The Deadly Companions (1961)
Genre: Western
Duration: 93 minuten
Alternative title: Trigger Happy
Country:
United States
Directed by: Sam Peckinpah
Stars: Brian Keith, Maureen O'Hara and Steve Cochran
IMDb score:
6,0 (3.192)
Releasedate: 6 June 1961
The Deadly Companions plot
"ALONE... IN AN UNTAMED LAND -- WITH THREE MEN WHO FORCED THEIR WAY INTO HER LIFE!"
It's the late 1860s. Yellowleg, a former Union sergeant, is obsessed with tracking down Turk, a Confederate deserter. Turk wanted to scalp him when he was wounded on the battlefield during the American Civil War. Yellowleg finds Turk and his friend Billy Keplinger in a cantina. He convinces them to help him rob a bank in Gila City. The trio also encounters another group of bank robbers in Gila City who want to rob the same bank.
Actors and actresses
Kit Tilden
Yellowleg
Billy Keplinger
Turk
Parson
Doctor Acton
Cal, General Store
Mayor of Hila City
Mead Tildon Jr.
Card Sharp (uncredited)
Reviews & comments
Dogie Hogan
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- 13381 messages
- 788 votes
Immediately recognized Will Wright from The Blue Dahlia. That was from 1946, he already seemed old then; born old it seems. In this Western from '61 he is in his 60s and doesn't seem to have aged much.
Furthermore, largely agree with @Brix' review. Maureen O'Hara with Will Wright by far the strongest performance. I have no use for the (suicidal) Brian Keith, lacks charisma; seems like a clone of that George Peppard, also a typical 60s run-of-the-mill actor.
Poster again suggests a situation that is not in the movie, see also poster of Day of the Outlaw, etc..
Maureen was certainly no femme-fatale; leggy pictures of her are also very sporadically found on the Internet compared to her colleagues, for example. At most busty pics for her LPs.
I like the story, pace and length of this Western, and enough has been said about the music; completely out of tune.
Last sentence of plot could perhaps be better: "Yellowleg, however, encounters a recalcitrant Kit along the way and problems with Billy, Turk and the Apaches''
IMDb *6/10, mainly due to the contribution of Maureen O'Hara, who I have seen in this kind of roles before..
Translated from Dutch · View original
Roger Thornhill
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- 6195 messages
- 2546 votes
A somewhat laborious film because the good elements keep stumbling over irregularities in the script and production. The four main actors fit their roles perfectly (although many critics think that Maureen O'Hara is too old to play a "dance hall girl" and is therefore unbelievable), it all looks beautiful, and the way in which the two central plot lines (Brian Keith's revenge mission and Maureen O'Hara's journey) intersect is intriguing, but in between too many things happen that take me out of the film. The town never feels "real", the two companions strangely allow themselves to be bullied by Yellowleg while they know that he is not a (good) shot, it is absurd that Keith could just sneak into a camp with Apaches (even if the Indians are drunk), and burying an entire carriage in the desert seems to me a hell of a job and also ridiculous when you consider that a decent tracker would have noticed the traces of such an undertaking one-two-three. And I haven't even mentioned the excessive and inappropriate music... No, I wanted to see The deadly companions because Sam Peckinpah is credited as director, but his input is hard to discern in this film that is largely a project of O'Hara and her producing brother. (Strother Martin as the reverend?!?)
Translated from Dutch · View originalLatest News
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