Themes: Bank Robbery, Dishonor Among Thieves, Obsessive Quests
Main Cast: Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Steve Cochran, Chill Wills, Strother Martin
Release Year: 1961
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Sam Peckinpah's first feature as director is this modest Western, taking place in the late 1860s. Yellowleg (Brian Keith), a former sergeant in the Union army, is obsessed with tracking down Turk (Chill Wills), a Rebel army deserter who, during the War Between the States, tried to scalp him as he lay wounded on a battlefield. Yellowleg finds Turk and his sidekick Billy (Steve Cochran) in a cantina and convinces them to help him rob a bank. They journey to Gila City, where the bank is located, and find that another group of bank robbers are also in Gila City to rob the same bank. During a shoot-out with the other bank robbers, Yellowleg accidentally kills the nine-year-old son of dance-hall hostess Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara). Remorseful at having caused the death of Kit's son, Yellowleg forces Turk and Billy to accompany him through Apache territory to bury Kit's son at the gravesite of her husband in the ghost town of Siringo. When Billy attacks Kit, Yellowleg throws him out of their camp. Then Turk deserts. As Kit and Yellowleg finally reach Siringo, Yellowleg realizes that he is in love with her. But then, Billy and Turk reappear, having robbed the bank in Gila City, leading to a final confrontation between Yellowleg and Turk. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Will Wright - Doctor; Peter O'Crotty - Mayor; Big John Hamilton - Gambler; Chuck Hayward - Card Sharp; Riley Hill - Gambler; James O'Hara - Cal
Credit
Sam Peckinpah - Director, Stanley E. Rabjohn - Editor, Marlin Skiles - Composer (Music Score), Charles Fitzsimmons - Songwriter, Marlin Skiles - Songwriter, William H. Clothier - Cinematographer, Charles Fitzsimmons - Producer, David Koehler - Special Effects, Chuck Hayward - Stunts, A.S. Fleischman - Screenwriter, A.S. Fleischman - Book Author
After her young son is killed in a bank robbery, Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara) is determined to bury him beside his father in Siringo, now deserted and located in Apache territory. Yellowleg (Brian Keith), the ex-army officer who accidentally killed her son, agrees to help take the body across the desert to be buried.
Production
After the cancellation of his 1959-1960 television series The Westerner, Brian Keith was cast as the male lead in The Deadly Companions. He suggested Sam Peckinpah (the producer and director of The Westerner) as the director for this film, and producer Charles B. Fitzsimons accepted the idea. By most accounts, the low-budget film shot on location in Arizona was a learning process for Peckinpah, who feuded with Fitzsimons (brother of the film's star Maureen O'Hara) over the screenplay and staging of the scenes. Reportedly, Fitzsimons refused to let him give directions to O'Hara. Unable to rewrite the screenplay or edit the picture, Peckinpah vowed to never again direct a film unless he had script control. The Deadly Companions passed largely without notice and is the least known of Peckinpah's films.
