The good sheriff of Emporia has been gunned down and the lawless element is taking over. With no other option, town leaders decide to import their own fast gun, a man known as Waco (Howard Keel).
And so Waco is granted amnesty on the condition that he tame the town. He’s looking forward to the job. After five years in prison, it also represents the promise of a reunion with Jill (Jane Russell), the woman he loves.
What he doesn’t know is that Jill has married a preacher (Wendell Corey) with his own dark past. That news makes Waco rethink his mission in Emporia. Does he really want to tame the town, or would he rather take it over for himself with the help of his own fast guns, including Ace Ross (Brian Donlevy).
Review:
Keel delivers an overwrought performance as an outlaw-turned-lawman who studied religion in prison but keeps being torn between doing the right thing in Emporia and doing what he has always done — which is doing what would be best for him.
The film trots out all sorts of familiar faces from Westerns past. Ben Cooper plays a young man willing to take up a gun alongside Waco because his fiance has been raped. Willard Parker plays the son of a woman who has it out for Waco because he killed one of her other boys. And DeForest Kelly, pre-Star Trek, is a gunman under the hire of crooked saloon owner Joe Gore.
This marked one of the final films for Jane Russell, who was in her mid-40s when it was released. Keel, on the other hand, sat out most of the 1970s, then enjoyed a career revival as Clayton Farlow on the long-running TV series “Dallas.”
Directed by:
R.G. Springsteen
Cast:
Howard Keel … Waco
Jane Russell … Jill Stone
Brian Donlevy … Ace Ross
Wendell Corey … Preacher Stone
Terry Moore … Dolly
John Smith … Joe Gore
John Agar … George Gates
Ben Cooper … Scotty Moore
DeForest Kelly … Bill Rile
Gene Evans … Deputy Jim O’Neill
Tracy Olsen … Patricia West
Anne Seymour … Ma Jenner
Willard Parker … Pete Jenner
Robert Lowery … Mayor Ned West
Runtime: 85 min.
Title tune: “Waco”
sung by Lorne Greene
Memorable lines:
Scotty Moore: “I’m sorry I’m late. I didn’t want to be late for my own uncle’s funeral, but this is an important telegram.”
Jill Stone: “You’re Uncle Billy has lots of time.”
Jill Stone, to her preacher husband: “He’s been locked up in prison for five years and you want me to go to his hotel room. Do you think we were all made in heaven like you?”
Preacher Stone: “You came here to tame a town. Not to steal it.”
Waco: “Preacher, I’m a thief at heart. Temptation overcame me.”
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