The Restless Gun

3.0

1957•30m

The Restless Gun is an American western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict wherever possible. He is gregarious, intelligent, and public-spirited. The half-hour black-and-white program aired seventy-eight episodes. Jeanne Bates appeared in varying roles with Payne in five episodes of The Restless Gun. The Restless Gun theme song begins: "I ride with the wind, my eyes on the sun, and my hand on my restless gun..." The song composer is probably Paul Dunlap, credited as the primary series composer, but could have been contributed to by either of the two other series composers, Dave Kahn and Stanley Wilson, also. Two versions are currently posted on YouTube, but neither posting lists any composer or performance credits.

Trailers & Videos

Weekend Westerns - THE RESTLESS GUN

Seasons

39 Episodes • Premiered 1957

1. Duel at Lockwood

Vint Bonner meets an elderly woman who asks him to do something about her grandson. The young man has already killed two men and vowed to add Vint Bonner to the list.

2. Trail to Sunset

After promising a seriously wounded outlaw that he will get him to town alive to stand trial, Bonner meets five men, including a doctor, who want to bring the man in. But then Bonner learns that the five have just taken part in a lynching, and he becomes concerned that they will do the same with this prisoner.

3. Revenge at Harness Creek

When the man's hotheaded younger brother is killed in self defense, Vint fears that his sheriff friend is too bent on revenge to bring the man who killed him back alive.

4. Rink

5. Jenny

Bonner finds a wounded man on the road, and brings him to the house of a an embittered woman who lives alone. He promises her he won't tell about the man at her place, but he later learns that the man is a wanted outlaw.

6. The Shooting of Jett King

7. Jody

8. General Gilford's Widow

9. The New Sheriff

10. Man and Boy

11. Cheyenne Express

12. Thicker Than Water

13. Silver Threads

14. The Child

15. The Gold Buckle

Bonner and two strangers trail a pair of killers. Kit: Roy Roberts. Lex: Claude Akins. Bonner: John Payne. Emily: Madge Blake.

16. The Coward

17. Friend in Need

18. Strange Family in Town

19. Hang and Be Damned

20. Quiet City

21. Hornitas Town

22. Imposter For A Day

23. A Pressing Engagement

24. The Woman from Sacramento

25. Sheriff Billy

26. The Hand is Quicker

27. The Suffragette

Emma Birch has organized the women of the town into a determined suffragette group; the men rebel and attempt to put the women in their place. Bonner becomes the reluctant mediator between the two groups.

28. The Whip

29. The Crisis at Easter Creek

30. Aunt Emma

Vint Bonner is wounded while trying to track down the Drake brothers. His elderly aunt nurses him back to health and tries to prevent him from going back after the Drakes when he has recovered.

31. The Outlander

Vint arrives in Prairie City, Kansas to visit friends and find that it has been taken over by a band of renegade Civil War veterans from Texas. They are lead by a man called Colonel Bromley.