Chuck Connors is Jonas Trapp, a buffalo hunter planning a triumphant return to the small town of Coldiron, Texas.
Eleven years earlier, he left his wife, Jessie (Kathryn Hays) there, determined to make it on his own, even if she was reluctant to leave the comfort of her aunt’s mansion.
Now he’s returning, with $17,000 in his saddlebags when he spots a campfire and heads toward it, hoping for a hot cup of coffee.
Instead, he’s stumbled upon a rustler’s camp. And three men — cowboy Elwood Coates (Claude Akins), Johnsy Boy (Bill Bixby, later of Incredible Hulk fame) and banker Brooks Durhan (Michael Rennie) — show up, suspecting him of being the cattle thief.
Coates wants to hang him. Johnsy Boy is ready to go along with that. But Durhan convinces them to brand him with a T (for thief) on his chest instead. Then he steals the $17,000 from Trapp’s saddlebags.
Now broke and badly scarred, Jonas recovers and heads to Coldiron looking to get even. After all, he knows who he’s looking for.
As for that reunion with Jessie, it won’t be a pleasant one. She’s bitter over being left behind and forced to fend for herself. And there’s a new man in her life — none other than Brooks Durhan.
Gary Merrill as Dub Stokes checks out the branding of son Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors) in Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)
Review:
An intense, violent and pretty well done film if you can get past the ridiculous opening premise.
Why in the world would three men who don’t particularly like one another and have nothing in common go out into the middle of nowhere to play poker?
The explanation is that the banker doesn’t want to ruin his reputation by being caught gambling in town. That still doesn’t explain why their gambling spot would be so close to the camp where Coates’ partner is rustling his boss’s cattle.
Lots of familiar faces show up, including Paul Fix as Coates’ partner, Joan Blondell as Jessie’s friend Mrs. Lavender; and Gloria Grahame as the wife of an aging rancher who takes on Johnsy as her young lover and wants to run off with him.
Kathryn Hays looks lovely and turns in a spirited performance as the wife left behind. At the time the film was made, she was married to Glenn Ford and appearing in the Western TV series “The Road West” (1966-67). She’d later appear in 1,500 episodes of the soap opera “As the World Turns.”
Oh, those familiar faces also include bartender Arthur O’Connell, who tells census taker James MacArthur (later of Hawaii Five-O) about the Night of the Tiger. That was reportedly the original title of the film, but producers feared audiences would think it was a jungle flick.
And the violence includes an extended fight between Trapp and Coates that winds up wrecking an entire saloon.
Kathryn Hays as Jessie Trapp with long-lost husband Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors) in Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)
Directed by:
Bernard McEveety
Cast:
Chuck Connors … Jonas Trapp
Michael Rennie … Brooks Durhan
Kathryn Hays … Jessie Trapp
Joan Blondell … Mrs. Lavender
Gloria Grahame …. Bonnie Shelley
Gary Merrill … Dub Stokes
Bill Bixby … Johnsy Boy Hood
Claude Akins … Elwood Coates
Paul Fix … Lee Hanley
Marissa Mathes … Maria
Harry Harvey … Vogan
William Bryant … Bartender
Jamie Farr … Pete, the blacksmith
Larry Domasin … Mexican boy
Ruth Warrick … Aunt Gussie
Buddy Baer … Mr. Kratz
Frank Gorshin … Tod Wisdom
James MacArthur … The census taker
Arthur O’Connell … The narrator
Runtime: 105 min.
Title tune:
“You Can Never Go Home Again” performed by Glenn Yarbrough
Jonas Trapp (Chuck Connors) confronts Brooks Durhan (Michael Rennie) in Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)
Memorable lines:
Bartender, telling the story of Jonas’s return to Coldiron, Texas: “Jonas Trapp got what he went after. And now he’d find out if he still had what he left behind.”
Jonas Trapp, realizing his money is missing: “Eleven years. Eleven freezin’, grubbin’, flea-bitten, butcherin’ years.”
Old timer Lee Hanley: “All that was in those saddlebags?”
Old timer Hanley: “Big horse, you take my advice. You take it easy, or you’ll go to festering.”
Jonas Trapp: “I am festerin’. Inside.”
Marissa Mathes as Maria with Chuck Connors as Jonas Trapp in Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966)
Jonas Trapp, confronting Johnsy Boy: “Walk posey water. Or else get yourself blowed clear to hell.”
Jonas Trapp: “You look pretty.”
Jessie Trapp: “You look butchered.”
Jonas: “I just rose up from hell with my hair on fire. I ain’t stayin’ long.”
Jessie: “Then why did you come back at all? For me to kiss your filthy sores?”
Brooks Durhan: “I want to tell you something.”
Jonas Trapp: “Then you’re gonna die talkin’.”
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