Kirk Douglas is Brendan O’Malley, a fast gun who heads to Mexico in search of a long lost love (Dorothy Malone as Belle).
Hot on his trail is Dana Stribling (Rock Hudson), determined to take O’Malley back to Texas to hang for the murder of his brother-in-law.
O’Malley finds Belle married to a drunken coward named John Breckinridge (Joseph Cotton), who’s determined to drive a herd of cattle to Crazy Horse, Texas, on a trail frequented by bandits and hostile Indians.
So O’Malley offers to help, hoping to recapture Belle’s love in the process. He offers up Stribling’s services as trail boss. After all, they’re bound for Texas, which is where Stribling wants to take him anyway.
Along the way, they deal with rustlers, Indians, quicksand and the death of John Breckinridge.
But his passing pushes Belle into the arms of Stribling, not O’Malley.
The aging gunman finds his solace in Belle’s daughter Missy (Carol Lynley), who has fallen for the much older man. And who reminds him so much of Belle when she was just 16.
Review:
Well done, with one of the finer endings you’ll find in a Western.
Hudson is solid as the man who feels bound by duty, even though he’s lost much of his hate for O’Malley over the course the cattle drive. And it isn’t only duty to the law; his sister committed suicide after her husband was gunned down.
Douglas turns in one of his best Western performances as the man who, in Belle’s words, has never lost “the wildness on the tip of” his tongue, but who carries his “own storm wherever he goes.”
Directed by:
Robert Aldrich
Cast:
Rock Hudson … Dana Stribling
Kirk Douglas … Brendan O’Malley
Dorothy Malone … Belle Breckenridge
Joseph Cotten … John Breckenridge
Carol Lynley … Missy Breckenridge
Neville Brand … Frank Hobbs
Jack Elam … Ed Hobbs
James Westmoreland … Julesburg Kid
Regis Toomey … Milton Wing
as Rad Fulton
Adam Williams … Calverton
John Shay … Bowman
Runtime: 112 min.
Memorable lines:
Missy Breckenridge: “I never really met an American cowboy.”
Brendan O’Malley: “You’d be disappointed.”
Missy: “What makes you think I’d be disappointed?”
O’Malley: “Well, you see, cowboys aren’t very bright. They’re always broke. Generally, they’re drunk.”
Dana Stribling: “Will you come voluntarily? Or will I have to take you?”
O’Malley: “Say, it just happens I’m headed for Texas right now. Crazy Horse. Course, it isn’t Frio County, but you’ll die a lot closer to home than if I had to kill you here.”
O’Malley to Stribling: “You still talking about that sister of yours. Like the truth? Here it is. Your sister put more horns on Jimmy Graham than a porcupine’s got quills. By the time he got himself killed, he wasn’t good for anything except maybe to stuff and hang over the fireplace. That sister of yours, Stribling, was just a free drink on the house. And nobody ever went home thirsty. I mean nobody.”
Belle Breckenridge: “To me, it’s always seemed like the woman who keep on living. Men kill or get killed. Women bury them. We’re professional survivors.”
){kind=link}