Another Gunfighter Going Straight
After being a leader of a gang of outlaws Dan Tominson (George Montgomery) has decided to go straight, heading back to his hometown of Durango and his girl Judy (Ann Robinson), picking up 10 year old Robbie (Bobby Clark) along the way whose father has died as they were travelling. Whilst Dan settles down and finds a job working in the bank his old gang gave him warning before he left that he has 30 days to return or else. When the bank is held up and Dan doesn't fire on them others become suspicious of him especially when his old gang plant evidence to make him appear guilty. It means that if he is ever going to be able to go straight he will have to capture Dunsten (Steve Brodie) who now runs his old gang.
In the words of Michael Corleone "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in". That sentence from "The Godfather: Part III" surprisingly describes quite a few westerns which focus on a bad guy or a hired gun wanting to go straight only to find his old life refusing to let him go without a struggle first. That is very much the story in "Gun Duel in Durango" which recycles the storyline with little in the way of fresh developments as we have Dan having to deal with his former outlaw buddies wanting him to either return to the fold or silence him if he doesn't.
The thing about "Gun Duel in Durango" is that whilst it is all extremely predictable and nothing new it is still entertaining. George Montgomery is solid as Dan, doing nice guy quite nicely whilst Ann Robinson does feisty and attractive just as nicely. But as is so often the case these characters and pretty much everything else in "Gun Duel in Durango" is forgettable.
What this all boils down to is that "Gun Duel in Durango" is a solid but forgettable western from the 1950s. It is the sort of western which as you watch you feel to yourself that you have seen it all before.
