Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

zardoz-13 In this above-average but gritty western, a reformed gunman named 'Killer' Cain (Clint Walker of "Cheyenne") emerges from prison after serving an 18-year sentence for murder and struggles to earn himself an honest living. Veteran television director Robert Sparr's turn-of-the-century oater "More Dead Than Alive" functions as a morality play about redemption and poetic justice marred by a downbeat Old Testament ending. Essentially, the theme of this low-budget but well-made horse opera is that you reap what you sew. In other words, what goes around comes around. Sparr is sparing with his use of slow-motion violence, but the death scenes are rather gritty. Nevertheless, watching Vincent Price die from multiple gunshots to the chest is something that you don't always see, and "More Dead Than Alive" is one of those westerns made when slow-motion violence in movies was in vogue. Certainly, Sparr pulls no punches in this western and Walker is thoroughly sympathetic as the ex-convict who wants to do nothing more than settle down with the lovely Anne Francis rather than ride the owl hoot trail. Life is particularly cruel to Cain, who grew up on an army post and rarely saw much of his father, and he finds it even more difficult to follow the straight and narrow. Initially, when he left prison, he told himself never to touch a gun again. Of course, our protagonist isn't fortunate enough for this to happen. He gets a job as a bouncer at a saloon, but he is fired when the owner learns that Cain gave him a false name. Cain is basically a transient who cannot hold onto a job for any length of time, until he meets the savvy and sagacious Dan Ruffalo (Vincent Price of "The Last Man on Earth") who puts him to work in his 'Wild West' traveling,'shoot'em up' sideshow. Mind you, Ruffalo's current attraction, a swift-drawing, sharp-shooting kid named Billy Valence (Paul Hampton of "Women of the Prehistoric Planet"), isn't pleased when Ruffalo replaces him with Cain. Ironically, Valence can shoot the wings off a gnat at thirty paces, but he doesn't have the intelligence to survive as a gunslinger. Primarily, he is a hot-headed youngster who understands nothing about being a gunslinger. In a sense, the relationship between Valence and Cain is the stereotypical relationship between an older man, a mentor, and a younger man. Meantime, Cain meets a beautiful young lady, Monica Alton (Anne Francis of "Bad Day at Black Rock") when she is painting a ghost town. Eventually, they become a couple, b up justice never lets up pursuing Cain and nothing of his redemptive acts saves his life. Sparr keeps things moving along at a normal pace until the surprise ending.

moonspinner55 Clint Walker, still trying to find his niche as an actor post-"Cheyenne", plays a reformed gunslinger in 1891 Arizona who is set free after 18 years in jail; unable to find work because of his reputation, he takes a job with a low-rent traveling western show. This is the old plot about the once-legendary, now-rehabilitated killer who is constantly put in harm's way by folks hoping to boost their profiles by challenging him. As a young hotshot with a bitchy-sinister stare, Paul Hampton gives one of the most excruciating performances I've ever seen. His overacting is made all the more noticeable by Walker's solemn, funereal under-playing (as if he were going to the gallows any minute). If you do watch, see if you can figure out why the early jail-break sequence takes place AFTER a group of prisoners have already been hanged. The title, presumably a twist on the old "Wanted-Dead or Alive" ploy, is mildly condescending in this context--although it serves to describe the film's handling accurately. * from ****

Scarecrow-88 Luke Santee's boys slip inside a fort(using caskets to hide in!)to rescue his brother out of a hanger's prison. Luke's brother is denied his chance to escape thanks in part to a prisoner named Cain who is soon let out as a rehabilitated man.Living a life outside bars without using a gun again, however, won't be an easy task. More mellow, with no interest in picking up a Colt, as proposed by traveling showman with cat-like grin, Dan Ruffalo(Vincent Price, in a wonderful change of pace, in a rare western role)for a role in his shooting gallery, Cain really wants to go legitimately straight, but in comes Luke Santee to make his life miserable. Roughed up by Luke and his men, no work available for released cons, Cain will have his hands full.Cain befriends a painter named Monica(the beautiful Anne Francis; Forbidden Planet)while encountering her in an abandoned town. Unable to hold a job due to his notorious reputation, he finally decides to join Ruffalo. Ruffalo has in his possession a Colt with 12 notches depicting the number of men Cain killed during his outlaw days before 18 years behind bars.Young sharpshooting Billy, very talented with a gun, who had idolized Cain, with dreams of living the life of a gunfighter, is the star of traveling show. Billy resents Cain(Ruffalo has a particular interest in him due to his draw of the crowd, bringing in big profit), and wants to upstage him, always engaging in intense arguments, often attempting to cause a gunfight.MORE DEAD THAN ALIVE carries that familiar theme of a man trying with all his might to escape his past, a past which haunts him wherever he goes. We see at the conclusion that maybe there's no way to avoid fate..a son, father, retired marshal still holding a grudge, there'll always be someone appearing out of the blue looking for revenge.Through the only friendship he's able to develop, with Monica, Cain could just maybe find the peace he's been looking for. He wants to help build a place with Monica as the two eventually fall of love.Billy, really immature even if he's good with a gun, is psychotic and unstable and it's only a matter of time before he'll be confronting Cain for a duel..interesting decision by the filmmakers, though, to go in a different direction with Cain getting the upper hand against his young rival.Particularly brutal is Price's fate, in slow motion, like a mutt in the street. I must say that I hated the music used in this movie, the upbeat score seems more suited for a slapstick comedy than a serious western about men with guns. Odd structure, too, setting chapters in the film through different seasons, also moving the pace a bit faster, eliminating chunks of story, like specific passages of time when life wasn't exactly kind to Cain(the plot is uninspired when it comes to the relationship between Cain and Monica, although Francis does what she can with a rather underwritten role). I also found the song which opens and closes the film particularly dire..it's a Dimitri Tiomkin knock-off that doesn't exactly work for this film, and, if anything, sounds really outdated and corny. Plenty of bullets and blood, though, including a spirited brawl between Cain and Luke within the old buildings of the abandoned town. Billy whimpers and sobs when anyone puts him in an uncomfortable position, and his fate shows how pathetic he is when the gun isn't available for use. I think the major flaw of the film is the diminishing of Luke Santee's character after setting him up in such a way at the beginning. Clint Walker is rather a bore, if I were to be truly honest, but he's a beefcake so I can see why he was used in the role of Cain. Paul Hampton really steals the film in the most colorful part of Billy, a certifiable headcase who stirs the pot, the one behind animosity, always a needling prick. Mike Henry is Luke Mantee, a mean criminal who isn't someone you hope to cross hairs with.

actressadefilma_2000 An interesting concept. The man with a past that never let's him live a normal life. Clint Walker is sufficiently the bowhunk and Connie Francis is pretty and pert. Nice detail in making Connie an artist and independent woman in the 1880's. The score if you can call it that was horrendous. It sounded like a score to a bad animation film mixed with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Who did this???? Other than that I like the film very much and the end fight scene between Clint Walker and Mike Henry is terrific. Mr. Henry did it so well I thought he was a professional stuntman. It turns out he was an accomplished actor. Bravo!