Rory Calhoun is Hemp Brown, a cavalry officer leading a payroll and an officer’s lover back to the fort. A former fellow officer, Jed Givens (John Larsh) appears along the roadside. Brown agrees to let him ride on the wagon.
Next thing you know, bandits have stolen the money and killed the woman and every member of the patrol; only Hemp survives, for a reason.
Givens, who has plotted the whole job and faked his own death, wants Hemp Brown to take the blame.
Upon returning to the fort, Hemp avoids a hanging, but is court martialed and publicly humiliated.
So he sets out on Givens’ trail to clear his name.
Along the way he runs into and befriends a dancer (Beverly Garland) traveling town to town with a snake-oil salesman (Fortuno Bonanova).
Rory Calhoun as Hemp Brown, searching for clues on where he can find Jed Givens in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Beverly Garland as Mona Langley, preparing to do a sword trick with Serge Bolanos’s traveling show in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Review:
Entertaining film with a few unusual plot twists.
For instance, when Calhoun’s Hemp Brown finally catches up with Givens, he’s in jail, about to be tried for a murder he didn’t commit.
Calhoun finds himself in the bizarre situation of needing to prove the innocence of his mortal enemy so that enemy can live long enough to clear Hemp’s name. It all leads up to a frantic finale.
One of the members of Givens’ gang is Russell Johnson in the role of Hook, a one-handed killer; he later gained fame as the Professor on Gilligan’s Island.
John Larch as Jed Givens, the man who frames Hemp Brown for the theft of a cavalry payroll in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Russell Johnson as Hook, the gang member who tries to pin a woman’s murder on Givens in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Directed by:
Richard Carlson
Cast:
Rory Calhoun … Hemp Brown
Beverly Garland … Mona Langley
John Larsch … Jed Givens
Russell Johnson … Hook
Fortuno Bonanova … Serge Bolanos
Allan Lane … The Sheriff
Trevor Bardette … Judge Rawlins
Morris Ankrum … Bo Slauter
Addison Richards … Col. Ford
Runtime: 80 min.
Fortunio Bonanova as Serge Bolanos, owner of the traveling show who gives Hemp Brown a ride and some well-needed rest in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Morris Ankrum as Bo Slater, the bar owner who’s witness to the fact that Jed Givens is alive and well in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Memorable lines …
Hook, admiring a piece of stolen jewelry: “You can dangle this in front of a girl and she oughta do just … hey, what’s this … Love, to Nancy from Floyd. Now why do people have to go engraving things? What am I supposed to do? Find a girl named Nancy and say I’m Floyd?”
Mona Langley, explaining who she is to Hemp Brown: “I’m pretty a little bit. I can sing a little bit, dance a little bit … Put them all together, and you don’t get a woman, not really. You don’t get a wife or a mother. You just get somebody who’s traveling in Bolanos’ fifth-rate show. That’s me. Did you ever try it? Looking at yourself.”
Hemp Brown: “I don’t like mirrors.”
Mona Langley: “I don’t even know your name. I won’t know who to look for in the obituary column.”
Hemp Brown: “Don’t look. Just stick to the front page.”
Hook, to Hemp Brown, as he tries to solve the mystery: “Now, mister, don’t go building a whole house out of a box of matches.”
Rory Calhoun as Hemp Brown and Beverly Garland as Mona Langley watching a lynch mob gather in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Yvette Vickers as Amelia, the young woman Hemp Brown finds wearing a broach taken during the payroll theft in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Charles Boaz as Alf Smedley, wary of the stranger who’s asking questions of his sister Amelia in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Addison Richards as Col. Ford, presiding over Hemp Brown’s court martial proceedings in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Trevor Bardette as Judge Rawlins, presiding of the trial of Jed Givens for a woman’s murder in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
Rory Calhouhn as Hemp Brown with a terrified Jed Givens, trying to escape a mob in The Saga of Hemp Brown (1958)
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