Three Hours to Kill

Three Hours to Kill is a 1954 American Western film directed by Alfred L. Werker and starring Dana Andrews, Donna Reed and Dianne Foster.^[1]

Three Hours to Kill
Directed by	Alfred L. Werker
Written by	Richard Alan Simmons Roy Huggins Maxwell Shane
Based on	a story by Alex Gottlieb
Produced by	Harry Joe Brown
Starring	Dana Andrews Donna Reed Dianne Foster
Cinematography	Charles Lawton Jr.
Edited by	Gene Havlick
Music by	Paul Sawtell
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Columbia Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	September 3, 1954 (1954-09-03) (New York City) November 4, 1954 (1954-11-04) (United States)
Running time	77 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

It inspired the 1956 Roger Corman film Gunslinger.^[2]

Plot

Jim Guthrie (Dana Andrews) returns to town three years after being falsely accused of murdering Carter Mastin (Richard Webb). Jim finds that his old friend Ben East (Stephen Elliott) is now the sheriff. In a flashback, Jim recounts his near-lynching by a mob convinced he had shot Carter in the back. Laurie (Donna Reed), Carter's sister, who was planning on marrying Jim, disrupts the lynching, and Jim narrowly escapes. He still bears a neck scar from his ordeal. Ben gives Jim three hours to find the true killer. Through confrontations with several of the men who had been eager to hang him, Jim is led to the guilty man.

Cast

• Dana Andrews as Jim Guthrie
• Donna Reed as Laurie Mastin
• Dianne Foster as Chris Palmer
• Stephen Elliott as Sheriff Ben East
• Richard Coogan as Niles Hendricks
• Laurence Hugo as Marty Lasswell
• James Westerfield as Sam Minor
• Richard Webb as Carter Mastin
• Carolyn Jones as Polly
• Charlotte Fletcher as Betty
• Whit Bissell as Deke
• Francis McDonald as Deputy Vince