Willard Parker is Clint Banister, a Texan who returns to his hometown of Arroyo after the Civil War to find a Confederate flag flying and himself labeled a turncoat for fighting in the Union cavalry.
His brother Greg (Grant Williams) is sheriff, but even that is troubling. He fought with Quantrill during the war, and has four of his former Rebel soldiers as deputies. In their Arroyo, there’s no room for turncoats, carpetbaggers or anyone who sympathizes with the Union. In fact, only Comanches are more hated, and any one of the bunch is likely to hang at the slightest provocation.
But Greg isn’t quite sure what to do about a brother who taught him everything he knew and who’s anxious to put the war behind them both. One thing he knows: He can’t let the townsfolk think he’s gone soft on Northerners.
As for Clint, he’s about to ride off and let the residents of Arroyo solve their own problems. Until his former law partner (Douglas Kennedy as Maj. Phillip Harvey) is gunned down trying to stop a lynching. One of Greg’s deputies tries to wrestle the major’s six-gun from his daughter Susan, and he winds up dead, too. Now she’s likely to be the next person lynched in Arroyo, if Clint can’t do something to stop it.
Review:
Interesting plot, but the movie is nothing special in the hands of a largely wooden cast. Grant Williams doesn’t do a bad job as Sheriff Greg Bannister, but his deputies are all bluster, ignorance and bully, rude to strangers and women alike. It’s hard to understand why a town would be under their collective thumbs.
Both of the female leads — Audrey Dalton as the daughter of Clint’s former law partner and June Blair as Greg’s girl Florrie — spent more time acting on TV than the big screen. June was Playboy Playmate of the Month for January 1957. Lee Farr, who plays one of Greg Bannister’s deputies, was the first husband of Felicia Farr, the female lead in a number of 1950s Westerns, including “The Last Wagon” and “Reprisal!”
Directed by:
Paul Landres
Cast:
Willard Parker … Clint Bannister
Grant Williams … Greg Bannister
Audrey Dalton … Susan Harvey
Douglas Kennedy … Maj. Phillip Harvey
June Blair … Florrie Stuart
Dabbs Greer … Doc Jansen
Barbara Heller … Amy Todd
Rayford Barnes … Finch
Tyler McVey … Henry Briggs
Lee Farr .. Riff
Jim Murphy … Rio
Dick Monaghan … Jesse
Runtime: 71 min.
Memorable lines:
Greg Bannister, upon hearing that his brother has arrived in Arroyo: “My brother was killed int he war.”
Rio: “Well, if he was, his ghost just made a dang fool out of (deputy) Riff.”
Clint Bannister, pointing to the Confederate flag: “Susan, Arroyo is never going to progress until that flag and what it stands for is buried. And the hatred that goes with it. Then you’ll have your first step forward.”
Greg Bannister, as three Indians and a white are sentenced to hang: : “A dead Comanche doesn’t strike again. And a dead white man who’s been trading with them won’t trade with them again.”
Riff: “You know, Jesse, the way I figure it, there’s just one thing that’s lower than a carpetbagger, and that’s a turncoat. Yeah. They ain’t fit to live. They go out and they kill their own people, then they come back here and want to live with ’em.”
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