In a remarkable career spanning more than 60 years, Kurt Russell has almost done it all. He was a Disney child star, an action hero, a serious dramatic actor, an unabashedly goofy comedian. and Elvis Presley. Although Russell was never a box office titan on par with contemporaries like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, he is revered as a god by genre fans for playing such iconic kickers as Plissken the Snake in Escape From New. York', RJ MacReady in 'The Thing' and Jack Burton in 'Big Trouble in Little China'. These last two were theatrical flops, but went from cult favorites to true mainstream classics. As a result, Russell, at age 73, may be more beloved now than he's ever been.

For Russell fanatics, there's a lively discussion to be had as to who his best performance would be outside of the aforementioned holy trinity of John Carpenter films. Is it his unethical seller Rudy Russo in Robert Zemeckis' Used Cars. American Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks in "Miracle" or the terribly pathetic killer Stunt Mike in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof"? There's a surprising "Captain Ron" vocal contingent out there, while some of us are absolutely sure he never bettered his portrayal of corrupt cop Eldon Perry in Ron Shelton's "Dark Blue."

For those who can't help but go hunting for the nadir of any artist's career, there's probably an argument to be made as to whether Russell has ever given a truly bad performance. Having seen almost all of his movies, I'm going to lead this discourse on the pass and assure you that the man is as reliable as Cary Grant. Russell has been in lousy movies, but he's never been a louse in them. As for which film most starkly squandered its greatness, I'm not sure there's any worse than Paul W.S.'s hideous The Soldier . Anderson. But if you check in with Rotten Tomatoes users, they'll tell you it's a western. Russell was in several of themand I'm pretty sure that's something you wouldn't think of off the top of your head.

The western in question is 1965's Guns of Diablo. According to Rotten Tomatoes audience scoreit's Russell's worst feature with a 30% Popcornmeter rating. If you've never heard of it, you might everything familiar with the TV show that spawned it. The Voyages of Jaime McPheeters was Russell's breakthrough to child stardom, though it only lasted one season on ABC. It was also a small-screen showcase for rising star Charles Bronson, who had already appeared in films like The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape (and who would later inspire John Carpenter's screenplay for Escape from New York.)

In any case, "Guns of Diablo" did not cause much excitement when it appeared in theaters 60 years ago, and it did not rise in the estimations of modern critics (Emmanuel Levy called it "an unadulterated western"). It's a white hat/black hat business by default that will probably leave you wishing you'd seen its stars in one of their much better films. But if you're complete, it's available to stream on Tubi. You might find something worthy that eluded Rotten Tomatoes users.