My Gun Is Quick (1957)
Directors:
Phil Victor, George White
Writers:
Mickey Spillane (novel), Richard Collins(screenplay)
Stars:
Robert Bray, Whitney Blake, Patricia Donahue
Robert Bray, best known to baby-boomers as "Ranger Corey" on TV's Lassie, is cast as Mickey Spillane's rough-edged private eye Mike Hammer in My Gun is Quick. Mike's mission this time out is to solve a murder and a jewel robbery. He faces opposition from two warring criminal gangs, but when has that ever stopped him in the past? Co-starring as a typically Spillanesque cool blonde is Whitney Blake, who like Bray later gained TV fame in a more sedate role on the weekly sitcom Hazel (incidentally, Ms. Blake is the mother of actress Meredith Baxter). Not quite as accomplished as Robert Aldrich's classic Mike Hammer yarn Kiss Me Deadly, My Gun is Quick works well within its modest limits.