Oklahoma Territory (1960)

Bill Williams is Templeton Houston, son of the late Sam Houston and a prosecutor in the state of Texas. His latest case: the murder of an Indian agent. The accused: Chief Buffalo Horn, a longtime friend and father of pretty Ruth Red Hawk (Gloria Talbott), who hoped to marry Houston.

The chief vows he didn’t commit the crime. He even refuses to leave the Fort Smith jail when braves try to set him free. But all the evidence says otherwise, including a murder weapon, a motive, an eyewitness and a family that won’t back up the chief’s alibi. And so the chief is found guilty and sentenced to hang.

But his daughter won’t give up proving his innocence and starts by demonstrating that the eyewitness is nearly blind. And so Templeton Houston decides to examine the case again, and this time, all signs point to those who would benefit from an Indian war, the very same people who have been promising to make him governor if he wins the case.

Review:

A far-fetched plot, a silly courtroom ending and a second-rate cast add up to a second-rate Western. Walter Baldwin, 71 at the time, is particularly wooden as the newspaperman who helps Temple.

Bill Williams had starred as Kit Carson in TV series “The Adventures of Kit Carson” from 1951 to 1955, but found that success difficult to duplicate in subsequent TV starring roles. Gloria Talbott makes for a very shapely Indian, but is asked to deliver some pretty awful dialogue.

This was one of nine low-budget Western quickies Edward L. Cahn churned out between 1960 and 1961, and those marked only half of his output as director during those two years.

Directed by:
Edward L. Cahn

Cast
Bill Williams … Temple Houston
Gloria Talbott … Ruth Red Hawk
Ted de Corsia … Chief Buffalo Horn
Grant Richards … Bigelow
Walter Sande … Marshal Pete Rosslyn
X. Brands … Running Cloud
Walter Baldwin … Ward Harlan
Grandon Rhodes … George Blackwell
John Cliff … Larkin

Runtime: 67 min.

Memorable lines:

Temple to Buffalo Horn: “Buffalo Horn, we’ve known each other for a long time. I never expected lies from you.”
Buffalo Horn: “Yes, Temple, we have known each other a very long time. That is why you should believe me.”

Ruth Red Hawk: “Temple, all you can see are your facts. Temple, you are no longer a man because you’ve forgotten how to think with your heart.”

Ruth Red Hawk: “I always knew you were ambitious, Temple. But I never thought you’d climb to the governor’s chair over the dead body of my father.”

Marshal Rosslyn: “How about Tom Badger, our eyewitness.”
Ruth Red Hawk: “Tom Badger? Your eyewitness? Well, he’s drunk so much poison liquor he has the eyesight of a bat in bright daylight.”

Chief Buffalo Horn: “The ways of the white man are strange. I try to understand them, but … You save me from the posse, then you put me in jail. You stop the men from hanging me, then you have me brought to trial and sentenced to hang. But, before the sentence can be carried out, you free me from jail. Very strange, the ways of the white man.”

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