Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea star in this tense and well made western from director Sam Peckinpah. McCrea is an ex-union solier who is hired to transport gold from a mining community and he meets up with an old friend (Randolph Scott) who goes along with him as well as his friends young apprentice (Ron Starr).
They stop at the house of a man (R.G. Armstrong) whose daughter (Mariette Hartley) is to be married to someone in the mining camp.
Along the way the men reminisce about their past adventures and it sounds like Scott and McCrea talking about their previous movies. It is always fun to watch and listen. When they arrive at the mining camp trouble ensues as Hartley changes her mind about marriage and the men decide to take her back home again.
The final of the film has Scott, McCrea and Starr fighting it out with the family of the jilted man, played by James Drury.
It was the final film for both men as movies were changing and westerns really were not a hot commodity anymore. Scott and McCrea are top notch and it is really a joy to watch them. Both play characters who are out dated in a changing world and are struggling to keep their lives in order.
Sam Peckinpah knew how to make movies, and as I have said here before he was my mothers boss for a few years and I did get to meet a lot of interesting people. If you haven't seen this film yet, watch it. It might just seem like it's you they are talking about. I know I can relate to both lead characters very well.
The rest of the cast includes Edagr Buchanan, L.Q. Jones, John Anderson and Warren Oates. One interesting side note is co-star Ron Starr is excellent in this film and for some reason his career stalled after one more film entitles "This Is Not A Test" which was also a good performance by him.
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