Macdonald Carey is Bus Crow, the gun for hire who rides into Pearl City looking for work. He finds it because the cattlemen of Pearl City are sick and tired of nesters settling on their land and stealing their cattle.
So using saloon owner Hallie McLaird as a go-between so no one knows who they are, they employ Crow to scare off the most troublesome nesters. His directions: Give them warning they’re to leave. Remove them if they don’t. Crow, who’s been killing for a living all his life, proves pretty adept at removing them with the help of his scoped rifle.
Meanwhile, Hallie has no idea what Crow was hired to do. But she’s falling for the handsome stranger. And though all signs point to him as the lead suspect — he suddenly has money when he showed up in town broke — she’s hoping he’s not behind the sudden rash of killings.
When the sheriff is slow to react, the nesters send for U.S. Marshal Rochelle (John Ireland), who happens to be a former lover of Hallie’s. When a child is found severely wounded on a nester’s property, the urgency to find out who’s behind all the violence heightens.
Review:
Taunt little low-budget 1950s film, this was originally titled: “Hannah Lee: An American Primitive” and shot in 3-D. And if the plot seems vaguely familiar … yep, the film was based on a movie about Tom Horn.
Carey steals the show as the cold-blooded killer in one of his better Western roles. And what an introduction? He smacks a young boy for being mouthy as he enters a saloon.
Ireland was a co-director of this film. He and Dru — who met during the filming of “Red River” — were married when this movie was made; they would divorce in 1957. Ireland’s son, Peter, is the young boy who is shot near the end of the film. He is one of two children Ireland had from a previous marriage.
Directed by:
Lee Garmes
John Ireland
Cast:
Macdonald Carey … Bus Crow
Joanne Dru … Hallie McLaird
John Ireland … Marshal Sam Rochelle
Tom Powers … Sheriff
Ralph Dumke … Alesworth
Stuart Randall … Jeff Montgomery
Frank Ferguson … John Britton
Don Haggerty … Bill Crashaw
Peter Ireland … Willie Stiver
Tristam Coffin … Bartender
Alex Pope … Gare Stiver
Kay Riehl … Mrs. Bainbridge
Ruth Whitney … Mrs. Stiver
Dean Cromer … Charlie Bevan
aka:
Outlaw Territory
Title tune: “Hannah Lee”
performed by Ken Curtis and The Pioneers
Runtime: 75 min.
Memorable lines:
Hannah Lee: “Don’t tell me how hard you are.
Bus Crow: “I used to kill gophers for money when I was a kid. Then I killed Indians for money. Now I just kill for money.”
Hannah: “You must be very rich.”
Crow: “No.”
Bus Crow: “What do you expect to find in Pearl City, marshal? Pearls?”
Marshal Sam Rochelle: “Maybe pearls. Maybe swine.”
Hallie: “You’re mean, aren’t you?”
Bus Crow: “Let’s just say I’m not gentle.”
Bus Crow: “Nobody really cares if a man’s cut down from the front or the back, as long as he deserves killing.”
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