U.S. Deputy Marshal turned bounty hunter, Luke Welch (Charles Bronson), comes to Mountain City in search of Con Maynor (Thomas Browne Henry). There's a bounty on Con for killing three men.
Luke finds Con and serves a warrant for his arrest. Con refuses to surrender. Luke challenges him to draw his gun or face the hangman. Con draws, but is no match, and Luke guns him down. The town doesn't like it. Con was well regarded by the Mountain City townsfolk, ready to sell a string of cattle below price, and wait for his money, so long as you didn't ask where he got them. Con's friend, Sloane (Robert Hutton) witnessed the fight and accuses Luke of forcing Con to draw. Sheriff Hinkle (George Pembroke) orders an investigation. Judge Wallen (Paul Maxey) rules the shooting justified, but refuses to identify the body as Con, prohibiting Luke from collecting his reward, and the town is of no help.
Determined to collect his reward, Luke decides to stay in town. When he checks into the hotel and signs the register, he notices that Con's name has been blacked out.
Luke asks the hotel's waitress, Sally Crane (Fintan Meyler), to identify Con. Sally refuses, saying Con never had a chance against Luke. Touched by Sally's earnestness, Luke buys her a jar of lotion for her chapped hands. When he presents her with the gift, Sally recognizes a kinship between them bred of loneliness. Sally, whose mother Jill runs the local saloon, confides that she has always been uncomfortable around men because of her mother's vocation, but feels at ease with Luke.
The town's barber, undertaker and philosopher, Doc Weber (John Carradine), warns Luke that Con's hot-tempered brother, Charles Maynor (George Douglas), is coming to his brother's funeral.
On the slope of Boot Hill, Luke finds Sally meditating under her favorite tree and invites her to a dance that night. When Luke escorts Sally into the dance, the music stops and the judge informs him that he is not welcome. Humiliated, Luke leaves, and once outside, Sally asks him to kiss her.
Later, at the saloon Sloane worries that Luke may be romancing Sally to manipulate her into identifying Con. In response, Jill's trigger-happy boyfriend, Les Patton (Michael Mason), suggests killing Luke. Soon after, Luke comes to the saloon to tell Jill of his love for her daughter. When Les challenges him to a shootout, Luke draws first and wounds him. Running out of patience, Sloane decrees that Luke should die and rallies an angry mob to execute him. Hurrying to the hotel to warn Sally, Jill offers her house as a refuge.
Soon after, Charles arrives in town and joins the bloodthirsty crowd. When the mob barges into the hotel, Luke and Sally scurry down the back steps to Jill's house. Unknown to them, Les is there, recovering from his wound. When Sally asks Luke to tell her that he loves her, Les, delirious from pain and drugs, stumbles out of the bedroom and fires a shotgun at them. Then Jill runs in and Les blasts her with his gun.
Doc treats the mortally wounded Jill, and as Sally tries to soothe her mother, the two reconcile. On the morning of Con's funeral, Luke watches the mourners head for Boot Hill. Turning to Sally, Luke confides that he became a bounty hunter because he had always been teased about his height and killing presented a way to earn respect. When he declares that he is going to Boot Hill, Sally begs him to reconsider. Ignoring Sally's entreaties, Luke proceeds to Boot Hill and arrives unarmed. Filled with rage by the sight of his brother's killer, Charles slams Luke with a board, but when Luke refuses to defend himself, Sloane and the others break up the fight. After the mourners file past, Luke tells Doc that he owed it to Charles to let him avenge his brother and that he now wishes he had never killed Con. Luke finds Sally seated under her tree, and Sally, relieved that Luke is still alive, embraces him.
A 1958 American Western film directed by Gene Fowler Jr., produced by Harold E. Knox, written by Louis Vittes, cinematography by John M. Nickolaus Jr., starring Charles Bronson, Robert Hutton, John Carradine, Carole Mathews, Thomas Browne Henry, and Paul Maxey. Final screen appearance of Fintan Meyler. Released by 20th Century Fox.
Shot in late 1957, this film gave an early lead role to Charles Bronson, and was the first film in which Bronson receives top billing.
It was the first film in a series that Gene Fowler Jr. made for Robert L. Lippert's Regal Films. Fowler said "that Lippert experience was wonderful in a way because we had the run of the Fox lot; whatever sets happened to be still standing, we'd use those sets. My partner, Lou Vittes and I, would walk through those sets that had already been used for more expensive pictures than we could make and we would pretty much write the script around those sets."
Parts of the theme song sound similar to the theme from John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), starring John Wayne, James Stewart and Lee Marvin.
13 сен 2023
