Siringo (1994)

Brad Johnson is Charlie Siringo, a lawman who goes undercover to capture the vicious Wade Lewis, leader of a Comancheros band that’s been dealing guns and liquor to the Indians.

Only Lewis escapes on his way to prison with fellow cutthroat Harvey Bates. Now Siringo is back on the outlaw’s trail, with a greenhorn of a federal agent (Chad Lowe as Winton Powell) as his sidekick.

The trail leads to a ranch owned by Kaitlin Mullane (Crystal Bernard). She’s Bates’ girl and she might have purchased that ranch with her boyfriend’s loot. So Siringo and Powell know the badmen will show up there sooner or later.

Sure enough, they do. But things don’t go exactly the way the lawmen were hoping because Lewis and Bates arrive with friends in tow. For Siringo, revenge will have to wait for another day, if he survives.

Brad Johnson as Charlie Siringo in Siringo (1994)

Chad Lowe as Winton Powell in Siringo (1994)

Review:

This Western earns a star for its willingness to kill off good characters and avoid a fairytale ending. And it loses a star for believability once Johnson is shot a half dozen times, left for dead, nursed back to health by Indians, then sets out on the outlaw’s trail again with only a knife and a bow and arrow, which he’s never used before.

Johnson plays a lawman who doesn’t always bring them back alive. Chad Lowe, Rob’s younger brother, plays the less experienced lawman sent along to make sure he does this time. And Bernard – in the middle of her run as Helen Chapel on the TV series “Wings” for which she’s best known – is a reformed whore determined to hold onto her land at any price.

The most memorable scene in the film is a vicious attack on Kaitlin Mullane’s ranch in which one character is scalped while still alive. Barry Corbin has a small role as Siringo’s boss. And Western fans will also recognize William Sanderson as Tully, one of Lewis’ men. He went on to star as Mayor E.B. Farnum in the TV series “Deadwood.”

Crystal Bernard as Kaitlin Mullane as Siringo (1994)

Keith Szarabajka as Harvey Bates in Siringo (1994)

Directed by:
Kevin Cremin

Cast:
Brad Johnson … Charlie Siringo
Crystal Bernard … Kaitlin Mullane
Chad Lowe … Winton Powell
Stephen Macht … Wade Lewis
Keith Szarabajka … Harvey Bates
Floyd Westerman … Plenty Wounds
William Sanderson … Tully
George Aguilar … Yellow Hawk
Maggie Baird … Blanche
Michael Horton … Emmet
Barry Corbin … Marshal Llewellyn

Runtime: 94 min.

Barry Corbin as Marshal Llewellyn as Siringo (1994)

Stephen Macht as Wade Lewis in Siringo (1994)

Memorable lines:

Kaitlin to Powell, after he compliments her figure: “If you got trail fever, you can sleep out in the barn with the livestock.”
Powell to Siringo: “I thought I was paying her a compliment.”
Siringo; “Don’t think!”

Kaitlin to Powell: “Can I get you anything else?”
Powell: “I might be able to think of something, if I put my mind to it.”
Kaitlin: “You know, I’d give that mind a good rest if I was you. You’re working it too hard for its limited capacity.”

Kaitlin: “Most men have a habit of forgetting the other side of a deal once they get what they want.”
Siringo: “Maybe I ain’t most men.”

Kaitlin: “One thing I learned from prison: You get old a lot faster than you do whorin’.”

Floyd Westerman as Plenty Wounds in Siringo (1994)

Brad Johnson as Charlie Siringo in iringo (1994)