''A Bullet Is Waiting'' is a 1954 American

film noir Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

Western film The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier between the Calif ...

directed by

John Farrow John Villiers Farrow, Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Catholic), KGCHS (10 February 190427 January 1963) was an Australian film director, producer, and screenwriter. Spending a considerable amount of his career in the United States, he was nomina ...

and starring

Jean Simmons Jean Merilyn Simmons (31 January 1929 – 22 January 2010) was a British actress and singer. One of J. Arthur Rank's "well-spoken young starlets", she appeared predominantly in films, beginning with those made in Britain during and after the ...

Rory Calhoun Rory Calhoun (born Francis Timothy McCown, August 8, 1922April 28, 1999) was an American film and television actor. He starred in numerous Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s, and appeared in supporting roles in films such as ''How to Marry a Millio ...

Stephen McNally Stephen McNally (born Horace Vincent McNally; July 29, 1911 – June 4, 1994) was an American actor remembered mostly for his appearances in many Westerns and action films. His dark features often cast him as hard-hearted characters, crimina ...

and

Brian Aherne William Brian de Lacy Aherne (2 May 190210 February 1986) was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States. His first Broadway appearance in '' The Barretts of ...

Plot

A small plane carrying Frank Munson and handcuffed prisoner Ed Stone crashes in the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

wilderness. Ed unlocks the cuffs and flees, encountering a woman named Cally who is minding sheep. Frank follows and identifies himself as a

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

lawman who, after tracking Ed for nearly two years, finally caught him. Cally is hesitant to trust either man. She is an educated woman whose father, a former

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

professor, lives with her but is currently away. As a torrential rain falls, Ed attempts to escape, but the passage is flooded. Cally tries to warn him but pulls a knife when Ed tries to rape her. At the cabin, Frank has no weapon and searches for a rifle that Cally has hidden. Ed returns and, while trapped there during the storm, explains to Cally that he shot Frank's brother in self-defense. In response, Frank had himself deputized but intends to kill him rather than bring him to justice. Cally's father returns and is startled to find two men there. He hears their stories and, aware that his daughter is falling in love with Ed, offers him a chance to surrender to the authorities. With a gun in his hand and a single bullet in the chamber, Ed proves his intent by refusing to shoot Frank when he has the chance. He resolves to surrender himself to the police.

Cast

as Cally Canham *

as Ed Stone *

as Frank Munson *

as David Canham

Production

Producer Howard Welsch had assumed Jean Simmons's contract from

RKO RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

and transferred it to

20th Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film production and distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the Disney Entertainment business segment of the Walt Disney Com ...

after making the film. Filming began on December 3, 1953. In April 1954, Welsch signed a deal with Columbia to distribute the film.

Reception

In a contemporary review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', critic A. H. Weiler called ''A Bullet Is Waiting'' a "strangely verbose vehicle carrying more than a fair load of primary philosophy and a minimum of realistic drama and character delineation."

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bullet Is Waiting 1954 films 1954 crime drama films American crime drama films Film noir Columbia Pictures films 1950s English-language films Films scored by Dimitri Tiomkin Films directed by John Farrow Films set in California 1950s American films English-language crime drama films