Joel McCrea plays Pitcalin, a frontiersman getting up in years, who rides out into the prairie and reflects on a more savage time.
He was serving as guide to four prospectors who stop at an Apache camp. When a piece of pottery breaks, revealing gold nuggets inside, the men demand to know where the gold came from.
No one will tell, so the four men begin killing the Indians until only a young woman named Jemme (Marie Gahva) is still alive.
She agrees to guide the men to the gold; Pitcalin becomes her protector of sorts.
The band also includes a gambler named Two-Card Charlie, a half-mad deacon and two brothers, Benji and his weaker willed brother Billy.
What the small band doesn’t know is that they’re being trailed by an Apache warrior named Vittorio.
His woman was killed in the massacre at the camp; Jemme is his sister. And he has revenge on his mind.
Review:
A shoestring budget, crude cinematography and second-string acting doom this Western. And if you’re a fan of Joel McCrea Westerns, well, this really isn’t one.
Oh, you’ll see him an screen. He’s an old-timer who rides into the hills and remembers what happened many years earlier.
Then he’s replaced by his son Jody, the “hero” of this film, which is pretty much a standard revenge story we’ve seen time and again.
Vittorio does have some ingenious ways of dispatching of his enemies. The best is when he ties a bag containing a rattler around the head of Two-Card Chalie, who wriths around shouting about how much it hurts.
Joel would appear in just one more film, “Mustang!” six years later. Jody, who got his start acting in his dad’s movies as a young boy, made just one more film as well.
Starrett, the director, plays one of the film’s oddest roles, an Indian scalping reverend who spends a lot of time talking to himself.
Directed by:
Jack Starrett
Cast:
Jody McCrea … Pitcalin
Joel McCrea … Elderly Pitcalin
Marie Gahva … Jemme
Dan Kemp … Vittorio
Robert Tessier … Two Card Charlie
Jack Starrett … The Deacon
Don Henley … Benji Dawson
Carolyn Stellar … Cochalla
Rick Nervick … Billy Dawson
Runtime: 82 min.
Memorable lines:
The Deacon: “Y’all go on. I’ve got a funeral to perform.”
Ben: “Well, don’t go gettin’ long-winded, Deacon. We’ve got gold to find.”
Billy to Pitcalin: “I’m going to kick your guts out.”
The Deacon: “Insult me, will you. I’ll see your guts rotting in hell.”
Pitcalin: “Then we will be partners, won’t we?”
The Deacon, praying: “Now we made a bargain. I’m gonna build you a church, and you’re going to lead me to some gold. Remember? But, Lord, you’re not helping at all.”
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