Patrick Dray is Alfred Packer, who takes a job guiding a group of wannabe prospectors to Breckenridge, Colorado, in the winter of 1874.
He’s been hired by Shannon Wilson Bell (Ronald Haines) and Bell’s new traveling companions.
They were sitting around a table at an inn, enjoying dinner one day, when Bell produced a gold nugget to pay his bill.
Bell said he got it by trading a mule to a miner who had no “real money,” but said nuggets like it were just lying on the ground, waiting to be picked up in the area around Breckenridge.
Next thing you know, Bell, young George Noon, aging Israel Swan, James Humphreys and Frank Miller decide to try their hand at prospecting.
But they realize they’ll need a guide and, for $20, their waitress provides them with information about Alfred Packer.
Packer is serving time at the Utah Prison Work Farm, but anyone can free him by paying his fine.
Bell agrees to do just that, provided Packer agrees to lead them to Breckenridge. A second group of six prospectors even joins them on the journey.
But it isn’t long before the trouble interrupts their dreams of riches. One of the group’s pack horses is stolen.
And when they stop at a ghost town one party member mistakes for Breckenridge, mountain men take off with their horses and the rest of their supplies.
The groups split them, with the original five following Packer into the Colorado winter and the other six deciding to try a different route to safety.
Of that original group, only Packer makes it back to civilization. And when his story of survival doesn’t add up, he confesses to eating his traveling companions in order to survive.
Patrick Dray as Alfred Packer, ready to take a party of five on a gold-hunting expedition in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Ronald Haines as Shannon Wilson Bell, explaining his search for gold to other travelers in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Review:
Crudely made and poorly acted, there’s only one reason to watch this film: It’s based on a true story.
Alfred Packer indeed led a group of prospectors into the Colorado winter of 1874.
One of his confessions is a pretty close match to the tragic result of that struggle with hunger and survival as depicted in the film.
And Polly Pry was a reporter with the Denver Post who lobbied for leniency on Packer’s behalf after he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
This marked Dray’s only credited film role, at least under that name. Watch and you’ll realize why.
His Packer character is tormented by memories of the Civil War and dismissive of his companions’ lack of frontier know-how.
The story is told in flashback, as related by Polly to an out-of-town reporter just after someone has shot two of her Denver Post colleagues in the newspaper office.
Because, hey, isn’t that what a gal would do after watching two men being shot by a would-be assassin? Share a story about cannibalism over a nice dinner?
Yep, that’s about as likely as the scene where Bell pays for a piece of pie with his only gold nugget, setting the story in motion.
A decade later, the Packer story would be revived as “Cannibal, the Musical,” a comedy by University of Colorado students Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Yep, that’s right, the creators of “South Park.”
Jim Dratfield as George Noon, the youngest member of the gold-hunting party in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Bob Damon as Israel Swan, desperately hoping his companions have come across food in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Directed by:
James W. Roberson
Cast:
Patrick Dray … Alfred “Alferd” Packer
Ronald Haines … Shannon Wilson Bell
Jim Dratfield … George “California” Noon
Bob Damon … Israel Swan
Dave Ellingson … James Humphreys
Ronny Holiday … Frank “Reddy” Miller
William Broder … W.W. Anderson
Teresa Wickerson … Receptionist
Lawrence Bleir … Wilson McMurphy
Cynthia Nessin … Polly Pry
Tom Peru … O.D. Loutsenhizer
Robert Lucas … Isaac Walker
Stephen Trenton … Tom Walker
Randy Morris … Mike Burke
Chuck Meyers … Charlie Smith
Mark J. Webb … Art Smith
Dick Morgan … Trapper
George Farrar … Weasel
Don Donovan … Gen. Charles Adams
Sam Kirbens … Judge Melville B. Gerry
Runtime: 93 min.
Ronny Holiday as Frank Miller and Dave Ellingson as James Humphreys, two members of Packer’s party in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Tom Peru as O.D. Loutsenhizer, seeking permission to join the Packer expedition in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Memorable lines:
Shannon Wilson Bell: “I like to see a man smile. Especially after I buy his way out of prison.”
Alfred Packer: “I’ll smile, when you say something funny.”
Israel Swan, as a disagreement breaks out between the gorp: “We don’t have to worry bout no mountain men whipping us. We’re doin’ dang good amongst ourselves.”
Trapper, a mountain man, ordering Noon to undress: “If there’s anything better than a young squaw, it’s a nice, young boy.”
Alfred Packer, about his traveling companions after they rush into a ghost town, mistaking it for Breckenridge: “Fools. Every last one of you — helpless fools.”
Gen. Adams: “If you tell me the truth this time, I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
Alfred Packer: “People get hungry, general. Real hungry. And you’ve got to eat, or else you die.”
Judge: “Mr. Packer, there were only seven Democrats in Hinsdale County. And you ate five of them. As a warning to anybody else who’d reduce the Democratic population of this state, I sentence you to hang by your neck until you are dead.”
Cynthia Nessin as Polly Pry, a Denver Post employee sharing the story of Alfred Packer with an out-of-town reporter in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Lawrence Bleir as Wilson McMurphy, a reporter who travels 2,000 miles to hear the Alfred Packer story in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Don Donovan as Gen. Charles Adams, listening to Alfred Packer’s confession in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
Sam Kirbens as Judge Melville B. Gerry, sentencing Packer to hang for eating Democrats in The Legend of Alfred Packer (1980)
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