A young preacher named Brother Van (John Smith) heads West to bring a message of peace and hope to the Indians. Almost immediately, he witnesses a gang of white men wearing masks rustling a small herd of cattle from reservation Indians.
And this isn’t something new, Chief Wolf tells him. It happens all the time.
Turns out those masked men are the hired guns working for Grat Bandas (Ted de Corsia), the local Indian agent. He’s trying his best to stir up hostilities by cheating the tribe out of its government rations. His goal: To take over the Indian land and get rich in the process.
Witnessing that thievery just might put Brother Van’s life in jeopardy.
Into the mix rides fast gun Linc Prescott (Buster Crabbe), who saves Brother Van once, but can’t turn down a lucrative offer to work for Bandas.
Of course, at the time, he doesn’t know what Bandas is up to.
But that soon becomes clear when Bandas’ men threatened to burn the chief’s son to death, allegedly for stealing a horse. Then there’s the homestead that’s torched, with arrows left behind to make it look like it was the work of renegade Indians.
Soon, Brother Van and Linc ae working together again to keep peace between the whites and Indians.
John Smith as William Wesley Van Orsdel, aka Brother Dan, hoping to bring peace and Christianity to the Sioux in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Buster Crabbe as Linc Prescott, a hired gun suddenly wanting to find out who’s behind the growing tension with the Sioux in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Review:
Routine in every way. Buster Crabbe, veteran of dozens of B Westerns, was pushing 50 when the film was made and it finds him romancing the much younger Lynn Sutter, who initially seems turned off by his lifestyle and his affiliation with Bandas, but just can’t get him out of her mind.
Anthony Caruso and John Doucette — appropriately nicknamed “Pig” — play heavies working for Bandas. Walter Reed plays the cavalry captain who had hopes of a future with Lynn until Prescott came along.
Marilyn Saris as Lynn Sutter, ready to defend the privacy of her bedroom with a broom in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Ted de Corsia as Grat Bandas, the Indian agent lining his pockets with stolen government rations in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Directed by
Joseph Kane
Cast:
Buster Crabbe … Linc Prescott
John Smith … William Wesley Van Orsdel, aka Brother Van
Marilyn Saris … Lynn Sutter
Ted de Corsia … Grat Bandas
Anthony Caruso … Wolf
John Doucette … Art ‘Pig’ Corbin
Frank Ferguson … Owen Sutter
Sheila Bromley … Mrs. Myra Sutter
Walter Reed … Capt. Ellis North
Robert ‘Buzz’ Henry … Little Wolf
Will J. White … Lt. Reed
Robert Swan … Loman (as Bob Swan)
Runtime: 70 min.
John Doucette as Art ‘Pig’ Corbin and Tom Monroe as Magee, two men doing Bandas’s dirty deeds in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Anthony Caruso as Wolf, a Sioux chief tired of waiting for government rations that never arrive in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Memorable lines:
Brother Van, holding up his Bible: “This book is the medicine of peace and friendship for our Indian brothers.”aa
Wolf: “We do not want white man’s medicine. Use it on the white men who need it more.”
Linc Prescott: “(He came) all the way from Pennsylvania. To make Christians out of the Indians.”
Lynn Sutter: “And I dare say it will be easier than converting some of the white folk I’ve seen.”
Linc Prescott to Brother Van: “You should have stayed back where you came from. Words ae gonna get you no place out here. Less you back them with a gun.”
Lynn Sutter: “If you had to pick yourself a private guardian angel, why’d you have to pick a devil (Linc Prescott).”
Brother Van: “It’s because of devils there are guardian angels. Perhaps this one hasn’t fallen too far to be pulled back.”
Frank Ferguson as Owen Sutter, wondering if Little Wolf deserves to hang in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Sheila Bromley as Mrs. Myra Sutter, frantically watching Indians drag off daughter Lynn in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Marilyn Saris as Lynn Sutter and Walter Reed as Capt. Ellis North, spotting smoke in the distance in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Robert ‘Buzz’ Henry as Little Wolf, facing slow death at the hands of Bandas’s men in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Anthony Caruso as Sioux Chief Wolf, facing a hangman’s noose for a ranch raid he had no part of in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
Buster Crabbe (right) as Linc Prescott, coming to the aid of a wounded Brother Van (John Smith) in The Lawless Eighties (1957)
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