New Mexico

This is a small scale western, but with some skillful acting and directing that make it seem a tad better than one might expect. Keith is a wandering ex-Union soldier who comes across a grizzled old outlaw whose being hanged for cheating at cards. He, for unknown reasons, saves the man (played with effective nastiness by Wills) and commandeers him and his pal Cochran to a town where a bank is ripe for robbing. There, the trio runs into O'Hara and her harmonica-playing young son. Circumstances lead to Keith offering to help O'Hara cross hostile Apache territory to visit the grave of her husband. Along the way, his motives for saving Wills are exposed, along with some of his insecurities (such as why he won't remove his hat.) O'Hara (who also sings the opening song) and Keith have undeniable chemistry (shown to greater effect in their simultaneous pairing "The Parent Trap", but still on display here, albeit in a more somber way.) It takes a while before the characters are really cared about, but once they are, the story takes on greater meaning. Cochran (displaying a still fit figure at 44) is appropriately slimy. Debits would include the rather small amount of "savage, terrifying Indians" (they are creepy and a little threatening, but there isn't quite enough menace to make them as threatening as one might like) a few continuity gaffes in the editing and the deadly, intrusive, lame, often inappropriate musical score. The music in this film detracts from the visuals and actually serves to cheapen the film. It sounds like someone told Porter Wagoner to pretend he was Phantom of the Prairie and play funereal organ music with the occasional hint of "gee-tar". Awful. One sequence, in particular, stands out. O'Hara stands guard in a cavern lit by a hole in the top of it and is gradually descended upon by an attacker. The charm of the stars takes this a long way, but be warned...there aren't many smiles in this one.

Produced by Maureen O'Hara's brother,in order to recharge his sister's career,Sam Peckinpah did not like this film.O' Hara sings on the cast and credits and at the end of the movie.It's strange to see this par excellence Fordian heroine on Peckinpah's territory.

But you do not have to be a Peckinpah fan to enjoy this crepuscular western (Peckinpah is not my cup of tea as far as western are concerned;give me Ford,Daves,Walsh,Mann instead).If there had been problems between the director and his star,the movie did not suffer for it.

It is a good western but be warned: it's a gloomy one.The story begins with the death of a dancehall girl's child ("He was all I loved in this world" she would say later).THe movie looks like a long funeral ;it's a long way to the place where the boy must be buried in his father's grave.It's difficult to tackle a sadder subject.

Another great moment is O'Hara's and Keith's arrival in the ghost town,searching for the grave.Often filmed at dusk or in the darkest night,this film is also a story of redemption,of forgiveness.

The veteran Civil War Yankee officer Yellowleg (Brian Keith) saves the cheater Turk (Chill Wills) in a card game, and together with the gunslinger Billy Keplinger (Steve Cochran), they ride together to Gila City with the intention of heisting a bank. Yellowleg has a war scar on the head due to a man that tried to scalp him and his has been on the trail of his attacker for five years. When bandits rob a store, Yellowleg shoots against the outlaws and accidentally kills the son of the cabaret dancer Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara) and the grieving woman decides to bury her son in the Apache country Siringo, where her husband is also buried. Yellowleg calls Billy and Turk to escort Kitty through the dangerous land.

"The Deadly Companions" is the first feature of the great director Sam Peckinpah after six years directing Westerns for television. The credible story is a tale of revenge and redemption with flawed characters. Forty-one year old Maureen O'Hara is extremely gorgeous in the role of a widow humiliated by the locals after the death of her unknown husband and her survival as "dancer" of a cabaret with her son considered bastard by the population. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Parceiros da Morte" ("Partners of Death")

Peckinpah is getting to what he later mastered in movies such as Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid; outlaws with deep emotional scars who live in the past and wander around like the Flying Dutchman. The scar is made physical as Yellowleg is unable to raise his arm when shooting, which leads to a tragic accident. In Deadly Companions we also see similar character as Bob Dylan played in Pat Garrett; the little boy playing his harmonica. Deadly Companions is a bit clumsy a movie, sometimes it is difficult to see what is actually going on, but the story is good and the characters are real. It's a must see for Peckinpah fans.

This film is best seen as an apprentice work, falling neatly between Peckinpah's TV work (The Rifleman etc), and the string of Western masterpieces that began with Guns in The Afternoon/Ride the High Country. For the only time in the director's work there is no sense of the 'old West' passing, as Peckinpah still works broadly within the established Western tradition - one which he would shortly transform and make his own.

Brian Keith and O'Hara work surprisingly well together, even though in the light of the director's later work the insistance upon a strong and sympathetic female co-lead seems uncharacteristic. Apparently Maureen O'Hara's role in producing the film influenced the emphasis and development of her role.

The film suffers from a poverty of budget (most noticeable in the opening scenes where the bar room appears cramped and two dimensional), as well as over-insistent musical score - one which occasionally detracts from the rhythm of the film. The trademark Peckinpah montage editing has yet to make itself felt and, very unusually for this director, the first few moments of the film seem (to this viewer) slightly rushed and confusing - almost as if Peckinpah is just finding his feet, sketching on a larger canvas than he had previously been used to.

Peckinpah fans will find much to enjoy here, though: the character of 'Turkey' (played by Chill Wills) is as colourful and as rounded as any of the minor low-life characters that appear in the later films. He even hides a 'Major Dundee' military cap under his coat, - in retrospect one which can be seen as an appropriate cinematic "embryo". Even with a limited budget, the film is always in safe hands, the story intriguing and ironic. Riding into town, the desperate trio see a group of children playing and mildly tormenting each other - another Peckinpah trademark. When the desperadoes are confronted by a frontier prayer meeting, the anticipation of the grander meeting at the beginning of 'The Wild Bunch' is obvious. The preacher is in fact the first in a long line of religious failures and bigots featuring in Peckinpah's films.

Perhaps the biggest surprise to those used to Peckinpah's work is the lack of violence (even the end shoot out, although effective, is somewhat muted). Peckinpah, it seems, had yet to discover the stylistic hallmark which later was to mark his career in controversy.