Billy Bonney is taken in by kindly rancher John Tunstall, he starts to learn respect and education, but then Tunstall is cruelly murdered. Bonney having been robbed of the one man he respected, shows his darker side and vows to seek revenge on Tunstall's killers. This was director Arthur Penn's debut feature film, and all the traits that were to mark his name in future pictures can be found in this very good, and troubling psychological western. Based upon a teleplay by Gore Vidal entitled The Death Of Billy The Kid, Penn ensures that any noti…

CinemaSerf

6.0

Feb 19, 2026

There is something of the original Chisum story to this western as William Bonney - aka “Billy the Kid” (Paul Newman) is hired by the decent Tunstall (Colin Keith-Johnson) to herd his cattle to Lincoln where it is to be used to feed the troops. The sheriff “Brady” (Robert Foulk) and three of his deputies have other plans and so they kill the unarmed Briton and steal his cows. When he finds out, Bonney is livid and swears vengeance on the murderers. To that end, he must cross his friend Pat Garrett (John Dehner) and with his pals Tom (James Best) and Charlie (James Congdon) sets about killing t…