Walter Brennan is Preacher Mark Hawker. He and his sons rule the Big Sag cattle rage.
That doesn’t mean others aren’t trying to claim part of that range as their own, including Texans Sam Barbee (Leif Erickson) and his son (Lee).
In fact, guns drawn, they get the preacher and his sons to back down from a showdown. That development outrages Sarah Hawker (Virginia Gregg), the preacher’s wife.
But if her husband isn’t man enough to protect the Big Sag range, she has another trick up her sleeve, a bit of news that could land local saloon owner Chan Bartholomew in big legal trouble.
Using that bit of information as leverage, she hopes to blackmail Chan into using a hired gun named Fargo and his other henchmen to wife out Barbee and his crew.
Complicating matters, daughter Hannah (Luana Patten) — a young beauty Sarah’s been grooming to one day sit in the governor’s mansion — is forced to spend a night alone with Lee Barbee to wait out a storm.
And they wind up falling in love.
Review:
With all its tough dialogue, this film starts out promisingly enough. Add Luana Patten’s youthful beauty and a conniving, tough-as-nails preacher’s wife, and you have the making of something special.
This isn’t something special. In fact, it falls well short of that mark, sabotaged in part by a running time so short there’s no time to develop characters. Or allow Hannah and Lee to fall for one another in a sensible fashion.
It doesn’t help that the intro paints Preacher Hawker and his three sons as pioneers who settled the Big Sag range and have used guns and brawn to hang onto it over the years.
Once the action begins, the preacher turns out to be a pretty meek, almost cowardly sort; his three sons more Three Stooges than three enforcers of his will.
Multiple sites indicate that this was filmed as a TV pilot, then released as a feature film when the promised show wasn’t picked up.
Directed by:
Roger Kay
Cast:
Walter Brennan … Preacher Mark Hawker
Leif Erickson … Sam Barbee
Luana Patten … Hannah Hawker
Chris Robinson … Lee Barbee
Constance Ford … Goldie Bartholomew
Virginia Gregg … Sarah Treadway Hawker
Les Tremayne … Chan Bartholomew
Don Kelly …. Fargo
Bill Coontz … Beale Hawker
as Bill Foster
Robert Beecher … Orin Hawker
Runtime: 62 min.
Memorable lines:
Narrator: “One of Fargo’s good points is defending womanhood, even if it’s kind of tarnished womanhood.”
Sam Barbee to his son, Lee: “You’re gettin’ your first look at that Preacher Hawker we’ve been hearin’ ’bout. Packs a Bible in one pocket, six-shooter in the other. Just to balance the load.”
Sarah Hawker, when her husband complains about how she coddles Hannah: “She’ll be wearing diamonds while you’re wallowing in that hog trough, you gutless fool.”
Sarah Hawker: “Remember, daughter, when you walk through those swingin’ doors, you hold your head high. Like a princess.”
Hannah Hawker: “Like this? Like they’re dirt under my feet? Like they smell bad?”
Sarah Hawker: “That’s it. Like a lady.”
Preacher Hawker: “If the four of us can’t handle one man, we ought to throw away our guns and commence drinking milk.”
Preacher Hawker, reading his wife’s note to Chan Bartholomew: “Why this woman is plum loco. If there’s blood spilled, it’ll be on her hands, clear to her elbows.”
Fargo to Chan Bartholomew: “I’m too drunk to tell if I should gut-shoot you or thank you. But you just bought yourself a man.”
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