Ride Beyond Vengeance
Encyclopedia
Ride Beyond Vengeance is a 1966 western film. It stars Chuck Connors
, Michael Rennie
, Kathryn Hays
and Bill Bixby
.
The film was directed by Bernard McEveety
and produced by Andrew J. Fenady (written also by him) 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.
taker (James MacArthur
) arrives in the Texas town of Cold Iron, with a population of 754. When he goes into the local bar for a cold beer, he encounters the bartender and 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 Reprisals".
In flashback, we learn that Jonas Trapp is a poor cowboy in love with a wealthy woman named Jessie Larkin. They intend to marry despite the objections of her aunt (Gloria Grahame
). 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. 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.
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 fought 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, the local banker; John "Johnsey Boy" Hood, a sadistic young hustler with a love only of fine clothes and himself; and Coates, 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, she doesn't recognize him. She thinks he's just another "filthy, smelly animal" and runs away.
In the course of his remaining in town, Jonas continues hunting for the men who branded him. He takes "Johnsey-Boy" Hood on his way back from romancing the lonely wife of a local farmer 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. He doesn't like the town laughing at him and now wants the money for the bottle Jonas took. The resulting fight is the subject of the painting we saw 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, 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 tries for his gun. That act of violence apparently takes the thirst for revenge out of Jonas and he leaves his now-empty forty-five behind on the bar.
When Durham finally confesses to the town what he and the other 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. His invitation to Jessie to go with him 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."
Chuck Connors
Chuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
, Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie
Michael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
, Kathryn Hays
Kathryn Hays
Kathryn Hays is an American actress. She was born in Princeton, Illinois and grew up in Joliet, Illinois.In the 1966-1967 television season, Hays appeared as Elizabeth Reynolds Pride in the NBC western series The Road West, with co-stars Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine, Kelly Corcoran, and Glenn...
and Bill Bixby
Bill Bixby
Wilfred Bailey Everett “Bill” Bixby III was an American film and television actor, director, and frequent game show panelist.His career spanned over three decades; he appeared on stage, in motion pictures and TV series...
.
The film was directed by Bernard McEveety
Bernard McEveety
Bernard E. McEveety, Jr. was an American director.-Family:Born in New Rochelle, New York; his brothers, Vincent McEveety and Joseph McEveety were also Hollywood directors and producers...
and produced by Andrew J. Fenady (written also by him) from the story "The Night of the Tiger" by Al Dewlen. Glenn Yarbrough
Glenn Yarbrough
Glenn Yarbrough is an American folk singer. He was the lead singer with The Limeliters between 1959 and 1963, and had a prolific solo career, recording on various labels.-Biography:...
sang the title song vocals. It was released in January 1966. The budget was an estimated $650,000.
Plot
A censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
taker (James MacArthur
James MacArthur
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...
) arrives in the Texas town of Cold Iron, with a population of 754. When he goes into the local bar for a cold beer, he encounters the bartender and 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 Reprisals".
In flashback, we learn that Jonas Trapp is a poor cowboy in love with a wealthy woman named Jessie Larkin. They intend to marry despite the objections of her aunt (Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
). 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. 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.
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 fought Clay Allison
Clay Allison
Clay Allison was a Texas cattle rancher and gunfighter. He is one of the best known historic figures of the American Old West.-Early life:...
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, the local banker; John "Johnsey Boy" Hood, a sadistic young hustler with a love only of fine clothes and himself; and Coates, 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, she doesn't recognize him. She thinks he's just another "filthy, smelly animal" and runs away.
In the course of his remaining in town, Jonas continues hunting for the men who branded him. He takes "Johnsey-Boy" Hood on his way back from romancing the lonely wife of a local farmer 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
Buddy Baer
Jacob Henry "Buddy" Baer was an American boxer. In 2003, Baer was chosen for the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time...
), a giant of a man whom Jonas had met the night before. He doesn't like the town laughing at him and now wants the money for the bottle Jonas took. The resulting fight is the subject of the painting we saw 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, 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 tries for his gun. That act of violence apparently takes the thirst for revenge out of Jonas and he leaves his now-empty forty-five behind on the bar.
When Durham finally confesses to the town what he and the other 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. His invitation to Jessie to go with him 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
- Chuck ConnorsChuck ConnorsChuck Connors was an American actor, writer, and professional basketball and baseball player. His best known role from his forty-year film career was Lucas McCain in the 1960s ABC hit Western series The Rifleman....
as Jonas Trapp, the Tiger - Michael RennieMichael RennieMichael Rennie was an English film, television, and stage actor, perhaps best known for his starring role as the space visitor Klaatu in the 1951 classic science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still. However, he appeared in over 50 other films since 1936, many with Jean Simmons and other...
as Brooks Durham - Joan BlondellJoan BlondellRose Joan Blondell was an American actress who performed in movies and on television for five decades as Joan Blondell.After winning a beauty pageant, Blondell embarked upon a film career...
as Mrs. Lavender - Kathryn HaysKathryn HaysKathryn Hays is an American actress. She was born in Princeton, Illinois and grew up in Joliet, Illinois.In the 1966-1967 television season, Hays appeared as Elizabeth Reynolds Pride in the NBC western series The Road West, with co-stars Barry Sullivan, Andrew Prine, Kelly Corcoran, and Glenn...
as Jessie Larkin Trapp - Claude AkinsClaude AkinsClaude Marion Akins was an American actor with a long career on stage, screen and television.Powerful in appearance and voice, Akins could be counted on to play the clever tough guy, on the side of good or bad, in movies and television. He is best remembered as Sheriff Lobo in the 1970s TV series...
as Elwood Coates - Gloria GrahameGloria GrahameGloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
as Bonnie Shelley - Gary MerrillGary MerrillGary Fred Merrill was an American film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances....
as Dub Stokes - Bill BixbyBill BixbyWilfred Bailey Everett “Bill” Bixby III was an American film and television actor, director, and frequent game show panelist.His career spanned over three decades; he appeared on stage, in motion pictures and TV series...
as Johnsy Boy Hood - Paul FixPaul FixPaul Fix was an American film and television character actor, best known for his work in westerns. Fix appeared in more than a hundred movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career spanning from 1925 to 1981...
as Hanley - Marisa Mathes as Maria (as Marrisa Mathes)
- Harry HarveyHarry Harvey (actor)Harry Harvey was an American actor.- Career :Born in Indian Territory, U.S.. Was a film character actor, he has more 300 appeared in television series and movies...
as Vogan (as Harry Harvey Sr.) - William BryantWilliam Bryant (actor)-Career:Born in Los Angeles, California, U.S.., Bryant was a character actor who appeared in films such as King Dinosaur , Escape from San Quentin , Experiment in Terror , with Glenn Ford, How to Murder Your Wife and The Great Race with Jack Lemmon, What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? , McQ ,...
as Bartender - Jamie FarrJamie FarrJamie Farr is an American television, film, and theater actor. He is best known for having played the role of cross-dressing Corporal Maxwell Q. Klinger in the television sitcom M*A*S*H.-Early life:...
as Pete the Blacksmith - Frank GorshinFrank GorshinFrank John Gorshin, Jr. was an American actor and comedian. He was perhaps best known as an impressionist, with many guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show...
as Tod Wisdom - Larry Domasin as The Mexican Boy
- Bill Catching as Drunk (as William Catching)
- Robert Q. LewisRobert Q. LewisRobert Q. Lewis was an American radio and television personality, game show host, and actor. Lewis added the middle initial "Q." to his name accidentally on the air in 1942, when he responded to a reference to radio comedian F. Chase Taylor's character, Colonel Lemuel Q...
as The Hotel Clerk - James MacArthurJames MacArthurJames Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...
as The Census Taker - Arthur O'ConnellArthur O'ConnellArthur O'Connell was an American stage and film actor. He appeared in films in 1941 and television programs...
as The Narrator - Ruth WarrickRuth WarrickRuth Elizabeth Warrick , DM, was an American singer, actress and political activist, best known for her role as Phoebe Tyler on All My Children, which she played regularly from 1970 until her death in 2005....
as Aunt Gussie - Buddy BaerBuddy BaerJacob Henry "Buddy" Baer was an American boxer. In 2003, Baer was chosen for the Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time...
as Mr. Kratz
Also known as
- Night of the Tiger
- The Tiger Wore Guns (USA) (working title)
- You Can't Ever Go Home Again (USA) (working title)