John Sturges

An ex-bounty hunter reluctantly helps a wealthy landowner and his henchmen track down a Mexican revolutionary leader. Joe Kidd (Clint Eastwood) is a former bounty hunter and all-around tough-guy in the American southwest. When a band of Mexicans find their U.S. land claims denied and all relevant records destroyed in a courthouse fire, they turn to force-of-arms. Luis Chama (John Saxon) is their charismatic leader, spouting revolutionary rhetoric and demanding land reform. A wealthy landowner with interests in the disputed area, Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall), decides to settle things his own way. He hires a band of killers and wants Joe Kidd to help them track Chama. Initially, Kidd wants to avoid any involvement, until Chama makes the mistake of stealing Kidd's horses and terrorizing his friends. —Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>

Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton gang in a fight. In revenge, Clanton's thugs kill the Marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.

A Eurasian photographer uses his women in an attempt to get American nationality. Laurence Harvey plays an Eurasian photographer who is trapped in Japan but wants to emigrate to the United States. His visa is continually delayed, which causes him to use his charm with women to pull some strings and apply some pressure on the embassy. His romantic magnetism works on a thrill-seeking American and an aristocratic Japanese woman. —Anonymous

An experienced gunslinger forms a team with six other men in order to save a Mexican village from a group of bandits led by Calvera. However, each of the seven men have their own plan. Based on the classic Japanese film - Seven Samurai , directed by Akira Kurosawa.

During WW2, the American OSS mounts covert operations with the native Kachin against the Japanese army in the jungles of Burma. Captain Tom Reynolds and his band of skilled OSS operatives are in WWII Burma to arm and train the Kachin natives. But jungle combat, particularly against a Japanese army as familiar with the terrain as the Kachin, is hazardous. Some respite is found during leaves in the arms of beautiful gold digger Carla, but after Chinese raiders cross the border to loot and murder American soldiers, Reynolds abandons all notions of "military protocol" and seeks requital.

An attractive American Indian woman and her young son are in a wagon, passing through a secluded, wooded area. They nervously pass by two dismounted, shiftless cowboys who are killing time by guzzling whiskey. The woman glances apprehensively over her shoulder as the two men mount up and follow along. As the men draw even with the buggy, they begin harassing the woman, asking her to stop and have a drink with them. She picks up a buggy whip and lashes one of the cowboys, Rick Belden (Earl Holliman), across the face, then whips her horse into a dead run. With the drunken cowboys in hot pursuit, the speeding wagon careens over onto its side and throws the woman and boy out. The woman frantically orders the boy to flee as the leering cowboys strip off her clothes and assault her. The boy takes one of the cowboys' horses and escapes. He gallops into the nearby town where his dad, Marshal Matt Morgan (Kirk Douglas) is busy entertaining some local urchins with tall tales from the "old days." Morgan rushes out into the street to meet the distraught boy, who can't verbalize what just took place. Morgan mounts up on the horse with his son and races back in the direction of the overturned wagon. Morgan discovers the nude body of his wife, who has been raped and murdered. He tearfully recovers her body and returns to the waiting horse, when he notices that the animal carries a beautiful silver-trimmed saddle emblazoned with the initials "CB." Morgan recognizes the initials. Later that same day, Rick Belden is drinking whiskey at a saloon in the town of Gun Hill. One of the saloon girls notices the deep cut on his face from the whiplash he received earlier. She teases him, saying that it does her good to see him getting scratched for a change. Belden slaps her to the floor and drunkenly confronts the startled saloon patrons who object to his behavior. Before anything worse can take place, a ranch hand named Beero (Brad Dexter) enters the saloon and tells young Belden that his father wants to see him immediately. It seems that the hotheaded Rick took something of his father's without permission. The men return to the Belden ranch where Rick is confronted about the missing saddle by his father, Craig Belden (Anthony Quinn). Rick lies and claims that their horses were stolen along with the valuable saddle. When his father notices the deep laceration on his son's face, he beams proudly and makes light of it. Beero sarcastically remarks that Rick would do better to fight with men. An offended Craig Belden goads his weakling son into fighting Beero and defending the Belden family name. Rick tries to beg off, but Craig insists. Beero easily fends off the hapless Rick, knocking him to the floor twice before Craig stops the fight. Craig Belden is revealed to be a tough, self-made and ruthless patriarch whose blind tolerance of his son's outrageous behavior has already ruined the boy. Having identified the fancy saddle, Marshal Morgan explains to his deceased wife's Indian father that he and Craig Belden are old friends. The old man wants revenge, and Morgan vows to get it. He then boards the train to Gun Hill to return the saddle and ask Belden which of his men were involved in his wife's murder. On the train, he meets a woman named Linda (Carolyn Jones). She recognizes the saddle and warns him about Craig Belden and his powerful influence in Gun Hill. When the train arrives, Beero is waiting to take Linda straight to Belden's ranch. She declines and checks into a hotel instead. When Morgan steps off the train with the saddle, Beero confronts him. Morgan tells him to let Belden know he is coming. Morgan hires a rig and starts out for the Belden ranch. Beero has already ridden ahead and warned Belden that someone is on the way with his saddle. An enraged Belden arrives at the ranch house and is shocked to encounter his old friend Matt Morgan. They drink to old times and Belden discloses that although he has become prosperous, he lost his wife nine years ago. Now it is just him and his son. Morgan inquires how the saddle had gotten lost and Belden tells him that his son Rick and a friend named Lee Smithers (Brian Hutton) had passed through Pawley (Marshal Morgan's town) a few days ago. He explains that they were drinking in a saloon on Sunday when someone stole their horses and saddles. Morgan tells him that his wife was murdered that same day, and that one of the murderers was using Belden's silver saddle. Belden offers to help in any way he can and asks Morgan how we will be able to identify the killers. Morgan explains that his nine-year-old son had been present that day, and that he had witnessed his mother lashing one of the men's cheek open to the bone. A sudden look of recognition crosses Belden's face, and Morgan sees it. He accuses Belden's son of the crime, explaining that neither of the town's saloons are open on Sunday, making Rick Belden a liar. Belden nervously tries to deny his son's involvement and warns Morgan to leave Rick alone and get out of town at once. Morgan replies that he will be on the last train out of Gun Hill at 9 PM, but that Rick and his friend will be going with him to stand trial. Back in town, Morgan gets no cooperation from the citizens of Gun Hill. They are terrified of Craig Belden, who owns half the town. The corrupt sheriff makes it clear that he won't help. Belden confronts his son and Lee, telling them just who it was that they killed. They claim that the death of Morgan's wife was an accident, and then dismiss her as "just an Indian squaw." Belden angrily banishes Lee from his ranch and warns Rick that Matt Morgan is no one to trifle with. Rick protests that he isn't afraid and rashly insists on going into town. Craig Belden insists that he take Beero and another man along. Morgan searches the town for Rick, but runs into immediate resistance. One of three men seated in front of a saloon remarks that he wouldn't arrest any man for killing an Indian; they would pay him a bounty instead. Morgan knocks him out with a forearm to the jaw. The other two men decline to test him. In the saloon, a friendly bartender warns him to leave Rick alone. The only person willing to help Morgan is former saloon girl (and Craig Belden's erstwhile mistress) Linda. She advises Morgan to look for Rick in the saloon across the street. Morgan stealthily climbs up the side of the building and sneaks in the window of an upstairs bedroom, where a startled saloon girl is sleeping. Simultaneously, Rick interrupts his card game and heads upstairs to pay a visit to the girl. Morgan gets the jump on him and knocks him out cold with the butt of his gun. He heaves Rick across his shoulder and starts down the stairs, gun drawn. Two saloon employees go for their shotguns before Morgan shoots them down. He orders Rick's cardplaying friends into a store room, but one of them ducks behind a table to fight back. Morgan fires through the table and wounds him, then locks everyone up in the store room. Out on the street, he runs into the corrupt sheriff, who doesn't challenge him but tells him he will never get away with it. Morgan goes into a hotel and forcibly coerces the reluctant manager into giving him a room. He handcuffs Rick to the bed and settles in to wait on the 9 o'clock train. Belden soon arrives with twenty men and tries to reason with Morgan. When it becomes obvious that Morgan is serious about putting Rick on the train, Belden orders his men to open fire through the windows of Morgan's hotel room. Shots rain in from the surrounding rooftops, but Morgan returns fire and kills two of Belden's men. He also shoves the bed holding Rick in front of one window, limiting Belden's options. Belden is afraid to rush the room and possibly wound his son. Belden enters the saloon and confronts Linda about not returning to his ranch. It is revealed that she has been away at a hospital recovering from a beating administered by Craig Belden. She complains that Rick constantly makes up lies about her, fueling Craig's jealousy. She asks Belden if he is finally willing to marry her, but he admits that Rick is the obstacle. She knows that Belden will always choose his son over her. On a saloon bet, Linda walks over to her hotel and goes up to the room where Morgan is holding Rick. He admits her to the room and quietly asks for her help. He needs a shotgun to make good on his escape plan. Undecided about helping him, Linda returns to the saloon and encounters a drunken Lee Smithers, who callously admits to raping and killing Morgan's wife. Linda throws her drink in his face and storms out. She notices a shotgun behind the bar. As dusk falls, Belden decides on a desperate move. He tells Morgan he is coming up to talk, man to man. Morgan agrees, but the unarmed Belden arranges for two of his gunmen to trail him up the stairs. While Morgan is distracted by his conversation with Belden, the two men creep down the hallway. One of them makes a noise and Morgan reacts just in the nick of time, shooting one of them and driving the other back down the stairs. Belden throws something at Morgan but misses. An angry Morgan drives him from the room. In the meantime, Linda slips behind the saloon bar and retrieves the shotgun, hiding it under her shawl. She takes it to Morgan, knowing she will pay a steep price. As Morgan calculates a way to get Rick to the train platform, Lee Smithers sets fire to the rear of the hotel, hoping to drive Morgan into the open. Morgan is forced to unshackle Rick from the bed, and a fierce struggle over the shotgun ensues. Morgan wins the battle, and as the hotel burns down Morgan handcuffs himself to Rick and descends the stairs with the sawed-off, double-barrelled shotgun pressed under Rick's chin. Belden and his men are stymied. Morgan warns that if one shot is fired he will decapitate Rick with the shotgun. Morgan and Rick mount a buckboard and start slowly toward the train platform. Belden, his gunmen, and Lee Smithers trail the wagon slowly down the street, waiting for an opening. Just as the train pulls in, Morgan shrewdly eases the wagon across the tracks in front of the train, separating himself and his prisoner from the rest of the crowd. Only Smithers is on the same side of the tracks as Morgan and Rick. Running out of time, Smithers makes his move. He taunts Morgan, daring the lawman to draw against him. Smithers finally pulls his gun and fires at Morgan, striking Rick Belden instead. Morgan lowers the shotgun and discharges a full load of buckshot into Smithers just before Rick falls from the wagon, mortally wounded. Still bound to his prisoner, Morgan falls with him. He unlocks the handcuffs and wearily walks away to board the train. Craig Belden runs around the train to discover his dead son on the ground. He grieves over him for a few moments before angrily calling out to Matt Morgan. Morgan tells Belden that it is over. There is nothing more to fight about. But Belden demands satisfaction. The two men square off, but Morgan stipulates that he won't draw first. Belden obliges, pulling his revolver before Morgan guns him down. As Belden dies, he asks Morgan for the name of his young son, Petey. With his last breath, he admonishes Morgan to "raise him right." The train pulls out with Morgan on board as Linda grieves over the fallen Craig Belden.

Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. After a long career as a lawman that made him a legend, Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) decides to quit and join his brothers in Tombstone, Arizona. There, he would see them in a feud with the Clantons, a local clan of thugs and cattle thieves. When the showdown becomes inevitable, the help will come from Doc Holliday (Kirk Douglas), a terminally-ill gambler who happens to be another Wild West legend. —Dragan Antulov <dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr>

The year is 1863. The Civil War still rages. Far off in the Arizona desert, captured Confederate soldiers are being held at Fort Bravo by their Union captors. Surrounding them all is the monumental, inhospitable terrain and the implacably hostile Mescalero Apaches. Captain Roper (William Holden) of the US Army drags an escaped Confederate prisoner named Bailey back to the fort on a rope behind his horse. As they enter the grounds, the prisoners in the stockade resentfully glare at Roper. Roper tells his commanding officer that the man had ridden his horse until it gave out and left it to die, then fled on foot before being ridden down. Roper finds that his brutal tactics are unpopular with his commanding officer, his second-in-command Lieutenant Beecher (Richard Anderson), and the post's doctor. The post commander pointedly reminds Roper that the prisoners nearly outnumber the garrison. Roper admits that his actions are designed to intimidate the restless prisoners and keep them in check. Confederate Captain Marsh (John Forsythe) asks Roper for permission to see Bailey, which Roper grants. The young man is in a bad way, exhausted and dehydrated. He apologizes for his foolhardy solo escape attempt but couldn't wait for the pending larger attempt. Some of the more aggressive prisoners question Marsh's delay in staging a larger escape. Roper leads a mounted patrol into the desert to locate an overdue supply convoy carrying rifles to the fort. They find the wagons overturned and burned, the drivers tortured to death on ant mounds. As the slain men are being laid to rest, Roper notices smoke and mirror signals in the distance. An attack is imminent. On the return to the Fort they are ambushed and Beecher takes an arrow to the shoulder as the surprise attack commences. The Mescaleros wheel around the surrounded troopers, inflicting and incurring several casualties. The Apaches soon retreat into the distance and the patrol heads out to the nearest water hole. As night falls, the soldiers make camp and almost immediately hear gunfire. A band of Apaches is pursuing a stagecoach through the desert, with both the shotgun guard and a passenger returning fire. Roper' sends his men to intervene and drive off the attackers. The stagecoach is escorted to the camp, where the beautiful Carla Forester (Eleanor Parker) alights and introduces herself to Roper. She explains that she was on her way to Fort Bravo to see the colonel and his engaged daughter who is soon to be married to Lt. Beecher. Carla dresses Beecher's wound and explains that she went to school with the colonel's daughter, Alice (Polly Bergen). The next evening, sparks fly between the aggressively flirtatious Carla and an amused Captain Roper as she escorts him to his quarters. He agrees to accompany her, when asked, to the post dance the next evening. At the dance, Carla expresses surprise that a pair of Confederate officers have been permitted to attend. One of them is Captain Marsh, who gallantly asks her to dance with him. As they dance closely together, it is revealed that they are in fact lovers, and she has come to the fort to aid in his escape. The breakout is planned for the night of Lt. Beecher's wedding to Alice. Following the dance, Roper takes Carla to see his prized rose garden on the way back to her quarters. Surprised by this softer side of the stern captain, she asks about his late father. He slowly starts to reveal a human side as he falls for her. The next day, Carla and Alice depart for a nearby town to shop for a wedding dress. Roper unexpectedly and inconveniently volunteers to accompany them. Roper and three troopers escort the carriage. In town, Roper accompanies Carla to a dry goods store run by a Mr. Watson, a Confederate sympathizer who has agreed to provide supplies for the escape attempt. While Roper is distracted, she covertly slips Watson a wad of cash and describes the clothing, provisions, horses, and guns that will be required. Watson is to prepare the supplies and on the night of the wedding conceal the escapees in his wagon to leave the fort. After returning to the fort, Roper accompanies Carla on a ride into the beautiful rock formations above the fort. Roper comes on to her and embraces her. She fights him at first but then willingly submits as they kiss passionately. After Beecher and Alice's wedding, Roper tells a conflicted Carla that he in love with her, asking her to stay on and marry him. Meanwhile, the four escapees (including Marsh and Bailey) have climbed into the back of Watson's covered supply wagon. Carla tells Roper that she needs to be alone to think. After he leaves, she runs to the supply wagon and tells Marsh she is going with them. Roper pointedly questions the nervous Watson as he exits with the concealed prisoners and Carla in his wagon. The next morning, the escape is reported. Roper is stunned and bitter at Carla's deception. He is to lead a detail in pursuit of the escapees and Beecher, even though just married, is concerned about Roper's methods and forces his way onto the patrol. Bailey is captured in a saloon, as Roper has judged him to be too cowardly to ride out into the desert again. Another army patrol has been attacked and Roper sends his troops to help them and continues on with just Beecher, the Kiowa scout and Bailey. Out on the desert, Carla seems distracted, and Captain Marsh suspects that she has true feelings for Roper. Roper's pursuit group soon sneaks up on the Confederates' campsite and gets the drop on them. Marsh, upset by losing his girl, hits Roper resulting in a fistfight, with Roper winning handily. Roper gathers up his prisoners and starts back for the fort. Watching from atop the spectacular desert rock formations, the Mescaleros discover Roper's outnumbered party and attack. The group is forced to dismount and take cover in the open in a small defile. Roper arms the Rebs and they acquit themselves well, but the group is hopelessly surrounded and their Kiowa scout killed. As night falls, Bailey bolts from the ditch and flees on one of their horses which has returned. The others curse him as a coward. The following morning, the Apaches attack again, wounding Beecher and one of the Rebels. During the attack, the Apaches curiously bracket the soldiers' position by thrusting lances into the soil around their position. No one knows why. The reason soon becomes apparent as single arrows are carefully lobbed from the surrounding cliffs, registering the distance to Roper's band. Deadly volleys of arrows soon follow, cascading down onto the group. Captain Marsh, Beecher, and others are hit. Two of the Confederates desperately leap from cover to knock down the lances guiding the archers. Both are shot dead. Roper makes his own dash and finishes the task, but the end is near. As night falls, Marsh uses a gun to try to force Roper and Carla to leave together, telling Roper that she fell in love with him and now he has to save her, but Marsh collapses before they can leave. With Marsh and Beecher near death, Roper realizes that his only remaining option is to pretend the others are all dead and break cover himself to face the Apaches and hope they leave the rest to rot and move on. At dawn, he sprinkles Marsh and Beecher with dirt and tells a tearful Carla to play dead. As he walks out of the defile, with two drawn pistols, he is shot twice and collapses. Suddenly, there is a distant bugle call and the Apaches flee past him. The cavalry has arrived. Bailey was not a coward after all; he had ridden to the fort and brought help back. Roper, Carla and Beecher are saved, but it is too late for Captain Marsh, who dies after congratulating Bailey.

Running from the Law, and with a badly injured arm, Lin Vanner (Lew Ayres) takes refuge in a priests' (Victor Jory) home and tells him how and why he has ended up in this condition. It turns out that Vanner was working as an oil man when the company payroll was stolen. After a posse heads out the wrong way in pursuit of a suspect Vanner reasons that the criminal may be heading in a different direction. He heads out after him, but not knowing his identity shoots who he believes is the crook, Sam Tevlin (Edwin Rand) who claims he did not steal the money. When Tevlin is severely questioned by the company owner Mahoney (Barry Kelley), and dies Vanner is stricken with guilt, resigns and goes to a nearby town to take a job as a cattle rancher. When Vanner discovers that the ranch owner he is working for is Ellen Tevlin (Teresa Wright), the widow of the man he shot and killed, his first impulse is to run, but Vanner is compelled by his curiosity as to why Sam may have committed the crime. Ellen's good nature changes to cruelty when she discovers that Vanner was the man who killed her husband. When Vanner confesses his uncertainty about Sam's guilt, Ellen confesses that they were an estranged couple and this allows the two to fall in love. Vanner is compelled to discover the truth about Sam's involvement in the company robbery and after investigation discovers the real criminal and accidentally kills him attempting to bring him to justice and causing the police to pursue him to the priest's home.