Ride Beyond Vengeance

Ride Beyond Vengeance is a 1966 American Pathecolor Western film starring Chuck Connors.

Ride Beyond Vengeance
Theatrical poster.
Directed byBernard McEveety
Produced byAndrew J. Fenady
Screenplay byAndrew J. Fenady
Based on"The Night of the Tiger"
1956 novel
by Al Dewlen
StarringChuck Connors
Music byRichard Markowitz
CinematographyLester Shorr
Edited byOtho Lovering
Production
company
Mark Goodson-Bill Todman Productions
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • January 1965 (1965-01)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$650,000

The film was directed by Bernard McEveety and written and produced by Andrew J. Fenady, adapted from the story "The Night of the Tiger" by Al Dewlen. Glenn Yarbrough sang the title song vocals. It was released in January 1966. The budget was an estimated $650,000.

Plot

A census taker (James MacArthur) arrives in the Texas town of Cold Iron, with a population of 789. He goes into the local bar for a cold beer, and tells the bartender the town has an unusual number of citizens named "Jonas" and "Reprisal." He observes a painting above the bar of a violent street fight. He is then told of the events behind the fight involving a buffalo hunter and gunman named Jonas Trapp and the night the local Mexicans still call "The Night of the Reprisal" and "The Night of the Tiger", their name for Jonas.

In flashback, we learn that Jonas Trapp (Connors) is a poor cowboy in love with a wealthy woman named Jessie Larkin (Hays). They intend to marry despite the objections of her aunt (Ruth Warrick). The aunt sees Jonas as a man of no prospects and prefers she marry someone more substantial.

To gain the aunt's permission, Jessie pretends to be pregnant. Jonas marries her, but quickly tires of his dull life in town and being forced to live off his wife's money. He heads for the hills without her to become a buffalo hunter, hoping to amass enough money to give Jessie the life he feels she deserves, without her aunt's involvement. This is in direct contrast to TV Guide's review at the time that Jonas was a fortune-hunter after Jessie's money.

Jonas is gone for more than 10 years. He amasses a small fortune of his own and a reputation as a dangerous gunman who once traded shots with Clay Allison and walked away. He decides it is finally time to return home. On the trail, Jonas stumbles over the campfire of an obvious rustler and is ambushed by three men: Brooks Durham (Rennie), the local banker; John "Johnsy Boy" Hood (Bill Bixby), a sadistic young hustler with a love only of fine clothes and himself; and Coates (Claude Akins), a notorious drunk. They accuse him of being the rustler; and despite his denials, beat him, take his money, then brand him with a running iron and leave him for dead.

A farmer named Hanley finds Jonas and helps nurse him to health. Trapp, learning that his money has been stolen, is consumed by a desire for revenge and heads back for Cold Iron, where he learns from his father that Jessie's aunt has died and his wife is now engaged to another man - Brooks Durham. When Jessie encounters him on the street, her only reaction is anger over his abandonment, and fear that his return will spoil her prospects of remarriage.

In the course of his remaining in town, Jonas continues hunting for the men who branded him. He takes "Johnsy Boy" Hood on his way back from romancing the lonely wife of a local farmer (Gloria Grahame) in hopes of cheating her out of some money. Under the threat of being "branded and gelded" by Jonas, Hood's sanity cracks. He grabs the hot iron and rams it repeatedly into his stomach as he runs screaming into the woods. He later commits suicide.

Jonas also encounters the saloon bouncer (Buddy Baer), a giant of a man whom Jonas had met the night before. The bouncer doesn't like it that the town is laughing at him for letting Jonas leave the bar with a bottle of liquor that Jonas promised to pay for later, and now wants the money for the bottle Jonas took the day before. The resulting fight presages the subject of the painting seen in the framing sequence, and the bouncer is nearly beaten to death. Only the arrival of Jonas' father stops the fight.

Hanley is revealed as one of the rustlers involved with Coates. Coates kills Hanley when the old man denies having Jonas' money. Coates reasons that Durham must have it and tries a little blackmail. Durham threatens to kill Coates, telling him that he used to wear his gun tied to his leg, and he has used it on better men than Coates. But the alcoholic Coates is beyond reasoning. Jonas runs into Durham on the street, the last man on his list, but both are ambushed by Coates, who is on a drunken rampage. Coates is eventually beaten to a pulp by Jonas, then killed when he goes for his gun. That act of violence apparently takes the thirst for revenge out of Jonas and he leaves his now-empty 45 behind on the bar.

When Durham finally confesses to the town what he and the others did to Jonas and that he took the money, Jonas can only knock him down in disgust and walk away. He leaves the cash - and his need for revenge - behind.

The flashback ends with Jonas mounted up and on his way out of town. Jessie pleads with Jonas to stay, but he demurs and the scene ends with her standing in the street as she watches him ride off.

The film ends with the bartender showing off the pistol Jonas left behind. He and the census taker wonder if Jessie left with Jonas. The bartender wants to believe she did, but the census taker says she probably didn't, echoing the film's song, says "You can never go home again."

Cast

Also known as
  • Night of the Tiger
  • The Tiger Wore Guns (USA) (working title)
  • You Can't Ever Go Home Again (USA) (working title)

References
    This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.