Doc Holliday's Revenge (2014) - Once Upon a Time in a Western

Having just lost her mother and sister, Elizabeth Stilwell Cooley tries to organize a family reunion with the father she’s never met and the brothers she’s rarely seen.

She doesn’t realize she and her new husband, Joseph, are walking smack dad into the fallout from the Gunfight at the OK Corral.

Morgan Earp has been gunned down while playing pool and the Earps have formed a vigilance posse to track down those responsible. They figure those responsible include Frank Stilwell and Indian Charlie, among others.

While Elizabeth’s dad is off looking for Frank, Indian Charlie shows up at the wood cutting camp where they’re staying with a leg wound.

Pretty soon, Doc Holliday shows up as well.

Now, Elizabeth, husband Joseph and brother Millard have to decide what to do — turn Indian Charlies over to Doc or put their own lives at risk, knowing the rest of the Earp posse is likely to show up very soon.

William McNamara as Doc Holliday in Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)

Eric Roberts as William Stilwell in Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)

Review:

Top billing on the DVD cover goes to Tom Berenger and Eric Roberts, but they’re far from the central characters in this low-budget Western. Berenger plays a judge who narrates the story and never appears on screen with another actor. Roberts plays Elizabeth’s dad and spends most of the film off camera searching for his son.

That leaves the characters of Elizabeth, Joseph, Millard and Indian Charlie to carry a film that’s long on talk, short on action. And neither they or the script writers are up to that task, though Ashley Hayes tackles the role of Elizabeth with admirable charm and spunk.

William McNamara plays Doc in a wooden performance complete with an unconvincing fake cough, just to remind us that he’s suffering from tuberculosis.

One of the sillier scenes has Elizabeth leaving the safety of her father’s home to meet the man who’s so dangerous with a gun, then reciting his history of blood-letting as though she had memorized it in preparation for just such a meeting.

Ashley Hayes as Elizabeth Cooley in Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)

Bart Voitila as Joseph Cooley in Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)

Directed by:
David DeCoteau

Cast:
William McNamara … Doc Holliday
Eric Roberts … William Stilwell
Tom Berenger … Judge Wells
Ashley Hayes … Elizabeth Cooley
Bart Voitila … Joseph Cooley
Oliver Rayon … Indian Charlie
Randy Jay Burrell … Millard Stilwell

aka:
Stranded

Runtime: 93 min.

Oliver Rayon as Indian Charlie in Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)

Randy Jay Burrell as Millard Stilwell in Doc Holliday’s Revenge (2014)

Memorable lines:

Millard, to his sister Elizabeth: “Is this the lucky man?”
Joseph, Elizabeth’s husband: “Depends on what day you ask her.”
Elizabeth: “Now, Joe, you know I’d say you’re a lucky man any day of the week. Ask me if I’m a lucky gal, and that answer may vary.”

Joseph to Millard: “So, you’re not planning on settling down anytime soon?”
Millard: “Us Stillwells ain’t very good at sitting still.”

Elizabeth: “He’s right. Sometimes things aren’t as black and white as they seem.”
Joseph: “As told to you by a redneck who held a knife to your throat, if you haven’t already forgotten.” (I’m pretty sure he meant to say redskin.)

Indian Charlie, as a rider approaches: “Ax won’t help. Guns won’t help. If he starts firing, we are all dead.”
Elizabeth: “Who is this man?”
Indian Charlie: “His name is Doc. Holliday.”

Millard: “If that’s the way you feel, what the hell is this reunion all about?”
Elizabeth: “To fix something that was broken 18 years ago. But I see that’s impossible now. People don’t change. They just get worse with age.”

Doc Holliday: “Sometimes, the only way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun.”