The Bounty Killer (1965)

Dan Duryea is Willie Duggans, a tenderfoot from Vermont who arrives in Silver Creek preaching peace and hope, especially to a pretty saloon girl named Carole (Audrey Dalton).

When Willie has trouble with a barroom bully, Johnny Liam (Rod Cameron) sends the man to the pearly gates — or more likely hell — with his fast gun. A gun, Liam tells Willie, is the fastest way to earn respect out West.

Willie soon learns that’s true. He takes a job escorting a payroll through dangerous territory and manages to kill three bandits, more through luck than skill.

But he earns a $250 bounty in the process and partners up with old-timer Capt. Luther in search of more bounties. Their plan: Bring them in alive.

Willie and Luther find trouble instead. Trouble that turns Willie from a peace-loving man to a vengeance seeking killer armed with a sawed-off shotgun.

The more bounties he collects, the more distant his dream of a future with Carole seems to become. In fact, he’s now scorned by the very townspeople he’s helping protect.

Dan Duryea as WIllie Duggan, the man who travels from Vermont to New Mexico and finds himself collecting bounties in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Audrey Dalton as Carole Ridgeway, intrigued by the stranger who walks into the saloon where she works in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Review:

Far, far better than most of the low-budget Westerns made in the 1960s and featuring aging stars.

It’s just a shame that the budget wouldn’t let the cinematography match the strong performance turned in by Duryea, who carries the film. The use of indoor sets is embarrassing obvious throughout.

This marked the final feature film for Audrey Dalton, though she continued to work on TV. Richard Arlen turns in one of his better performances as her dad, a dad determined to squelch the budding romance between his daughter and Willie.

Buster Crabbe plays Mike Clayman, the vicious outlaw Willie is determined to track down. And, in a bit or ironic casting, Duryea’s son Peter plays a young bounty hunter following in his footsteps.

Speaking of aging stars, silent Western star “Bronco Billy” Anderson has a one-line role while sitting in a cantina. It marked his final film appearance, and just his second since 1922.

Much of the credit for the film’s appeal goes to a script that’s fresher than most. Leo Gordon, a cast member in many a Western, co-authored that script.

Rob Cameron as Johnny Liam, the man who warns Willie Duggans that he’ll need a gun to survive in the West in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Buster Crabbe as outlaw Mike Clayman, turning the table son those who wanted to collect his bounty in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Directed by:
Spencer G. Bennett

Cast:
Dan Duryea … Willie Duggans
Rod Cameron … Johnny Liam
Audrey Dalton … Carole Ridgeway
Richard Arlen … Matthew Ridgeway
Buster Crabbe … Mike Clayman
Fuzzy Knight … Capt. Luther
Johnny Mack Brown … Sheriff Green
Peter Duryea … Youthful bounty hunter
Bob Steele … Red
Eddie Quillan … Pianist
Grady Sutton … Minister
Emory Parnell … Sam, bartender
Norman Willis … Hank Willis
Boyd “Red” Moran … Big Jim Seddon
Dan White … Marshal Davis
I. Stanford Jolley … Sheriff Jones
Gilbert M. “Bronco Billy” Anderson … Man in the cantina

Runtime: 92 min.

Fuzzy Knight as Capt. Luther, the former seaman who enters the bounty hunting business with Willie Duggan in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Richard Arlen as Matthew Ridgeway, trying his best to squelch any romances between Willie Duggan and his daughter in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Memorable lines:

Hank Willis, after asking Carole Ridgeway to sing a song in the saloon: “I’ve got my women trained.”

Willie Duggans: “I’m a God-loving man. And a God-loving man has nothing to fear.”

Johnny Liam, handing Willie Duggans a six-shooter: “You can get by without a dime in this country. But without this (the gun), you’re nothing.”

Carole Ridgeway: “I remember a preacher once said, ‘Nobody goes to hell unless the really want to.’ I ended up here (working in a saloon) because I wanted to.”
Willie Duggans: “I don’t think so. We live and we learn.”
Carole: “That’s just it. I wanted to live. Instead I died. A long time ago.”

Peter Duryea as a young man looking for insight on killing men and collecting bounties in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Norman Willis as Hank Willis, the bossy mine owner who considers Carole Ridgeway ‘his woman’ in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Carole Ridgeway: “You always seemed so peaceable.”
Willie Duggans: “I tried to be peaceable. I know better now. They’re inhuman. They’re going to pay for what they did to Luther. I’ll take them. Every last one of them. On their own terms.”

Matthew Ridgeway, placing his hand on his daughter Carole’s shoulder: “I love you, honey, but you’re sure no judge of men.”

William Duggans, to some townspeople: “All I do is pull the trigger. After you people put up the target for me. I’m just doing what you don’t have the guts to do.”

Johnny Mack Brown as Sheriff Green, learning that the notorious Willie Duggan has landed in his town in The Bounty Killer (1965)

I. Stanford Jolley as Sheriff Jones, trying to warn Willie Duggans not to become a bounty hunter in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Fuzzy Knight as Capt. Luther and Dan Duryea as Willie Duggans, looking for a list of bounties to collect in The Bounty Killer (1965)

Dan Duryea as Willie Duggan and Audrey Dalton as Carole Ridgeway, dreaming of a fresh start in a new place in The Bounty Killer (1965)