Pretty Good

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

"Deadly Companions" is an early western directed by the legendary Sam Peckinpah. Brian Keith plays a former Union soldier who has taken up with a grizzled old Reb (Chill Wills) and a young gunsel (Steve Cochran), ostensibly to rob a bank. A shootout occurs when someone else hits the bank, during which Keith's character misses his target and kills a young boy. When the boy's mother (Maureen O'Hara) announces that she is going to transport the body to a cemetery in an abandoned town in the middle of Apache country, Keith's character decides to accompany her as a form of atonement. The movie starts out strongly, establishing Keith's and O'Hara's characters and setting up the 'road trip' to the cemetery, but falters somewhat as the group trek through the desert. The conclusion is good, albeit it somewhat predictable, and more 'realistic' than the typical Westerns climax. Although far from Peckinpah's best work, the film presages his masterpiece "The Wild Bunch", particularly in Keith's partially disabled veteran, the realistic gunplay, the suddenness of death, and the general melancholy of the story. All in all, a bit uneven but the good outweighs the bad (IMO), making this a watchable film from the man who, over the next decade, would direct some of the best Westerns ever made.

Spoilers Ahead, Most definitely.A man accidentally kills a woman's son & to make up for it, he escorts her & her son's coffin through dangerous Indian territory??? I don't know about you but if somebody killed my son, accidentally or not, I'd be seething with rage.I wouldn't want them to escort me anywhere because any chance I'd get, I'd probably end up trying to kill them.The thing that truly surprises me is that she falls in love with him in the end, WOW!!! I kinda figured that was going to happen.Anywayz, The Deadly Companions was OK.Nothing great at all.It's watchable but I imagine if you watch it once, once is enough.Nothing really happens & it's almost boring at times.I think I might have even fell asleep watching it.In my opinion, the best thing about The Deadly Companions was Chill Wills & Steve Cochran as Turk & Billy.They were perfect together & at times, hilarious.It's a shame they turned on each other at the finale but that's what thieves do.I'd say watch it if you have the chance to see it for free but if you miss it, I don't think you're missing much

I wonder if director Pekinpah didn't find himself in a liminal state when he directed this first feature -- somewhere between the strictures of the television Western series like "The Rifleman" and the wildly expressive feature films that were to come.A trio of would-be bank robbers ride into an uptight little Western town and the leader, Brian Keith, shoots and kills Maureen O'Hara's little boy. O'Hara, despised as a "dance hall girl", is determined to see her boy buried with his father in a crumbling and deserted adobe village on the other side of Apache country. Out of guilt, Keith decides to accompany her, dragging his two reluctant, low-life compañeros along. One of them, Steve Cochran, dressed in black and accessorized in red and white, is a cocky gunslinger. The other, Chill Wills, in a bulky, ratty buffalo robe, is completely daft.Brian Keith is the leader and the hero but he smacks of the small screen. He's taciturn, determined, grim, dignified, decent. Just like Chuck Connors in "The Rifleman" or Marshal Dillon in "Gunsmoke." That's the pattern that Pekinpah was leaving behind. Other hallmarks appear briefly -- cruel children, a community ritual interrupted by hooligans, residual Civil War resentments.The Pekinpah that was to come is represented by Cochran and Wills. Cochran is a little treacherous, but Wills, having gotten his hands on that bank money, is determined to establish his own kingdom in Apache country, just like those Texas fellers at the Alamo or the Fredonian Rebellion. "I got me this general's cap to wear and we'll have lots of gold braid." He's entirely serious, just like the the Hammond brothers, who believe in polyandrous marriages, in "Ride the High Country." Keith can be an appealing actor but he's not given much to do except play the stereotype. And he's not a convincing drunk. Cochran is as slimy as he usually is, and Wills looks positively flea ridden, a big, shaggy, cheerfully lunatic dog. Maureen O'Hara -- whose brothers appear as producer and undertaker -- was forty and mostly miscast. She's all gussied up at the beginning as a whore, and looks not so hot. And for the first hour or so, her character is angry and bitter, and that's not Maureen O'Hara's shtick. She's marvelous when she plays herself, chipper, unpretentious, and no nonsense. Later, on the trail, she's dusty and disheveled. The war paint is gone. Her mature but fresh beauty is more evident and she gets to deploy an enthralling smile.Overall, the story has a lot of loose ends and meanders all over the place. It's pretty dull until the climax finally brings about some resolutions. When the duo are alone, buggylugging that coffin across the desert, the movie looks like a dramatization of someone preparing a Swanson's frozen dinner.

Yellowleg is a veteran Civil War Yankee officer.He saves the cheater Turk in a card game.Together with a gunslinger Billy Keplinger they ride to Gila City with a bank robbery in mind.There some bandits rob a store and Yellowleg accidentally kills the son of the cabaret dancer Kit Tilden.She has determined to bury her son in the Apache country Siringo, where her husband is buried.Yellowleg has determined to take her and her son there, even though she doesn't want his help.The Deadly Companions (1961) marks the directorial debut of Sam Peckinpah.This is also the least known of his movies.But it is a good movie nevertheless.I enjoyed watching the work of Maureen O'Hara, who turned 90 last month.Her role as Kit Tilden, the mother who has lost her child, is memorable.There's a lot of depth in Brian Keith's acting and his character Yellowleg.Steve Cochran is terrific as Billy.And so is Chill Wills as Turk.Strother Martin does great job as Parson.James O'Hara (Maureen's brother) plays Cal, General Store.Billy Vaughan is Mead Tilden Jr.One of the finest moments in this movie is when Yellowleg shows his scar under his hat, the scar he got when a man tried to scalp him during the war.Also a great moment is when the Apache soldier is causing some trouble.A good start for Sam Peckinpah.