Gregory Peck plays gunfighter Jimmy Ringo. He comes to town hoping to see his estranged wife and son. Everyone knows who he is. A crowd gathers outside the saloon hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
The sheriff who was a former crony points out that this is what he always wanted, to be famous---to be a known as the fastest gun in the West.
I don't know if the people involved in the production saw it as an allegory for Hollywood stardom, but it seems like it must have crossed Gregory Peck's mind. It reminded me of the time Woody Harrelson was walking barefoot around the local Saturday Market---local craftsmen selling their wares---and a large crowd followed him everywhere he went. He was shorter and balder than I thought and had weird toes.
The plot may have hit close to home for 20-year-old former child actor Skip Homeier. He played a young fellow so desperate for fame that he wanted to shoot it out with Ringo.
Jimmy Ringo was like celebrities who complain about Paparazzi but hang around places where they're bound to be spotted. Like Woody Allen who didn't want to be noticed but rode around in a yellow, chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce. Gregory Peck is tormented but he insists on hanging around in saloons everywhere he goes.
He should have been like Gabby Hayes whose car once broke down in Coquille, Oregon. He asked the mechanic not to tell anyone he was there and sat in a back room while the car was being worked on.
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