West Zone Archives: The Quiet Gun (1929)

From the West Zone Archives!

Back in 1929, West Zone Entertainment was a struggling Movie Production Studio. They had had some success with their first movie, The Baggage Boy (1920), but their follow up Love Lasso (1921) was a major flop. The only successful movies they had under their belts were the previously mentioned The Baggage Boy, and a horror flick called Dirtybeetle (1923). On the verge of bankruptcy, they decided to throw all their might behind their best director, and his passion project, Malcom Hunter.

Malcolm Hunter, best known at that point for directing The Baggage Boy and Clocksquatter (1926), although known primarily for directing Comedies, he had wanted to make a movie about a Wild West Bank heist for as long as movie making had become an artform. In 1927 he finally got his chance to direct what would become his first Masterpiece, The Quiet Gun.

Malcolm wrote the script with his good friend, Ben Brooks, who had written most of West Zone's movies up to that point. It starred Todd Crombie (Who also starred in The Baggage Boy, Love Lasso, and several other productions) as the tough and ready to rumble Sheriff Bill, Emilio Garcia (Who stared in Clocksquatter) as the dastardly and mysterious Man in Black, and newcomer Joshua Feinmen as the plucky, young Deputy Johnson.

After a brutal production that nearly killed West Zone Studios, the movie was released in 1929 and was an instant commercial and critical success. It was a verifiable Block Buster The movie singlehandedly saved the company, and helped make West Zone a household name.

Also none of this is true, I just figured that no one would bother to ever read this description and decided to go ham.