love with and married Lake's mother and had given up his life of crime. However, when Lake was a baby, a man came to challenge the hitman to showdown, and, not finding him home, killed the hitman's wife instead. Unable to take care of the boy, the hitman resumed his criminal career and abandoned Lake. Finally reunited, father and son embrace, but their reunion is interrupted when the police show up outside the bar. In order to save Lake from the consequences of the bartender's murder, the hitman quickly rearranges to the crime scene to implicate himself and make it look like a botched robbery attempt. Before the cops storm the bar, he gives Lake his wallet, tells him that he can be anything he wants to be, but also advises him against becoming a gunman. As a policeman breaks through the door, the hitman levels his gun at the cop, winks at Lake, and is killed when the policeman shoots him in the chest. Cast Edgard Mourino as Bartender Darwin Joston as Man with No Name / Mr. Smith Konrad Sheehan as Lake Frank Ferrara as Cop Background Filmed on location in Hoboken, New Jersey, Gunmen's Blues is a two-character film made while Eric Red was a student at the AFI Conservatory as his first film. He went broke trying to get national distribution for the film, and had to drive a cab in New York for a year to recoup. The film was followed by Red's second, the award-winning short Telephone. The film is a modern-day western set in a Hoboken bar about a showdown between Smith (Darwin Joston), a notorious middle-aged hitman and the violent, impulsive, but inexperienced Lake (Konrad Sheehan), a young thug who wants to kill Smith in order to bolster his own criminal reputation. Lake kills the bartender (Edgard Mourino), but his wounded by Smith in their showdown. The confrontation leads to unexpected revelations and tragedy as the gunman realizes that his young challenger is the son he was forced to abandon years earlier. Release Gunmen's Blues was broadcast on the USA Network's Night Flight series in the early 1980s, but it has never been released theatrically. The film was uploaded to Google Videos in 2009 and can still be viewed there. References External links 1981 films American independent films 1981 short films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films 1981 independent films American short