Showdown (1973 film)

Childhood friends Billy Massey and Chuck Jarvis go in opposite directions after Chuck ends up married to Billy's former sweetheart. Billy becomes a bank robber, Chuck a lawman. But they end up joining forces against common enemies in a final showdown. A series of life circumstances put two close childhood friends pitted against each other. The seemingly inevitable ending takes a twist that allows the friendship to continue after Billy commits an act of bravery that he knows is suicidal but saves Chuck's life. ==Cast==

• Dean Martin as Billy Massey • Rock Hudson as Chuck Jarvis • Susan Clark as Kate Jarvis • Donald Moffat as Art Williams • John McLiam as F.J. Wilson • Charles Baca as Martinez • Jackson Kane as Clem • Ben Zeller as Perry Williams • John Richard Gill as Earl Cole • Philip L. Mead as Jack Bonney • Rita Rogers as Girl • Vic Mohica as Big Eye • Raleigh Gardenhire as Joe Williams • Ed Begley Jr. as Pook • Dan Boydston as Rawls ==Production notes==

It was the final film for Seaton, who three years earlier had directed Martin and an all-star cast in the blockbuster hit Airport. It was also Dean Martin's last western. In a November 1972 episode of the TV series McMillan & Wife called "Cop of the Year," McMillan (played by Hudson) visits the set of a Western film titled "Showdown" that is in production (directed by Seaton, who plays himself) to ask the special-effects supervisor about how to make a gunshot wound appear on the chest of a gunman—who, in the shot being filmed, is the victim in a showdown. ==Reception==

Quentin Tarantino later wrote that "the slightness of the whole project is surprising. But along with the pairing of Hudson & Martin, who share the screen for the first time, it's the films low-key modesty that ends up being one of its most charming features." Leonard Maltin awarded this film two-and-a-half stars out of four, calling it "agreeable but unexceptional." ==References==