Kent Taggart (Tony Young) and his family are ready to set up a ranch near the town of Gunsight when cattle king Ben Blazer and his men attack.
By the time the dust has cleared, Taggart’s parents are dead, their cows scattered.
But Blazer’s son is dead too, and Blazer is on his death bed. But before he passes, he pledges $5,000 to gunfighter Jay Jason (Dan Duryea) and two other henchmen if they’ll track down and kill Taggart.
The young man flees south, where the Apache are on the warpath, and encounters the Stark family living in an abandoned mission.
The dad has found gold in the hills; his younger wife Consuela (Elsa Cardenas) would prefer to share the gold with a younger, more virile man.
Stark’s daughter Miriam (Jean Hale) knows Consuela for what she is, but will do anything to protect her father from being hurt.
Taggart turns down Consuela’s advances, but Jason follows him to the mission and suddenly finds himself confronted with all sorts of potential prizes — Stark’s gold, Stark’s wife and the bounty on Taggart’s head.
If only the Apache will quiet down long enough for him to make his getaway.
Tony Young as Kent Taggart, hiding from the hired guns on his trail in Taggart (1964)
Dan Duryea as Jay Jason, learning of a $5,000 payday if he can bring Kent Taggart back dead in Taggart (1964)
Review:
R.G. Springsteen directed a slew of these low-budget Westerns in the 1960s; this one isn’t bad, largely because of the presence of Duryea and the odd Consuela family dynamics.
Unfortunately, the script also calls for some large-scale action scenes — a cattle stampede, an attack on a wagon train and an attack on the fort — all included courtesy of embarrassingly mismatched stock footage.
Tony Young went on to have bit parts in a number of Westerns, including the James Garner’s Spaghetti film “A Man Called Sledge.” He’d later marry Sondra Currie, star of the 1975 sex Western “Jessi’s Girls.”
Jean Hale, who plays Miriam Stark here, was married to actor Dabney Coleman. And, yep, that’s Dan Duryea’ son, Peter, is a short-lived role as Blazer’s gun-toting son.
Jean Hale as Miriam Stark, the young woman who falls for Kent Taggart in spite of his murder warrant in Taggart (1964)
Elsa Cardenas as Consuela Stark, looking for a handsome man to rescue her from a marriage to a much older man in Taggart (1964)
Directed by:
R.G. Springsteen
Cast:
Tony Young … Kent Taggart
Dan Duryea … Jay Jason
Dick Foran … Stark
Elsa Cardenas … Consuela Stark
Jean Hale … Miriam Stark
Emile Meyer … Ben Blazer
David Carradine … Cal Dodge
Peter Duryea … Rusty Bob Blazer
Tom Reese … Augie
Ray Teal … Ralph Taggart
Claudia Barrett … Lola Manners
Stuart Randall … Sheriff
Runtime: 85 min.
Dick Foran as Adam Stark, a man who’s taken over an old mission and found gold nearby in Taggart (1964)
Ray Teal as Ralph Taggart, learning of Ben Blazer’s plans to keep him from building a ranch nearby from son Kent in Taggart (1964)
Memorable lines:
Ben Blazer: “All those cattle, belonging to a squatter who needs a lesson. He’s gonna get spanked hard or my name ain’t Ben Blazer.”
Rusty Bob, holding up his gun: “I got my paddle, dad.”
Sheriff, after Taggart has gunned down Blazer’s son: “You, Taggart, you get out of town. Get beyond all maps and stay there. Don’t thank me, don’t say anything. The longer you talk, the longer you’re in town.”
Jay Jason: “I talk too large and think too small.”
Emile Meyer as Ben Blazer, on his death bed but still mean enough to issue a murder warrant against Taggart in Taggart (1964)
Peter Duryea as Rusty Bob Blazer with the sheriff (Stuart Randall), talking to Blazer’s seriously wounded father in Taggart (1964)
Ben Blaser to Jason: “This here is a warrant for Taggart’s arrest. It says dead or alive. You can stop reading when you get to dead.”
Jason: “Some days are worse than others, and there are lots of tomorrows.
Jason: “That Taggart, acts like he wants to live to be a dirty ol’ man, full of rheumatism and false teeth.”
Consuela Stark: “A woman like me deserves more than a snoring old man.”
Stark, of Jason: “What do you want to do with him?”
Taggart: “I’d like to shoot him. But we’ll tie him up for now.”
Elsa Cadenas as Consuela Stark, reconsidering her alliance with Jay Jason (Dan Duryea), to his displeasure in Taggart (1964)
Jay Jason with Vince ‘Auggie’ August, one of the gunmen who will be accompanying him in Taggart (1964)
David Carradine as Cal Dodge, one of the gunman on Ben Blazer’s payroll, with Jay Jason (Dan Duryea) in Taggart (1964)
Claudia Barrett as Lola Manners, the widow turned barroom girl who gets a helping hand from Taggart in Taggart (1964)
Arthur Space as the colonel, learning the Indians are massing for an attack on his undermanned fort in Taggart (1964)
Jean Hale as Miriam Stark and Tony Young as Kent Taggart rush to help Miriam’s wounded dad in Taggart (1964)
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