After five years of searching, Brian Keith finally catches up with the rebel soldier that scalped him in the war (!) and entices him and his partner into teaming up for a proposed bank robbery that's really just a veiled attempt to get revenge.
However, the trio end up exchanging bullets with other bank robbers, accidentally killing the young son of the town pariah, a dance-hall girl dealing with gossip suggesting her boy was a bastard.
With no one else willing, Keith insists on escorting the mother and the boy's body through Apache country for burial beside his father.
The Deadly Companions is a downbeat first feature by Sam Peckinpah. It's passable entertainment but pretty much standard and nowhere near as good as his (highly recommended) second feature Ride The High Country, the classic The Wild Bunch, or the underrated Ballad Of Cable Hogue.
Brian Keith, Maureen O'Hara, and especially Chill Wills deliver good performances.
However, the trio end up exchanging bullets with other bank robbers, accidentally killing the young son of the town pariah, a dance-hall girl dealing with gossip suggesting her boy was a bastard.
With no one else willing, Keith insists on escorting the mother and the boy's body through Apache country for burial beside his father.
The Deadly Companions is a downbeat first feature by Sam Peckinpah. It's passable entertainment but pretty much standard and nowhere near as good as his (highly recommended) second feature Ride The High Country, the classic The Wild Bunch, or the underrated Ballad Of Cable Hogue.
Brian Keith, Maureen O'Hara, and especially Chill Wills deliver good performances.