Brian Keith is Yellowleg, an ex-Union soldier, scarred emotionally and physically. He was nearly scalped by a renegade Rebel and has spent five years hunting the man.
Now he’s found Turk (Chill Wills), about to be hanged for cheating at cards while his partner (Steve Cochran as Billy Keplinger) is holed up in a back room with two whores. Yellowleg saves Turk, then convinces the two men to ride off with him to Hela City to rob a bank.
Oh, Yellowleg plans to kill Turk; he’s just biding his time. But while he does so, someone else gets to the bank first and Yellowleg winds up with a new burden: He mistakenly shoots and kills a young boy.
The boy’s mom, dance hall girl Kit Tildon (Maureen O’Hara) insists on taking her son’s body to the now deserted town of Siringo so he can be buried beside his father, a father the folks in Hela City don’t believe exists.
Not wanting to see her killed by Indians, Yellowleg insists on tagging along. So do Turk and Billy.
It won’t be an easy journey.
Review:
This dour film is more of a curiosity than a success. It was, after all, the first film from Sam Peckinpah, who would direct his share of Western classics during his career behind the camera.
Oh, there are unique moments. Like the Indians replaying a stagecoach attack purely for the fun of it. And the journey to Siringo will remind you of the premise behind the highly praised Western mini-series “Lonesome Dove.”
And all of Peckinpah’s characters are flawed. Kit loves only her son; she’s heard whispers behind her back for so long she’s determined to prove her son had a father now that he’s dead.
Yellowleg is obsessed with revenge. Billy is obsessed with Kit’s red hair. Turk is barely clinging to sanity, dreaming of the army of Indian slaves he can arm and uniform after he’s robbed a bank.
Unfortunately, the film is marred by an ill-fitting musical score and a happy ending that comes off as forced and contrived as these characters are. That said, the final shootout is imaginatively handled.
Directed by:
Sam Peckinpah
Cast:
Brian Keith … Yellowleg
Maureen O’Hara … Kit Tildon
Steve Cochran … Billy Keplinger
Chill Wills … Turk
Strother Martin … Parson
Will Wright … Doctor Acton
Peter O’Crotty … Mayor, Hila City
Jim O’Hara … Cal
Billy Vaughan … Mead Tildon Jr.
Title tune: “My Lonely Heart”
sung by Maureen O’Hara
Memorable lines:
Yellowleg: “I hear they got a new bank and an old marshal over Hela City. That beats cheatin’ at cards, don’t it?”
Billy Keplinger to Turk: “Anybody turns his back on you is just a dag-blame fool. I kinda like him (Yellowleg). I never knowed a Yankee before.”
Mead Tilden, after hearing congregants gossip about his mother: “If they’re going to heaven, let’s you and me not go.”
Billy Keplinger, after being rebuked by Kit: “Never did see a dance hall girl so fussy about being kissed.”
Yellowleg to Kit: “You always that stubborn? Or just hard to figure out?”
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