Patricia Medina is Angela Medley, daughter of the often-drunk “Doc” Medley and sometimes lover of a gunman named Slinger (Gerald Mohr). She knows Slinger is no good for her, yearns for a better life, but fears their dreams will all be for naught.
How bad has it gotten? She and doc supplement their income by meeting passengers on the stage in Bitter Water and taking their money in poker games. After all, what traveler could resist playing poker with a lovely woman like Angela?
How bad has it gotten? Dr. Bruce Merritt (Richard Denning) arrives in town. He’s purchased the practice from Angela’s dad for $250. And her dad has drunk his way through all but $38 of that amount. Meanwhile, Merritt’s not impressed with the practice that cost him all that money.
But in Merritt, Angela sees hope for a better life. So she decides to play one last game of poker, hoping to win back the $250 for Merritt, so he has the option of staying or leaving. Slinger hears of the card game and cheats Angela, then traps her in his room, figuring she’ll want to earn the $250 in another way.
Merritt breaks in and figures Angela’s there of her own free will. Figuring her romantic hopes with Merritt has been crushed, Angela agrees to leave town with Slinger. They’ll be married. After all, he’s promised his guns can get them anything they want.
Review:
Hysterical little film that’s reminiscent of “Duel in the Sun” in that it features a somewhat tortured dark-haired beauty trapped between two men, one who could be good to her, one who will be very bad for her.
Medina, who was seldom called on to do much real acting in her Westerns, turns in an impressive performance, making the viewer care what happens to her. A suspenseful which-gun-as-bullets ending also helps.
By that time, Angela has encouraged Slinger to sell his guns so they’ll have money to live on. Instead, he robs a bank, shooting two people in the process. Angela is wounded, but they make off with $4,000. The question is: How long can they keep it with a posse hot on their trail?
Directed by:
Carl K. Hittleman
Cast:
Patricia Medina … Angela Medley
Richard Denning … Dr. Bruce Merritt
Gerald Mohr … Slinger
Henry Hull … “Doc” Medley
Hark Worden … Lon
Robin Short … Nevada
Richard Reeves … Potter
Dorothy Adams … Mrs. Adams
Frank Sully … Jed
George Cisar … Cranston
Louis Lettieri … Ralpie Adams
Byron Foulger … Jonathan Latham
John Dierkes … Swanson
Runtime: 66 min.
Memorable lines:
Angela: “You don’t love me. All you want are those fancy guns of yours.”
Slinger: “They take good care of me. You too. Wherever we go.”
Stage passenger Cranston: “This is the only place to wait. From the looks of this metropolis, a man could take three steps and be in the middle of nowhere.”
Doc, drunken, to young Ralphie Adams, who wants him to remove a splinter: “You’re the first little boy I’ve ever seen with eight fingers on one hand.”
Mrs. Adams: “You Medleys. You’re beneath contempt and beyond redemption.”
Angela Medley: “You never should have had a gun Slinger, let alone two of them.”
){kind=link}