Barry Sullivan is Tom Horn, a drifter who rides into Gold City, joins a crooked card game and quickly racks up $200 in IOUs.
When he can’t cover the debt, a gambler named Blackie confiscates his horse and his six-gun instead.
So Horn wanders down to the local claims office and tries to hold it up. He’s caught and thrown in jail, facing a possible date with a hangman’s noose.
He winds up in a cell next to William Morgan (Broderick Crawford), who faces the same fate. But Morgan isn’t the least bit worried. He knows a jailbreak is imminent.
When Morgan’s gang shows up and breaks him out of jail, Horn pleads to go along. Next thing you know, he’s part of the gang.
Which suits Horn just fine. He grow up poor. He’s determined to strike it rich. And he doesn’t much care if the riches he winds up with belong to other people.
He winds up falling for a pretty girl named Julie (Marjorie Reynolds), a clerk in one of the businesses he robs.
She’s a gal with big ambitions of her own. She just wishes Horn would hurry up a mite so they can head to San Francisco and live the well-off life he keeps promising her.
Problem is, Morgan’s been stashing most of the loot the gang steals in an abandoned mine. And only he knows the precise location.
Barry Sullivan as Tom Horn, who grew up poor and is determined not to stay that way in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Broderick Crawford as William Morgan, leader of the outlaw gang Tom Horn joins in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Review:
In spite of the big names at the top of the cast list this is a so-so Western featuring lots of predictable bickering among gang members.
Morgan is constantly exerting his power as leader of the group. Horn is out to prove he’s at least the gang’s second most valuable member. And he doesn’t really trust Morgan.
Marjorie Reynold’s role as Julie — her willingness to put up with Horn’s lawless ways — is a bit difficult to swallow. But it leads to an somewhat surprising conclusion, which winds up being the best scene in the film.
This movie was released at the end of the 1940s, a decade filled with film’s glamorizing the outlaws of the Old West.
There’s no attempt to do that here. These are bad men with no desire to lead a lawful life.
Marjorie Reynolds as Julie, fretting about Tom Horn’s continued entanglements will William Morgan and his gang in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Fortunio Bonanova as John Mingo, the gang member who immediately clashes with Tom Horn in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Directed by:
Kurt Neumann
Cast:
Barry Sullivan … Tom Horn
Broderick Crawford … William Morgan
Marjorie Reynolds … Julie
Fortunio Bonanova … John Mingo
Guinn “Big Boy” Williams … Red Fisk
John Kellogg … Curly
Mary Newton … Ma Brown
Louis Jean Heydt … John Stover
Virginia Carroll … Matilda Stover
Dick Wessell … Bartender
Claire Carleton … Nellie
Ted Hecht … Blackie
Harry Hayden … John Mattson
Runtime: 75 min.
John Kellogg as Curly, daydreaming about what he’s going to do once the gang splits up its loot in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Guinn ‘Big Boy’ Williams, the gang member who helps break William Morgan out of jail in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Memorable lines:
William Morgan, when Horn wants to break out of jail with him: “Say please Mr. Morgan. It’ll hurt worse than hangin’.”
Tom Horn: “Please, Mr. Morgan.”
William Morgan to Tom Horn, as the gang prepares for a train robbery: “Put your kerchief up. Or do you think you’re too good lookin’?”
Tom Horn: “Why didn’t you turn me in?”
Julie: “For that little reward?”
Horn: “If it’d been bigger, you might have?”
Julie: “Why not? We’re all alike, Tom. I’m playing for big stakes too. I guess neither of us cares how we get it.”
Julie: “If I’ve gotta get dust in my eyes, I’d prefer gold dust.”
Tom Horn: “Julie, it’s like I’ve always said. Only one thing’s important: How much you got? Not how you got it. And, honey, we’re going to have plenty.”
Barry Sullivan as Tom Horn, subdued by two men after being cheated out of $200 in a card game in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Louis Jean Heydt as John Stover and Virginia Carroll as his wife Matilda, talking about their plans to homestead in the West in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Mary Newton as Ma Brown, the woman who allows the gang to hide out in her boarding house in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Claire Carleton as Nellie, the saloon girl who greets Tom Horn when he rides into Gold City in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Ted Hecht (right) as Blackie, the gambler Tom Horn accuses of dealing from the bottom of the deck in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
Broderick Crawford as WIlliam Morgan and Barry Sullivan as Tom Horn, talking about a job that could net them $100,000 in Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)
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