The McMasters (1970)

Brock Peters is Benjie, a black man who returns home from the Civil War for a reunion with McMasters (Burl Ives), the man who raised him.

But home for Benjie is a town with Rebel sympathies. And it’s soon clear that, if anything, the Civil War heightened their hatred of anyone with black skin.

McMasters has no qualms about welcoming Benjie home. He gives him half of his ranch. He lets him take his last name.

But the more prejudiced residents of town — especially Kolby (Jack Palance) and Russel (L.Q. Jones) — aren’t about to watch a black landowner succeed in their county.

They scare off the McMasters’ help, scatter their cattle and later poison their cattle.

When Benjie turns to the local Indians for help and takes one of those Indians (Nancy Kwan as Robin) for his wife, the attacks turn more personal.

Brock Peters as Benjie in The McMasters (1970)

Burl Ives as McMasters in The McMasters (1970)

Review:

One of the first Westerns to focus on the issue of post-Civil War racism, this is a violent and somewhat crudely made film.

Brock Peters is solid, but his character is unreasonably naive about the difficulties he’s going to face in a town where one of the leaders is an ex-Civil War officer who lost an arm in the war.

For that matter, so is McMasters. Meanwhile, Palance is at his worst, so over-the-top in his performance that he detracts from the film.

But in a unique twist, this film features a second layer of racism. The same townspeople who harass Benjie treat the local Indians as less than human.

Benjie, sympathizing with their plight, befriends them. But they don’t understand one another.

White Feather (David Carradine) doesn’t agree that anyone should own the land and doesn’t comprehend the white man’s idea of being paid for working on the ranch.

Benjie doesn’t understand how White Feather could give him his sister Robin as a gift without any consideration for whether she likes Benjie or not. That’s not the issue, White Feather tries to explain. She won’t go hungry.

And in the most ironic twist of all, White Feather keeps telling Benjie that he’s “a white man.”

Nancy Kwan as Robin in The McMasters (1970)

Jack Palance as Kolby in The McMasters (1970)

Directed by:
Alf Kjellin

Cast:
Brock Peters … Benjie
Burl Ives … McMasters
David Carradine … White Feather
Nancy Kwan … Robin
Jack Palance …. Kolby
John Carradine … Preacher
L.Q. Jones … Russel
R.G. Armstrong … Watson
Dane Clark … Spencer
Frank Raiter … Grant
Alan Vint … Hank
Marion Brash … Mrs. Watson
Neil Davis … Sylvester
Paul Eichenberg … Jud
Richard Alden … Lester
Lonnie Samuel … Bull
Albert Hockmeister … Sheriff
David Strong … Otis
Dumas Slade … Cullen
Joan Harold … Mrs. Spencer
Jose Naranjo … Indian Joe
Richard Martinez … Black Fox
Joseph Duran … Black Cloud

Runtime: 90 min.

David Carradine as White Feather in The McMasters (1970)

L.Q. Jones as Russel in The McMasters (1970)

Memorable lines:

Shopkeeper Watson: “Why’d you come back?”
Benjie: “Cause I live here.”
Watson: “You could die here too, Benjie.”
Benjie, still sporting his Union uniform: “Man could die any place. Been learning that for four years.”

Kolby: “You gotta realize one thing. You’re black. You gotta remember that, boy.”

Benjie, to his fellow townsmen: “You stay off my land unless invited. And that’ll be a cold day in hell.”

R.G. Armstrong as Watson in The McMasters (1970)

Dane Clark as Spencer pleads Benji’s case while his wife (Joan Harold) looks on in The McMasters (1970)

Shopkeeper Watson, explaining to his wife why he has to participate in lynching: “Since when is a n—-r a person. They ain’t got no soul. I’ve told you that a million times.”

Benjie, under attack. “I don’t understand these people. I thought the war was over.”

Benjie, insisting on returning to his land: “I ain’t dead yet.”
White Feather: “How dead you want to get?”

Nancy Kwan as Robin with Brock Peters as Benjie in The McMasters (1970)

Brock Peters as Benjie and Burl Ives as McMasters in The McMasters