Bill Elliott is Sam Nelson, a lawman who goes undercover to find the killers of a U.S. marshal who was trying to settle a mine boundary dispute.
The marshals find the mine owner who hired the killers. But he’s only able to identify the man who helped him hire two gunmen willing to murder a law officer.
So Nelson sets off in search of that man, a cheating card shark and shyster named Alf Billings (Harry Morgan). Going undercover, he saves Alf from tar and feather when he’s caught cheating, then offers to join forces with him. Between Alf’s ability with cards and Nelson’s ability with a gun, they figure to clean up.
Next stop: The town of Cold Water, where Alf runs into two old friends — Ernie Walker, who owns the richest saloon in town, and Bill Norris, who is wearing a sheriff’s badge. Before settling down, they were killers for hire. And Alf figures to blackmail them into getting his slice of the profits to be made in this rich mining town.
Ah, make that three old friends Alf encounters. Ernie is married to Stella (Virginia Grey), a former lover he’d like to rescue from her not-so-happy life. Meanwhile, Sam Nelson is growing more suspicious of the leading citizens of Cold Water.
Review:
This wound up being Bill Elliott’s last time in the saddle. Unfortunately, it’s a routine film in almost every possible way. Oh, Harry Morgan, later of “MASH” fame, turns in a fine performance as a gambler willing to do almost anything for money, until he meets an old lover. But little else stands out, including a predictable plot.
Elliott did make five other films playing the role of a detective, ending with 1957’s “Footsteps in the Night.” After than, Elliott settled in Las Vegas where he appeared in a weekly TV show, sometimes featuring his films.
Directed by:
Thomas Carr
Cast:
Bill Elliott … Sam Nelson
Virginia Grey … Stella Walker
Harry Morgan … Alf Billings
John Doucette … Ernie Walker
Lane Bradford … Bill Norris
I. Stanford Jolley … Everett
Dean Cromer … Marshal Sloan
Harry Lauter … Gambler
Earle Hodgkins … Hotel clerk
Ralph Sanford … Bartender
Runtime: 71 min.
Memorable lines:
Nelson: “I took my badge off when I left Santa Cruz. I thought perhaps I’d have better luck locating my man (Alf Billings) if I traveled as just another drifting gunman. Looking mean was no problem because that’s the way I felt.”
Billings, after being caught cheating: “I’m an honest man.”
The gambler who caught him: “Get some tar and feathers for this honest man.”
Billings: “Gentlemen! Gentlemen! I’m sorry for any trouble I might have caused you, but I am not a well man.”
The gambler: “You’re going to be a lot sicker by the time we get finished with you.”
Billings: “It was very decent of you to intercede for me. I have a rather violent dislike for tar and feathers. They give me a rash.”
Nelson: “Lead’s not so healthy either. And one of these days, you’re likely to be trying to digest a belly full of it.”
Billings: “Don’t be foolish, Sam, they’re killers.”
Nelson: “I can be one, too, when I want to.”
Nelson: “Don’t you like gold?”
Billings, laughing: “Sam, I think I can truthfully say that no one alive likes gold any better than I do. But there are much easier and far more pleasant ways of getting it than mining it.”
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