The
Deadly Companions
Movie Review
"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
