The Deadly Companions
The Deadly Companions is a 1961 American Western and war film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Steve Cochran, and Chill Wills. Based on the novel of the same name by A. S. Fleischman, the film is about an ex-army soldier who accidentally kills a woman's son, and tries to make up for it by escorting the funeral procession through dangerous Indian territory. The Deadly Companions was Sam Peckinpah's motion picture directorial debut.
Plot
After her young son is killed in a bank robbery, the widowed dance-hall hostess Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara) is determined to bury him beside his father in Siringo, now deserted and located in Apache territory. Yellowleg (Brian Keith), the ex-army Northern sergeant who accidentally killed her son, decides to help take the body across the desert to be buried, whether Kit wants help or not. He forces the other two bank robbers — Turk, a Confederate deserter; and Billy, a gunslinger — to accompany them.
More details
author | Marion Parsonnet Sid Fleischman |
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contentLocation | Arizona |
director | Sam Peckinpah |
editor | Stanley Rabjohn |
genre | western |
keywords | abandon apache bank robbery bury confederate confederate states army follow kill long abandoned union widow |
musicBy | Marlin Skiles |
producer | Charles B. Fitzsimons |
productionCompany | Carousel Productions |
publisher | Warner Bros. Pictures |
theme | northern war |