arfdawg-1 Slow paced western filled with a bunch of well known western character actors. It's a small movie with a small story, but many times westerns work well that way because you can concentrate on the characters. The action is sparse. It's filled more with personal stories and character development.The PlotThe veteran Civil War Yankee officer Yellowleg saves the cheater Turk in a card game, and together with the gunslinger Billy Keplinger, they ride together to Gila City with the intention of heisting a bank. Yellowleg has a war scar on the head from a man that tried to scalp him and he has been on the trail of his attacker for five years. When bandits rob a store, Yellowleg shoots at the outlaws and accidentally kills the son of the cabaret dancer Kit Tilden and the grieving woman decides to bury her son in the Apache country Siringo, where her husband is also buried. Yellowleg calls Billy and Turk to escort Kitty through the dangerous land.

LeonLouisRicci Disjointed and Uneven Western, Sam Peckinpah's First Feature Film is a Glum and Gloomy Movie that has some Offbeat Inclusions and Shoddy Camera Work. It is Certainly not a Typical Western and has some of that Odd Peckinpah Grit. The Shooting Death of a Child, a Mentally Deranged Major Character, the Leading Man is both Crippled and Scalped, some Sadistic Torture, Drunken Indians Playing Dressup with Stagecoach Remnants, Dragging a Coffin across the Desert, an Attempted Rape, a Sunday Sermon in a Saloon, and More.But it isn't put together very well and the Music Background is Awful. The Pacing is Slow and the Ending Lacks some Punch. But although most Prints are Dark and Fuzzy at times there is Enough On Screen that is Worth a View for Fans of Westerns and the Director. Just Expect a Downbeat Tone and a Mild Disappointment.

Uriah43 After accidentally killing the son of a dance-hall woman named "Kit Tildon" (Maureen O'Hara) a former union soldier known only as "Yellowleg" (Brian Keith) decides to escort Kit (along with the body of the young boy) to another small town in Arizona so that the boy can be buried next to the grave of his father. Unfortunately, this small town happens to lie in the path of warring Apaches. To further complicate matters Kit doesn't want Yellowleg coming along and Yellowleg insists that his two companions named "Billy Keplinger" (Steve Cochran) and "Turk" (Chill Wills) accompany him. Billy complies because he wants Kit in the worst possible way and Turk simply agrees to go because of Billy. What Turk doesn't realize is that Yellowleg wants to enact vengeance upon him for something that happened 5 years earlier. Anyway, rather than reveal the rest of the story and risk spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was an interesting western with an equally interesting plot. Certainly not great by any means but interesting just the same. As far as the acting was concerned I thought everyone did an adequate job with the rather odd scripts they were given. Slightly above average.

dougdoepke The beginning scenes in town made me think this would be first-rate Peckinpah. A demented Turk (Wills) balances atop an unsteady barrel while he hangs by a noose from the ceiling. All the time, the rest of the barroom plays cards. That strikes me as pure Peckinpah and it's a heckuv an audience hook. And soon after, flawed hero Yellowleg (Keith), mistakenly shoots a boy, an unconventional twist typical of Peckinpah's sense of irony. Then there's the church service in the barroom where our three roughnecks look on in curious discomfort. Now I don't know if Peckinpah originated these unorthodox episodes, but he definitely got them on screen. But once Yellowleg and Kit (O"Hara) leave town with the boy's body, the pace and inventiveness come to an unhappy halt. I understand that the ad-hoc production company interfered with the final cut, which may be the reason the second part dissipates. But it was also a low-budget production, causing me to think they may have improvised events along the trail. Certainly there's little costly dialog, plus Yellowleg's dubious raid on the Indian camp would have trouble withstanding serious second thoughts. Then too, the mercurial Peckinpah is not the most appropriate personality to work with a diva like O'Hara, especially when her brother is the producer. In short, I don't blame the director of the Wild Bunch (1969) for generally dismissing this as his first film. It's flawed in ways that would not be repeated.(In passing—for fans of Peckinpah, be sure to catch up with his brilliant but little-known TV series The Westerner (1960), starring the always low-key Brian Keith as an itinerant cowboy. It was clearly too unconventional to last beyond its 13 weeks. Now it can be seen as unfortunately ahead of its time. I caught up with it on The Western Channel.)