Lawman

Synopsis: While passing through the town of Bannock, a bunch of drunken, trail-weary cattlemen go overboard with their celebrating and accidentally kill an old man with a stray shot. They return home to Sabbath unaware of his death. Bannock lawman Jered Maddox later arrives there to arrest everyone involved on a charge of murder. Sabbath is run by land baron Vince Bronson, a benevolent despot, who, upon hearing of the death, offers restitution for the incident. Maddox, however, will not compromise even though small ranchers like Vern Adams are not in a position to desert their responsibilities for a long and protracted trial. Sabbath's marshal, Cotton Ryan, is an aging lawman whose tough reputation rests on a single incident that occurred years before. Ryan admits to being only a shadow of what he once was and incapable of stopping Maddox. Maddox confides to Ryan that Bannock's judicial system is weak and corrupt, and while he's doubtful that anyone he brings back will suffer more than the price
Genre: Western
Director(s): Michael Winner
Production: MGM
 
IMDB:
7.0
Rotten Tomatoes:
80%
R
Year:
1971
99 min
Website
441 Views


Whoo-ha!

Ha ha ha!

Hey!

Choctaw!

Let her burn,

boys!

...and I hate

storekeeper's whiskey!

Have 'em mount up,

Harv.

Oh, my god!

Get 'em out of here.

Gimme that!

Sober up,

Choctaw!

Mount up!

We're ridin' back

to Sabbath now.

Yep.

Whoa. Whoa.

Aw, stay still.

Hyah!

Here.

It's my brother-in-law,

Marc Corman.

Who?

I'm Jered Maddox.

Cotton Ryan.

You the marshal?

What can I do for you,

Maddox?

Vincent Bronson,

Choctaw Lee,

Jack Dekker,

Vern Adams,

Hurd Price,

Harvey Stenbaugh,

Marc Corman.

Know any of 'em?

All of 'em.

Well,

that makes it easy.

Does it?

I want these men

brought in under arrest

by noon tomorrow.

I want 'em fed

and ready for travel.

You got papers sworn out?

I'll get 'em

if you need 'em.

Not from anybody in this

territory, you won't.

You've got jurisdiction.

I've got jurisdiction,

but you couldn't

have reason enough

to get papers from me.

Nobody could.

across the Kiowa.

On the way back, they hit

a town called bannock.

They drank their fill,

had their women,

shot up the town.

All just cowboy fun.

They killed an old man.

Kin?

No.

I'm just the lawman

in bannock.

Look at this town.

Nice quiet town.

Nice town to live in.

They got no railhead,

no digging up in the hills,

no reason to grow fat.

This town eats

because Vincent Bronson

puts their bread

on the table.

He owns the town.

He owns the county.

People around here owe him.

Those men on your list...

they stand in Bronsons shadow.

I can't move against

those men.

You carry the law.

Humph. I carry nothin'.

I sit there 'cause

Bronson says sit.

I've been paid for, Maddox.

You carry messages,

don't you?

I'm gonna take these men

back with me

or kill them

where they stand.

They got till

noon tomorrow.

Tell 'em.

That one of them

out there?

Corman.

You can take his name

off the list.

What happened?

He called me out.

What's the trouble?

What happened, marshal?

Better come inside, Sam.

One of you take Corman

to the undertaker's

and the rest of you

go on about your business.

As a member of

the citizens council...

you can get it secondhand

from the mayor.

How far from here

to the Bronson spread?

I wouldn't know.

Who's he, some

bounty hunter

or something?

Don't make an enemy

of him, storekeeper.

Step wide of him.

That's about it,

Mr. Bronson.

He said by noon

tomorrow.

And Marc Corman's

dead?

He's dead.

How'd it happen?

Came up against

the wrong man.

I don't know

the details.

Marc was a good man

with a gun.

He was a big mouth

who thought he was

a good man with a gun.

There's a cold hole

in the ground

between the 2 of 'em.

His family know?

I sent word.

I'll ride out there

in the morning.

How do you measure

this thing, cotton?

I think you got trouble,

Mr. Bronson.

Unless you say

he's all mistaken.

I wish he was.

There's no mistake.

We got a little drunk,

broke a bit of glass.

I didn't know

anyone was killed.

Tell Maddox Im sorry,

really sorry,

and Ill make it good.

I'll pay the damages.

I'll fix it up with

the old man's family.

Tell him Ill make it

all right with him, too.

Better still, arrange

a meeting tomorrow.

Ill... Ill deal

straight with him.

If he doesn't

want to talk?

Why shouldn't he?

Some men just

go to a thing

in a straight line,

Mr. Bronson.

They don't bend,

and they don't trade.

You're telling me

Maddox is like that?

He's got the mark.

That's too bad.

Then he's going to buy

himself a lot of pain.

Try him, cotton.

Talk to him.

He got you spooked, Ryan?

No, Harv.

I'm not on his list.

That all, Mr. Bronson?

Yeah.

All right, Harv.

Chew it out.

I don't like

askin' favors.

No one's asking you

to bend your knee,

Harv.

Just to talk.

Some worn-out tin star

wouldn't rate

cuttin' your cigars.

Ryan doesn't

rate him that low.

Ryan's a kicked dog.

Well, maybe that's

what makes him

a better judge of men

like Maddox.

There was a time...

it's in the past,

Harv.

What do you want to do,

ride into Sabbath

and gun him down?

Those days have passed.

Times have changed.

There are other ways.

You buy him.

And if he doesn't sell,

you buy the man above him.

Those killing days

were for younger men.

I'm on that list,

Vince.

I'm not ridin' his dust

back to bannock.

Neither am I.

The others

will be here soon.

I'd send

Jason and Crowe.

We'll talk then.

We don't need

the others.

We'll talk.

It's your land.

It's your grass.

You've never been

on wages, Harv.

What's out there

is as much yours

as mine.

Jered?

Hello, Laura.

Can I come in?

Sure.

It don't seem 10 years.

To me, it does.

Won't you sit down?

You look good, Laura.

You're a soft-tongued liar.

You live in Sabbath?

Near. What... what are you

doing here?

Oh.

That's not

an honest question.

I know what

you're doing here.

I was in town

getting some supplies,

and I heard about it.

Do you think you owe me

anything, Jered?

Say it out plain,

Laura.

My man,

Hurd Price,

he's one of the men

you want.

I guess it had to be

something like that.

He work for Bronson?

No.

We have a small farm

between here

and the high country,

and he takes work

from Bronson

when he can get it.

Let him go, Jered.

He never shot anybody.

He stands with the rest.

Sorry, Laura.

The hell you are.

Nobody has to die.

Just tell him to come into town

and give himself up.

What will happen to him

then?

He'll go back to bannock

and stand trial.

Will they hang him?

Circuit judge

is no hanging judge.

In fact, a man like Bronson

could buy him cheap.

I don't... I don't mean

just the judge.

I mean the town,

the good people with the rope.

My town, Laura.

Nobody gets a mob rope

in my town.

You know that.

I give you my word.

If he comes in peaceful,

there will be no hurt

come to him.

You never did

give much away.

Would you come, Laura,

if your man hadn't

been on the list?

No.

There's nothing left over

from before, Jered.

Good-bye.

He has until tomorrow.

I called you in 'cause

we've got trouble.

You remember last spring

we took a herd over

the Kiowa.

We hit a town called bannock

on the way back.

Do you recall?

None too clearly.

We shot up the town.

Seems an old man

took a bullet.

We thought it was nothing

but a lot of broken glass,

but...

seems now it's a bit more.

Now, the hard point

of the matter

is there's a lawman

the name of Maddox

in Sabbath.

Figures to take us back

and stand trial for murder.

One lawman?

Ryan thinks he's enough.

Cotton Ryan.

Choctaw, you may not

think much of Ryan

as he stands now,

but...

in his day, you couldn't walk

in the same sun as him.

Hey, where's

Marc Corman?

Marc Corman's

dead.

Corman's dead

'cause he called short

on this Maddox.

Marc Corman's dead?

I called ya here to hear

what you have to say.

Well, Vern?

I don't know,

Mr. Bronson.

I don't want trouble,

I appreciate ya askin' us

here for our opinion,

but it seems to me you got

some choice, and I don't.

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Gerald Wilson

Gerald Stanley Wilson (September 4, 1918 – September 8, 2014) was an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer/arranger, and educator. Born in Mississippi, he was based in Los Angeles from the early 1940s. In addition to being a band leader, Wilson wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Ray Charles, Julie London, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Carter, Lionel Hampton, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and Nancy Wilson. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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