Today I watched -
GUNMAN'S WALK (1958) - starring Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Bobby Darrin, Kathryn Grant, Mickey Shaughnessy, Robert F. Simon, Edward Platt, and Ray Teal.
There be spoilers ahead.
Rich rancher Lee Hackett (Heflin) has two sons. Oldest son Ed (Hunter) is wild, brash, bullheaded, and hates being told what to do. Younger son Davey (Darrin) is quiet, introspective, peaceful, and progressive in thinking and actions (such as treating Native Americans with respect). Lee has raised his kids to do what they want....he forgives Ed any indiscretion (buying him out of trouble) but is resentful that Davey doesn't want to act like them.
In need of some temporary "riders" for a horse roundup....Ed and Davy go to the local reservation's store to hire some men. Half breed Clee Chouard (Grant) is working there. Ed, being the dick he is, makes crude comments to her while Davey is smitten and tries to put on his best for her. They hire 3 natives (one of them is Clee's brother, played by singer/actor Bert Convey) and go out on the roundup. Ed makes multiple racially insensitive comments to the Native Americans. Unlike many old westerns that made such comments without really understanding that they were being racist....they are made in this movie to show that Ed and his father are insensitive racists. One day while Ed and Clee's brother are racing to catch the same beautiful white stallion, Ed purposefully crowds Convey off a cliff where he dies from the fall. Ed rides back with the stallion unaware that the other two natives saw what happened. Ed gets back to camp and says he saw Bert accidently fall....the natives take the dead man back to the Indian Agent's office and prefer murder charges against Ed.
Sheriff Brill (Robert F. Simon) arrests Ed. At the trial, the 2 Native Americans give testimony against him, and have to endure multiple racial comments while doing it. Suddenly Jensen Sieverts (Ray Teal) speaks up. He says he was in the canyon and saw the whole thing (he wasn't) and that the natives were lying. It turns out that Sieverts had heard that Ed's father rewarded people who did him "favors"....so did this for some kind of reimbursement. Ed is found innocent. Ed talks to Sievert....tells him he knows he is lying and asks what he wants. He tells him he wants 10 horses. Ed's father arrives at that time and they tell him that they think they have rounded up 10 of Mr. Sievert's horses by mistake....he tells him to go down to the corral and pick them out.
Sievert goes to the corral, picks out 10 horses, including the white stallion that Ed brought I after killing the Indian. Ed's father tells him he must be mistaken about that one, but Sievert tells a story about it being his that he realizes is false and it suddenly dawns on him that Sievert lied at the trial. He lets him take the horses. As Sievert takes the horses through town, Ed sees him with the white stallion. He runs out and stops him saying he can't take that one. Sievert insists he earned it...and Ed shoots him out of the saddle. The sheriff comes to arrest him again....but this time Ed refuses to give up his gun and go with him. The sheriff walks out....and comes back with several deputies and shotguns. Ed's father talks them out of confronting him and says he will get his gun. He goes into the saloon where Ed is, and after a long talk where Ed insults his dad several times, his father manages to grab his gun and turn him over to the sheriff. Ed's brother Davey shows up with Clee (who he has been courting) and his dad tells him if he's going to run around with that dirty half breed to never come home again.
A short time later the sheriff and one of his deputies hear a noise from Ed's cell. They go in and see him hanging. As they start to cut him down, Ed grabs the sheriff's gun and clubs him with it. When the deputy tries to talk him out of escaping, Ed shoots him and kills him. The sheriff gathers a posse to go after him. Ed's father gets to him first....he tries to talk him into turning himself in. Ed keeps ranting about how great he is and how he can do what ever he wants....till his dad shoots him dead. When he brings Ed's body back to town....he walks over to Davey and Clee and then speaking to her very respectfully asks them to accompany him back to the ranch.
It's a good psychological drama more than a shoot them up. Good acting by Van Heflin as the dad and by Tab Hunter plying against type as an obnoxious bad guy.
