Justin Gatewood (Mark Redfield) has served five years in the state prison for trying to gun down William Curry (Mike Hagen) and accidentally crippling Sheriff Nathan Short instead.
Now he’s being pardoned and heads back to his hometown of Hadley.
There’s a new order, he’s warned by new Sheriff Orin Proud. Commerce is king; a man no longer rules because of his wealth and influence.
And part of the new order is Gatewood’s old freight business, which has been turned into a thriving business thanks to the hard word of his daughter, Helen (Jennifer Rouse).
But new order be damned, there’s an old score to settle.
Twenty-five years earlier, Curry was commander of a troop of Union soldiers responsible for marching Gatewood’s Confederates to prison. Gatewood’s brother died on that march; Gatewood still blames Curry.
So he summons some old friends, plots a diversion that involves a boxing match and plans to force Curry into a showdown by having his daughter Catherine kidnapped.
Redfeld turns in a fine effort in the lead role, and there are a couple of interesting plot twists along the way, including the final showdown.
But in the end, this should-have-been-better film is marred by too many wooden performances and an unintentional diversion — the intrusion of too many secondary characters that take us nowhere.
Gunslingers who look more like overweight, middle-age couch potatoes don’t help and a plot that moves at a snail’s pace don’t help.
Director:
Wayne Shipley
Cast:
Mark Redfield … Justin Gatewood
Mike Hagan … William Curry
Jennifer Rouse … Helen Gatewood
Kelly Potchak … Catherine Louise Curry
Richard Cutting … Creed Logan
Jason Brown … Webb Stockton
Ellana Barksdale … Aunt Jewel
Bob Brown … Slim Haden
P.J. Foster … Joshua Fletcher
Bob Creager … Sheriff Orin Proud
David Kalman … Col. John Cussons
Jonathon Ruckman … Dutch Logan
Bill Blewett … Harlin Babcock
Leanna Chamish … Juanita Ruiz
Greg Coale … Sheriff Nathan Short
aka:
One-Eyed Horse
Runtime: 95 min.
Memorable lines:
Gatewood to his daughter; “We are all a sum of our contradictions.”
Catherine Curry: “You said yourself Webb was a good man.”
Aunt Jewel: “Huh. I said the man was good to his horse. But that horse can’t talk back or get all moody like some two-legged female animals does.”