The Deadly Companions

In Sam Peckinpah's overlooked directorial debut The Deadly Companions (1961), Brian Keith stars as Yellowleg, a scarred ex-soldier driven by vengeance against a former comrade (Chill Wills) who tried to scalp him, only to accidentally kill the young son of a tough, ostracized dance-hall woman (Maureen O'Hara) during a botched bank robbery; wracked with guilt, he joins her perilous trek across Apache territory with two shady companions to bury the boy beside his father, exposing themes of grief, fragile morality, hypocrisy in a harsh frontier world, and the seeds of Peckinpah's signature cynicism—yet the film ultimately feels dry and emotionally flat despite strong performances and striking visuals.

Creators and Guests

Host

Scott Murphy

Guest

Kyle Hintz

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Join Ryan and many featured guests and other hosts as they break down and review a variety of directors and their films!
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both the middling reception it received in the early 60s and the middling reception reputation
it still kind of has now if it has a reputation which we'll get into um i couldn't find any solid
box of information but i do understand from looking up various articles it was not a commercial
success um despite it being a rather low budget film and today it still remains uh the least known
of peckinpah's films um and i have to say i've not seen all of peckinpah's films i've seen just under
half of his filmography at this point um as we start our journey um but i had heard of all of
the other ones apart from this and before i had started this project i had never heard of this
film um so kyle had you ever heard of this film the deadly companions i mean i have seen it before
because i was a peckinpah fan but yep you know it was definitely one of the last ones that i came
around to seeing because just out of curiosity but not one with any real reputation yeah you know
for sure for sure and do you is there anything that you retain from the the first time watch that that
you know before going into this rewatch no no i mean just the basic story nothing that was like oh this
stood out to be honest you know uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh fair enough fair enough um so so yes so yes so this
was a first time watch for me but a re-watch um for you for yourself now um yes it's interesting reading
into this film because it seems like
there's some misinformation out there
so it seems to
some articles seem to
suggest that this
this movie
was made, it was like a
re-teaming of
Brian Keith and Maureen
O'Hara based on the
success of The Parent Trap
but actually this
film actually came out two weeks
before The Parent Trap
so that is wrong
funny
so that's quite funny
and it seems like the main
instigation for this picture was
the producer of the picture was
Charles B. Fitzsimmons
who is the
younger brother of Maureen O'Hara
whose birth name was Fitzsimmons
and it seems
like her career was starting to
slow down in the late
50s after being a
big big star in the 40s
and through
it threw into the mid
50s
it seemed but it
seemed at this point it was
kind of slowing down
so they decided to throw
together this
kind of low budget
western to try and
give her a kind of a second
wind and
even though this film didn't
give her that
she did actually get a second wind
from the parent trap
and then she had a couple
other successes in the 60s
like the western comedy
McClintock and a couple of
a couple of other things
so she did get a second wind
but just not via this film
which makes sense
once we get into the film
once we
once we get into this
and yes
I guess the other bit of
backstory I should give to
the film
before we get into the film
is that
that Peckinpah
came on board in this
because
the star
the
the other
the male lead of the film
Brian Keith
starred in
a TV series
that lasted for one season
called The Westerner
that
Peckinpah was the creator of
and wrote a number of episodes
directed
five of the 13 episodes
and
obviously
became friendly with
Brian Keith
and
it was Brian Keith
who recommended
Peckinpah
for this project
so that's
that's how he came on board
yeah
so
I guess
yeah
I guess we can
we can start to
we can start to get in
to the
to the deadly companions
it like
I'm gonna
spoil something
ahead of time
um
I was not the biggest fan
of this film
but
it has some
it has some
it has some moments
and I think
the opening
I think the opening scene
is one of the moments
I think the opening scene
is intriguing
um
we see
Brian Keith's
character
he's
he's in a bar
um
and
we see some
a group of guys
playing some cards
and also
um
the character
played by
um
chill wills
Turk
the character
played by chill wills
he is
balancing
on a barrel
uh
hanging
and
and it looks like
he's about to lose
his footing
and
be hanged
and
and
and die
and
and brian
keith
um
uh
along with
the
the help
of
of the other
character
uh
brian
um
billy
um
he frees
um
chill wills
his character
i think
it's a good
way to
start the film
because you're
kind of
intrigued
it kind of
seems like
the brian
keith's
characters
maybe
you know
who's
the characters
called yellow
egg is maybe
friends with
this character
but then you're
not quite sure
and then it
seems like
they're not
friends and
so
so you're
intrigued why
he got
himself embroiled
in the in
this situation
in the first
place
yeah i feel
like it's a
strong opening
and obviously
and we'll get
to the kind
of reversal
if you want to
call it that
of why he
actually saved
uh chill wills
his life which
makes it more
interesting for
sure
i mean we can
touch on that
i mean that
comes up in a
couple scenes
from now right
yeah that
yeah i mean i
guess that's true
because he tells
a doctor guy
when like
yeah because we
see we see
that like
briefly kind of
like a close-up
of joel's
hand with a
weird scar
what what we
find out to be
teeth marks
yeah in his
hand yeah
yeah yeah
yeah so so
that is that is
all i mean like
you said yeah
um basically
there there was
there was there
was a situation
um and um
in it initially
kind of
because they kind
of play with it
because like
basically um
yellow leg
brankey's character
won't take his
office hat ever
and um we
find out
pretty soon
in you know
not that far
into the movie
that it is
because um
he has a scar
um across his
head where
where somebody
attempted to
scalp him
and then and i
think there's a
little bit of a
misdirect because
it's it's kind of
that thing of the
trying kind of set
it up it's like
it's like an
apache attack or
something like
that but you're
not you're not
quite you're not
quite sure um
but then it
becomes apparent
that it was it
was the turk
character and the
the whole reason
of saving him
was for vengeance
to to you know
to to get revenge
yeah which is such
a good setup and
then i feel like
this movie does
not really like
give you what you
want out of that
part of the story
you know what i
mean like that's
such a good idea
and then this
movie is just
not have really
that much excitement
or energy behind
that idea yeah i
think that's yeah
i think because
like i i do think
it it's it's really
i i think it's
really in the middle
of the movie that
really sucks the
life out of the
movie because i
think there's there's
a bunch of
interesting stuff here
i think like you
see i think that's
an interesting concept
of like you know
he saved this guy's
life to get revenge
on the guy because
the guy attempted
to scalp him
um and you know
so we're setting
that up but and
then even the stuff
early on where
we're kind of set
up that like billy
and turk are like
are like bad guys
and like the way
they're they're
menacing the the
kind of the
congregation who
um uh you know
who are who are
um who are praying
at the at the bar
because they don't
have a church they
just the bar
shows down and
even that there's
some humor to that
of like you know
when they first come
in the town and
like um you know
and the barman says
that like oh you
know we've not had a
calendar for two
years some people
think it's sunday
some people think
it's monday so i
think a lot of the
stuff initially in
the town is is is
good and i think
there's i think
there's some there's
some interesting stuff
there and i also
think there's some
quite humorous stuff
there um but then
once the kind of i
mean i guess the the
inciting incident for
the other part of the
film is there there
is a bank heist that
goes wrong and that
leads to yellow leg
accidentally killing
the child the son of
of maureen o'hara's
character kit um and
then kind of i don't
know like so i think
what did you think
like in terms of that
initial beyond the
opening scene in terms
of that initial setup
the stuff that happens
in the town i think
there's a lot of
foundations there in
terms of the way they
set up yellow legs
character the way that
they set up billy and
turk's character even
the way they set up
kit's character and how
kit is kind of an
outsider in in the town
and everybody looks
down on her and you
know you know and
like the way people are
bitching about her
behind literally behind
her back you know in
your shot um in in the
in the church sermon
you know i feel like
there's a lot of good
stuff there in in those
opening kind of i don't
know like 15 minutes
let's say yeah i agree
i feel like there's a
lot of fertile ground to
make what should have
been a better story and
maybe like because i read
some about the movie
too and i know that
like peckinpah wasn't
allowed to you know do
any work on the script
himself and maybe if he
had been able to he
would have kind of brought
some more out of it
because there is what's
interesting is like there
is a lot of proto peckinpah
type stuff like the whole
idea of having church in a
bar and it's kind of yeah
you know this kind of uh
dichotomy of how really
uncivilized the world that
we're in is but we have
this little idea of
civilization that's going
to take place in the bar
right now we're going to
cover up these paintings of
nude women and we're not
going to serve any alcohol
now because we're doing
church and all the church
people being you know
ostensibly hypocrites
because they're very
judgmental of kit yeah who
we don't all we know is
she's uh it seems like she's
a dancer in this local
dance hall but obviously
that's especially for the
times of this film maybe uh
she might actually be more
like a prostitute but it's
you know very toned down in
this in this story yeah we're
never it's never kind of
fully conveyed like what what
she is it's there's kind of
vague suggestions that she
might she might be a
prostitute um particularly
what later on when there's a
scene later on about you know
um but uh but then again yeah
she might just be a dancer
we don't we don't really
know um you know like she
might just be like a show
girl basically but you know
or she might be a prostitute or
both um so so we're not we're
not fully convinced um of that
again i guess it's a very early
60s so they kind of still are
really skirting around that that
that kind of stuff um a lot of
the time you know um so yeah
yeah yeah but um i think i don't
like you say there is there is a
bunch of stuff in terms of like
the the kind of cynical outlook of
the film and in terms of the fact
that like yellow leg actually not
like a fully formed peckinpah lead
but he is he's not he's like
basically branky's character he's
not like he's not like gary cooper
you know he's he's he's very much
closer to the kind of peckinpah
anti-hero than than he is you know
your classic you know kind of 40s 50s
western hero yeah especially
considering i mean yeah the main
whole point of where we go with this
movie is that he accidentally killed
the kid and now he's feels it's his
duty to help bury this kid where where
she wants to bury him and going through
dangerous territory and all this stuff
is like yeah a guy who's morally a guy
a character who's somewhat uh in a gray
area but has his own like set of morals
that he's gonna go by for his own code
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so
he's not yeah so he's still got kind of
some redeeming quality to him he's not
quite as he's not quite as shitty as
some leader picking plot leads you know
yeah yeah
well and even even this plot does remind
me a bit of like uh bringing bring me the
head of alfredo garcia because it's a little
bit yeah you know the whole thing is like
this kind of foolish dogged mission to do
something that's like pointless really i mean it
has meaning for kathleen or maureen o'hara but
it's like i mean what does it matter where
you bury him at this point i mean now she's
lost her husband and her kid which we'll get
into but yeah no no absolutely absolutely so i
mean that's kind of the next plot point because
like you know um so uh basically you know as i
kind of mentioned um billy turk and yellowleg are are
planning they come to this town to to rob the
town's bank basically but another outlaw gang
beats them to the punch yes um and then um and it's
interesting as well the kind of morality of that
because the other the other bank robber gang are
treated as if they are way more shitty people then like
then then you know then are quote-unquote heroes of
being like yeah yeah they were going to rob it but
they weren't just going to aimlessly kill people you
know they were doing they were just going to be very
pleasant gentlemanly robbers you know like uh so like it is
interesting the morality of that but in this shootout um the
melee of of that of of kind of they end up kind of by
accident protecting the town by trying to to have a shootout
with the with the with the the bank robbers and then this accident
this leads to the accidental death um of um kit's son um and then kit is determined
that she wants the son to be buried uh with the with her with her husband and who
who like as she mentions later on in the movie she was actually only married to him for for like a
couple of months um but like he you know she she wants him to to be uh to to be buried out there
and nobody wants to go with her because that town has been overrun and is now in apache territory
uh and so everybody is is is scared and don't want don't want to you know risk that um but a yellow leg
is um wants to go and like it's interesting how like it's interesting how billy and turk are portrayed
because sometimes they're portrayed as like kind of like big bad villains of like they're they're you
know a couple of you know ruthless uh kind of outlaws and then other times they just kind of
meekly go along with what yellow leg says even though they don't really seem to have a lot of
motivation to do that i feel like they have like no motivation they i mean they definitely also play
as kind of like our comic relief uh yes they kind of double up yeah well at least in the beginning
when yellow leg you know how we get to the town him suggesting hey we'll go rob this bank is like
okay it makes sense for them to go along even though they're unsure of him or or whatever but yeah but
yeah clearly this mission to go to apache territory to bury kit's son is like these guys don't care about
that at all billy wants to sleep with her obviously so he's going for that reason but aside from that
they have like no motivation yeah because like i don't know they really don't and like um turk seems
to want to go because he thinks that there might be money out there i mean he he keeps going on about
building a slave indian army which is like i don't know like does he think like just going into apache
territory could just drum that up i just like i that's i mean it's fairly delusional but like maybe that's
i mean that's yeah i mean absolutely delusional but like it's maybe his motivation question mark
yeah or he thinks that's what the plan is after they complete this mission and bury her son and
they're gonna go rob some other bank and go start get slaves i mean it's insane yeah this whole yeah
his whole thing is but it is funny i guess i don't know it certainly gives the movie something else
because it is a movie that like could use a lot more probably humor or something else because i'm
a little bit dry i don't know i don't know if humor would help but i guess it is very it does feel like
there's a lot of uh pretty dry patches it does i mean i think something would help you know like um
yeah no it is weird though because like the whole kind of building a slave indian army is almost treated
as kind of like a comedy bit and i'm like yeah this is kind of i don't know this is kind of weird that
we're we're treating this wild racism so kind of lightly i i don't know like it's the early 60s i guess
but still even that at that stage i don't know feels weird it definitely feels weird and it also feels like
i mean maybe it's just supposed to be funny because it's so far-fetched and like because it's so crazy
yeah yeah maybe maybe yeah it's it's so absurd you know like it's it's a racism of a level of so absurd
yeah i don't know maybe yeah that's why it's been treated like that um but no i mean i think so i you
know i obviously i i kind of i was reading into the backstory of it i've been reading kind of like
different perspectives different reviews and stuff like that and i i saw somebody on letterbox referred
to this this movie as being emotionally inert and i think that's kind of true i i think i think like
if um i think if there was even if it wasn't like done through humor even if you know like if this movie
was even if you went in the other direction and made the movie darker or if you just like felt the
emotion more if they they found a way to like feel the emotion more of like brian keith's revenge and
feel the emotion more of like maureen o'hara's grief you know like but it's just it just feels it's that
it at this kind of constant kind of relatively flat tone of like nothing's kind of nothing's really
conveyed you know it doesn't it doesn't hit you emotionally the the the grief of losing a son that
they don't convey that emotion and they don't convey that that kind of you know that kind of
burning vengeance that is is overtaking this person beyond reason you know like um so neither kind of
hits you um so what you're left with is you just kind of often and there's stretches where it's just kind
of two people wandering through the desert next to a wagon and not much else you know like yeah and they
don't like each other but they're not even really talking you're just like all right occasionally
and eventually they kind of they kind they kind of like each other um and they they they get
and also like i don't know what you felt about like i don't think any of the acting's really really bad i
i think like um you know like uh stephen cochran's pretty good as billy chilled wills is pretty good as
dark brian keith is a a solid if slightly uninteresting male lead and maureen o'hara i think is pretty i think
it's yeah it's probably i think she's the best i think she's the best yeah i think she's the the mvp of the
movie she actually has conveys the most emotion and is the most interesting character of anybody on the screen
um and a good female role for that time which makes sense then that this was kind of trying to be a
star vehicle for her makes sense that this was uh that's the way it is but a pretty good character for
that period for her for sure yeah yeah exactly because you know she's she's a pretty pretty strong
female character um she doesn't take any shit from the you know from the from from the other characters
she's she's never she never lapses fully into kind of damsel in distress territory no you know um
well we should say that like even they end up going and and brian keith feels obligated to go but even
in the beginning it seems like him he and uh the other two are trying to dissuade her of even doing this
you know yeah like they're definitely trying to talk her out of it throughout the thing at certain
points just like okay which is like and there's a moment where later on where they uh have to bury
their wagon but it seems like she thinks brian keith is like gonna just try and bury the kid there in the
middle of wherever they are you know yeah yeah yeah yeah no no absolutely um so like they and she yeah
she remains committed to her journey mission uh throughout the story and never kind of wavers from
that um you know and um yeah and so and she's kind of portrayed as relatively you know particularly for
the time relatively emotionally complex because it's not like she's totally fearless she definitely is
scared at certain points but her mission that she's on always trumps that any kind of fear she she is
feeling um on that so like you know it's there so she's not she's not one note either she's not just a
a one note kind of badass either you know she's got a different different shades to her um for sure
and i feel like it would be easy and pretty common in this period of film for her to have been portrayed
as just like kind of a crazy character and they're for whatever reason going along with this mission
to like please her and she and but it would you know but the movie would almost sit outside and seem
like this is this lady's crazy but we're gonna indulge her i feel like a lot of movies from this period
would have went that way yeah i i absolutely agree with that i i think that like um yeah i i definitely
think that that would be a direction that a lot of movies um you know because yeah the early 60s
this yeah definitely would have gone in that direction of like just kind of like oh this the the classic
trope i guess of the hysterical woman you know she's the and and she'd just be i think she'd be
portrayed much more as kind of like crying and wailing all the time and kind of like you know
just being just being hysterical um so um and she's not that she's not that um yeah she has moments of
which you know of course you know the grieving mother of course she has his moments of of kind of that but
she never tips she never tips into kind of a hysterical stereotype of um you know that you
probably would have gotten a lot of other films um yeah i made it this time so so it's interesting
because we do have this kind of thing of like and i feel like this will is a theme that will i'll come
back to um uh often in the peckinpah series is like there's this weird push pull of like there's a bunch of
problematic stuff and then there's a bunch of stuff that's actually fairly progressive for the time you know
like it's and i i think i think like peckinpah is often painted with the brush of being
kind of particularly maybe for younger viewers um maybe kind of uh problematic and and kind of
symptomatic of like kind of toxic masculinity and that kind of the kind of language we we tend to use now
um but i often feel with with peckinpah this is maybe not the greatest example of it but like
i often feel with peckinpah movies throughout his career he is he is both a symbol of toxic masculinity
but also somebody who consistently satirizes and um has commentary on toxic masculinity at the same time
yeah i totally agree yeah i think that's a perfect way to put it because you can see that he
is kind of a victim of it probably personally is like wrapped up in some of that but can also has the
you know ability to see it objectively at times and see how ridiculous it all really is yeah yeah yeah
i i think like and i guess like this is an interesting film in in um peckinpah's career
because it's obviously it's the debut film um but like you know we've kind of briefly mentioned you
briefly mentioned the circumstance of the film that basically he wasn't allowed to touch the script at all
and like his reputation till this point was not so much as a director but more as a writer of of television
westerns he he'd written a number of episodes of of the likes of gun smoke and the rifleman he he directed
some of those episodes as well but like he he's actually at this point had written more than he had
directed um like for for a number for a number of shows um but he so he wasn't allowed to touch the
script and then he was locked out of the edit as well basically as soon as as soon as shooting finished
um like he was off the production and uh they they you know and then i think like um i think the producer
uh maureen o'hara's brother charles b uh fitz simmons um had a much bigger say in in the edit and um and
also um because uh as is peckinpah's want he always goes in a more darker uh territory um they they changed
the ending um peckinpah's peckinpah's ending um was was different uh to to the ending that that we get that we get
here or they changed part of the ending i don't know if the very end is the same but they they they
changed they changed part of the ending um uh so i mean i guess we're kind of jumping about so like
maybe we can talk about that now um so basically apparently in peckinpah's director's cup um yellow
leg at the end of the movie despite the monologue um from kit um kills billy in cold blood just walks up to
him shoots him that's it billy's dead whereas obviously in the final cut that we see um it is
suggested that billy is killed by turk from from the from the rooftops um rather than rather than uh killed
by yellow leg so it's it's much more tied up as a kind of happy ending as if um as if yellow leg has
taken in kit's kind of monologue of like how she she couldn't love a cold-blooded killer and like and
that's how they they end up all happy at the end um you know um on the wagon riding off literally
riding off into the sunset which is which is funny funny when you literally see that happen in a western
you know that's the kind of joke it's like that's a western's end i could see that probably drove
peckinpah crazy in addition i can't imagine that would want to be his final shot either because that
just feels like a movie you know that feels like a shot from a movie 20 years earlier or something it's
like okay now they're literally riding off into the sunset after all that's happened even though it has
wrapped up uh in this version as you know he they kind of took a moral stand to the to the two villains
yes that that that's true so he comes across as more as more noble um because like he doesn't kill billy
in this version um he's killed by turk and then and then he doesn't kill turk either like he you know like
he uh he uh he is he is arrested by the townsfolk who actually that is quite funny like the yeah so i
was gonna say like when the townsfolk ride in and like the mayor and then the right and the other
townsfolk ride in the pastor and stuff like that and they're and they're like what i thought you were
scared to come here because it's a patchy territory and it's like well when there's money on the line
yeah that's a different story um so so yeah you know i mean it definitely there this film definitely
has moments you know like it definitely you know every so often it'll be like oh that's great or that
and like um and even like you know kind of going back a bit you know again showing that that maureen
ohara's character kind of knows how to handle herself and also like a good bit of direction from
from peckinpah is the scene in in the cave and like um like where she she kills um the apache guy who's
kind of been tracking yellow legs character um and kind of menacing them and then they have the final kind
of confrontation where she he tries to jump her in in a in in the cave and there's this like crack of
lightning and he kind of you just see him for a moment and then he kind of jumps down in the dark and then he
she shoots her uh um him and sorry um and um i i thought that was a really memorable as it just as an image
i thought that was that was really pretty good yeah that might be maybe the best like scene or sequence honestly yeah yeah yeah
probably the best like action in the movie i think so because like as much as we get a few shootouts
none of them are that memorable no and they don't feel yeah they don't feel like that dangerous or intense
yeah even even towards the end when like i mean we
didn't mention uh yellow legs like shoulder injury was part of his or it seems like that was part of the scalping thing or maybe that was a separate thing but basically his shooting arm is uh kind of disabled so every time it's like you can see him wince when he's like trying to shoot and he can't really shoot even at that point when he's chasing turk
i felt like it should have felt more urgent because i'm like oh man this guy can't really this guy shouldn't really be getting in a gunfight
like every time he picks up his gun he's he's like in pain and he can't really like aim so we should be really worried we we should be much more worried than we are but but we're not because like
and in a sense it does set it up nicely because like there's there is a moment and definitely where
turk and billy are riding behind yellow leg and kit and like um and they're just um
they're doing that thing where you know like turk and billy are such weird characters because they're
intermittently menacing and intermittently just like our comic relief like they're such strange characters
but during one of their intermittent menacing periods um um they keep they keep talking about
like kind of like a shooting yellow leg but like no i don't want to shoot them in the back and and then
there's a moment where yellow like like turns round and that you know it tries to aim his gun at billy and
it's gun just like falls out his hand he has to get off his horse and pick his gun back up and like so again there
there should be like in that final confrontation with billy and turk there should be like a lot of
tension there because like you're like well this guy i mean because we see and when he goes to the doctor
he's got like a serious injury just at his shoulder just kind of it's clavicle there um um the you know
yeah so there should be a lot of tension there but it's just again everything kind of just feels very kind of
one level one note kind of very flat um uh you know um tonally and uh it just never never comes across
no and that would have been a good uh obstacle for his character to have if they could have played that up more the whole movie because
he could have been much more uh not disabled but he could be kind of physically weaker while he's trying to help her do all this stuff and he could we could see that it's just kind of his will
yeah and it would and it would make his his mission of revenge even more
tense and kind of ridiculous because it's like oh man like you can't even really you shouldn't even be out
here helping this this lady and stuff and you're you're over here planning to go kill these guys and
you're like really not up to the task yeah and they could have done it in such a way that kind of like
he finally manages you know like we're we're rooting for him he finally manages to do it despite the pain
just he's so kind of crazed by revenge kind of not dissimilar to the the original the original jango um where like
jango is like this this great gunman um who's like who just seems like this um invincible badass who like
never misses and then later on in the film he's shot in both of his hands and like there's a period of the
film where he can like barely pick up a gun but then he still manages to like kill everybody in the end just
through sheer craziness um you know and they could and i guess like i mean he wouldn't obviously
jango's like later 60s and it's italian so like obviously it's way more bloody and crazy but so
obviously it's 61 you know like it you know i i'm not expecting it to be as bloody and crazy as that
you know but we could have had something similar where it feels like the odds are now impossible but
somehow he overcomes them and then that that's the real kind of fist pump moment at the end of the movie
yeah totally and it's been built it's built in there and it's not really there you know yeah we have
that groundwork or there's some of it you know yeah yeah absolutely yeah and and yeah i guess like that's
i guess that's why i came out of the film kind of like not not being a big fan of the film not i just i was
just like so much of it's so dry um and there's so much of so many periods of just like it just feels like
we're we got a lot of nothing quite beautiful nothing though i mean like um yeah because like
you know um the uh the cinematographer on this um uh was a had shot a couple of john ford movies it was
shot in arizona on location and you know like it makes uh you know again so we got a bunch of of very
very nice epic vistas um you know um so i i guess like i guess like at that time um arizona had been
shot so much um in in the 40s and 50s that they they really knew how to shoot the shit out of it by by
by 1961 um so like um so that but so it looked quite beautiful but um yeah it's so much of it's just very dry very
pedestrian and i think like i'm almost harder on it as well because like like we've kind of been talking
about it sets up a bunch of stuff that that seems really juicy so it seems to things that we can really
get our teeth into and it just never it takes a nibble out of it but never never sinks its teeth in fully
yeah it seems like there's a lot of stuff that's ripe and it it would be interesting it would have
been interesting like if peckinpah had been able to write to to rewrite it what he might have brought
out of it to to amend the script a little bit yeah i think yeah i feel relatively confident i feel
relatively confident he would have fleshed some things out a bit more and i think he he would have i
definitely think he would have made the revenge mission feel a bit more palpable than um than it
is um than what we get in this movie um so so yeah i would have i would have been interested to see
um if he could have uh kind of toyed around with the script a bit more the other thing i was going to say
that uh occurred to me i mean not only so when brian keith accidentally shoots uh kit's son and at first
they think that uh it was the bank robbers or whatever there's a shootout they don't know who
shot him for sure and he comes up and says no it was me i shot him he also doesn't even like explain
himself at all which is crazy i mean it makes sense for the stoicness of his character but he doesn't
you know go oh i was trying to shoot these guys and i missed and your son was behind them he's just kind of like yeah i shot him and walks away
so so dry and there's never really even a scene any preceding scene where he says like hey that was a
total accident i'm so sorry i'm gonna help you you know he never like explains it which is that is that is
a little crazy it is pretty crazy um and that does remind me there is a scene towards the end before a kind of final
confrontation um where um you know kit has like her monologue about like um she couldn't love a cold
body killer and then has you know and then says like you know can you love a woman like me which again
kind of goes to suggesting that possibly she was a prostitute or whatever um and um but in in that in that
monologue she kind of goes um she's talking about the the death of her son and she goes like i understand
now that that his death was an accident and you're like yeah right like she just came to that conclusion
independently like which is crazy like what what we've received no you've been given no additional
information you've just worked out like yeah only we as the viewer know because we objectively saw what happened
and we're like oh he missed yeah yeah yeah you're like huh yeah so that is wild when that comes up like she's just
like i understand now it was an accident and you're like yeah what did you get like instant replay at some point like what is
yeah well we also get what i thought was maybe the the funniest moment to me is she says you
know can you love a woman like that i think she says that after uh he like reveals his his scar
and everything she's like yeah he like yeah because he he's like um he again we've we're
stuck with this thing where he never takes off his hat and he's like you know because he thinks
of himself is so grossly disfigured even though he's just got like a small carcass before i pay
anyway yeah that that whole thing is also i'm like that's a missed opportunity because yeah you could
have him actually be disfigured which would be yeah much more interesting it would make a little bit
more sense why he has kind of like uh it also seems like he's in a sense given up on having any future
because of this disfigurement yeah which is how it's like played so it's so funny when she's like
i don't care about that and he wears his hat in a way to just let the scar be seen and he has this
goofy smile and it's just this moment where it's just like oh well i'm fine man he's just like all
right cool well if you can love me and then it's like well do you still want to kill this guy like
why is this a big deal then it makes his it makes his reason for revenge seem a little ridiculous
especially in comparison to her having lost a son like yeah not that an attempted scalping would be
like uh obviously would be a very traumatic experience but it's not not really comparable to a death
no no no it's it's not and like you say like yeah it doesn't set it doesn't set up the right feel for
like the final confrontation of like like you say because because because he's because like as soon as he
knows that she will love him he's just like cool yeah they're like well okay and and you're like he goes
from that to the like then snapping back into his like you know kind of stoic thing um and then and
then kind of rampaging off you know as if he's in like his his blood's really up and you're like
but like two seconds ago you were like yeah you weren't in that space at all like it's just it's a very
strange transition yeah it doesn't quite work it's almost i mean you almost need the
billion turk to become more villainous at that point or something because they kind of have them
held hostage if they if they then burst in and try to kill them or do something it would it would
give you more motivation to fight back yeah yeah um ah and like again not everything's like treated
seriously so you don't for most of the movie you don't really treat billy and turk is like serious
villains because the thing of like we discussed the the kind of the ridiculousness of like um turk's
delusions about you know building a slave army or whatever um and because like that scene is so absurd
you don't necessarily see him as like really evil you just think of him as like a kind of idiot lunatic
um yeah and like kind of the same as billy billy is presented as like um there is a weird tone the first two times
um that like uh the first two times that billy assaults and maureen o'hara's character by like you know you know
forcing kissing on her um it's treated with this kind of weird tone of like well shucks you know lads will be lads
um and then it's only like the third time where he like he's like rolling around in the mud and like
properly attempting to rape her it's only that third time where is it treated with any seriousness
like the other two times were treated so glibly so kind of for comedy almost um that like it's just
yeah it's it's it's weird i i think i think it's weird i mean like i think all three things should
be treated like seriously and then we kind of and made more of a deal of so we're more kind of
you know presented billy as like this is you know the first time he forces there's because they're in the
you know in the bar stroke church um you know that we should be like kind of seen as like that's a
a nasty act rather than the kind of almost comedy effect that it's given um or tone that is given
um in in that particular scene yeah well and it would have and if it was treated more seriously it gives
uh yellow leg more fodder to have a conflict with billy yeah right because it's like another point where
this character who potentially is kind of morally gray or just there for revenge and gets swept up in
this thing is like you can't do that again it would be interesting because then it's like you give him
another moral line that this guy's gonna draw even though he's ostensibly you know just on a revenge
mission to murder someone you know yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so if they treated all three occurrences
seriously which they don't they don't treat the one in the the bar seriously they don't treat the one
where she falls in the water and then he tries to kiss her again they don't treat that seriously and
it's only the one later on um where it it's much more of an attempted rape um that they finally treat
it seriously and which feels kind of too little too late yeah it feels like up to that point and for most
of the movie he's just it's kind of like oh billy's just a billy's just a handful that guy whatever like
yeah it's very treated much like that like he's just mischievous not that he's evil he's just like
you know like it's like the it's like the movie is continually kind of like tousling his hair and
being like no what like no you you you come on you scamp stop that you know like um and then suddenly
and then he's suddenly presented as kind of evil and you're like oh okay right he's the big bad okay
fair enough um so it's yeah it's it's it's very strange tonal shifts with a billion turk characters
yeah and i think turk isn't really menacing enough either no that's part of where like i feel like
the revenge plot loses some steam too because that guy is so he's he's so on another planet with the
shit he's talking about that i'm just like i don't know how can you even want revenge from the this guy
doesn't even remember scalp this guy's like in another reality yeah no that's hard it's it's hard
to treat him and it's also hard to treat him seriously as a threat because the way he's presented
because like now we don't know if this is one of turk's many many lies but like the way it's presented is
like you know um billy is younger um you know it seems like they have like a long-standing relationship
turk kind of intimates that like he taught him how to shoot or whatever and but the way his characters
presented is like maybe there was one time where he was like um you know a ruthless kind of outlaw
maybe there was one time where he was a really good shot but he's now been drunk for like you know
i don't know like you know he's like he's like 10 15 years past his prime and he's just like he's now
just like a kind of useless drunk mainly so like i think that that's why partly he doesn't feel
threatening as well because it just seems like he's so far past his what is kind of shooting prime would
have been well and that would have been that could be more fodder for the revenge thing like for making
the revenge more complex i feel like it could have been more complex if brian keith encounters this guy and
is just like you know kind of stops being hot-blooded and is thinking about this because it's not the
person you know who attacked him five years ago and in essence this is a changed person or obviously
you know he could do other things with his character but it could have been an interesting wrinkle
yeah i guess like because it could have made the it could have made the the the the revenge more
emotionally complex because you're not you're not taking on uh an equally formidable opponent you're
taking on like a guy who is is past his prime has obviously crawled into the bottom of a bottle and
never really come up so like you know and so it's an unfair fight you know like it's you know you could
easily dispatch him at any time so yeah yeah that could have that could have been emotionally
interesting you know had some resonance yeah for sure for sure yeah i also thought as we're getting
to the end that uh if if brian keith's revenge reason for revenge was stronger it could have been it could
have been an interesting parallel if instead of it being the scalping thing if he had lost a loved one and
that's the motivation for his revenge would be really interesting if that were the case and then
for him to accidentally kill someone else's child and be involved in that burial process but still want
to be seeking revenge would be like a really interesting thing to be at odds with yeah no i think there's a lot
that could be played with that i think i think that would be a a fascinating um route for the movie to go um
but but but yeah it doesn't it doesn't take any any of those routes that's um yeah and i think there's
definitely i mean while i i wasn't a big fan of the movie i definitely i think if i had seen this in
isolation in the early 60s or whatever um there's enough in it that i would have thought like maybe i could
give this director another another goal maybe like um you know like there's there's enough kind of
interesting seeds of things that you're like there's talent there and you can and and across the board
because some of the actors are pretty good the cinematography is good i think like um uh i wouldn't
say peckinpah's direction is exceptional by any standards but it it's solid you know it's certainly you know it's
maybe a bit workman like but it certainly shows promise you know like um um so and i think that's
part of the frustration of the movie that like it's not like a straight up bad movie it it it has it has
interesting things but it just never fully develops them well in knowing peckinpah we know
how much darker or more complex of a movie he will go on to make where you're like ah this this has that
potential in places yeah yeah yeah yeah and it is interesting because like i did i wrote i wrote this
down because obviously um maureen o'hara was not the biggest fan of peckinpah um obviously keith seemed to
have a relationship with them and um uh you know it was him who suggested that so he seemed fine with
him uh but but maureen o'hara was quoted as saying that he didn't know how to direct and and i love this
quote that he is one of the strangest and most objectionable peoples i have people i have ever worked
with it's hilarious which is oh what a what a line um yeah yeah yeah and and by that stage you know
she'd been in the business since the tail end of the 30s you know it's the like you know she'd she'd
worked with a lot of people she and also like some strange people as well you know hitchcock has a
reputation for being a bit of an odd dude and she worked with him early in her career on jamaica in not
one of hitchcock's um kind of fetid pictures it's generally seen as one of his weakest but you know
like um you know like so she's she's met some interesting individuals but apparently peckinpah
was the strangest and most objectionable of them all that's hilarious i mean i'm sure it wasn't
it must have been interesting because it definitely doesn't seem to it's interesting that she uh
obviously is kind of the impetus for the movie being made but it does feel like in
within the context of the movie the movie is much more focused on brian keith yeah and it seems like
that's peckinpah's focus the character that he's concerned with too so yeah yeah i think so like
dynamic i i think he tried to skirt around it a little bit in terms of like the contract of like
him he can't he can't change the screenplay i think he kind of worked one-on-one with brian keith and
kind of improvised a couple of things and like tried to improve his lines a little bit but like
you know like um so i think there was some sort of i i definitely read that he tried to do things with
the brian keith character and obviously um obviously having this back history with him of working on this
on this television show with um um obviously had the strongest connection with with that actor um so
so yeah and and you know i guess like as we go on with the as i go on with this podcast i guess
like there is certain people he who clearly builds a connection with um that like they'll go on with and um
and it seems like he's pretty loyal by people he he builds he builds a connection with um so
so yeah well and and in here i mean i don't know if he'd worked with uh chill wills or struthers
martin before but he definitely these guys are going to pop back up in other movies yeah they're they're
they they come they come back up i'm not sure i i um yeah i didn't read up on that like i mean obviously
they are in the wheelhouse they're in a lot of westerns i mean like they might have come across like
i mean as as we i kind of briefly mentioned um you know uh peckinpah had written a lot of episodes for
for various television westerns which were were very popular um at the time um uh gun smoke and the rifleman
being the most prominent of those so it wouldn't surprise me um if um if uh he
he uh he he had done that or what i didn't know as well it's like um uh in in the show he created
the westerner um like i think it's the first episode of that um uh warren notes is in it so like he's
he's like warren notes is warren notes is way back from the beginning so obviously they had a a connection
right off from very very early on in their in their respective careers um which is it's quite fun um
makes sense yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um for sure so like yeah peckinpah would definitely go on to
to to bigger bigger and better bigger and better things um for uh for sure but uh yeah i don't think
uh it's it's interesting though because i'm not sure i'll need to double check i was going to say i'm not
sure brian keith does recur but like um i need to double check that um yeah i don't think so i don't think
so i think like his the extent of it is just the the television show and then and then this film and
then that's it and obviously brian keith went on to do other things and uh peckinpah went on to do
other things um so even though this film was not a success it seems like it was a happy ending for
most of them because like um you know uh the parent trap gave uh o'hara her second wind and uh and uh peckinpah
would go on to we'll go on to bigger and better things almost immediately um because like um he
had his first success and with with his next movie ride the high country which we'll obviously talk
about in the next episode um and that was just the year later that was that was that was 62 and um
again that is that is not one that i've seen now but i'm looking forward to that because um that has a
that has a very strong reputation and yes unlike unlike this largely forgotten film yeah well good
i'm excited for you to see that one it's i really like that movie i think you'll enjoy it uh uh uh uh
yeah no no i'm looking i'm looking forward to it i'm looking forward to it too and so do you have any
any any kind of fit i like um as a number of these podcasts have um that focus on an individual like
they'll ask questions at the end and so i've come up with some questions um and um but before the
questions do you have do you have any final thoughts on the deadly companions i mean i feel like it's just
one for the purest you know it's really one to see if you're that interested in peckinpah and see
kind of some of the seeds of his work but yeah it's kind of ultimately forgotten for a reason
yeah and i i would agree with that there's some interesting stuff um there is um some thematic
things that um we will uh touch on many times throughout the season um but yeah it is it's very
much a kind of stamped kind of uh completist only um which kind of gives a spoiler on one of the
questions i'm about to ask but you know like it's fine it's fine so um so i thought it would be fun
um peckinpah is is is most he you know he's a complex character but i think uh reputation wise and for
people particularly people on the outside who maybe are not dug into his work is known primarily for
violence and nihilism um like um is like uh it's kind of his things he he's you know it's a
um uh a morally bleak world um that is often brutally violent so on that scale um so um i've come up with
a couple of scales the first scale is the bloody sam scale um which is like um so a one would be a
bloodless sam and um a five would be the bloodiest sam um so on the bloody sam scale what we what we
are giving this movie uh what it's hard to not give it a one but it but he does have like junior
bonner which is a movie that's just about a rodeo star which really doesn't even i don't think it you
know there's just fistfights so i guess we'd give this like a two because there are shootouts i guess
relatively bloodless shit but yeah i guess and then we got the little we got the little kind of naff scar
disfigurement it's like the disfigurement should have been much worse but yeah okay we can go with
a two yeah i think that's it that's it that's a two um that's a two so um so and then there is
there's the nihilism scale which i'll call the nietzsche scale so one nietzsche would be kind of like
yeah pretty chirpy and um you know and five nietzsche's would be like bleak as all hell
oh i feel like that's also like two maybe three we we got some decent like i guess commentary there
with with the church and the bar and like you said at the very end when the townsfolk are like
well when there's money at stake we'll we'll do whatever but we don't care about this lady and our
kid yeah that's true that's true so we are still we it's still like despite the fact we have uh kind of
tacked on happy ending i guess we are still pretty bleak so yeah maybe maybe three niches maybe somewhat
bleak yes yes yeah that's true so and then the last question um is like basically do you give this movie
a thumbs up or a thumbs down which on this podcast i'm going to call is it a pecan ya or a pecan nah
oh that's great i mean i think it's a pecan nah yeah yeah no i agree it i i think it is um on letterbox i
gave it two stars i was toying with giving it two and a half but i just yeah just particularly in the
middle of the section in the movie is just so boring um there's just nothing that it's just we're just
we are literally spinning our wheels and like spinning our wagon wheels and that is that is
what we're doing and it's just yeah you know it's such a simple plot too that you're like okay are we
at the town yet like how much further is it what else yeah what else can happen yeah are we gonna get an
attack or something like is something or not is villains going up here like just anything give us
anything but no it gives us very very little so i i agree it is a pecan nah for me too um so yeah that's
it we've that's that's our our debut episode um in the books um but um this is interesting because like
uh you are you have you have uh written and directed um your your first feature is that correct is your
your first feature yeah and and like it must be like a similar like it's very good because we're
talking about peckinpah's first feature you've done your first feature he was that when this movie was
made he was 36 you would be a similar age right yeah well yeah i mean i've yeah i'm 37 oh very close
i finished it before my birthday so i would have been 36 you'd still be 36 so it like how perfect is that
so tell us tell us a little bit about um your your first film tell us tell us about whatever you want
to tell us about sure so it's called arcane and it's just a little psychological horror film basically a
guy is looking for his missing brother who is mentally ill and also kind of mixed up with drug dealers and
possibly this kind of obscure cult um and it just kind of gets weirder from there uh but rodent directed it
and craig who craig dram who's been a guest on the show and i think is going to be again appearing on one of
these peckinpah episodes he will be appearing on one of the like just in case anybody who's not aware of my
previous shows and has just just dipped into this yes he is the he's the regular co-host on my other
regular podcast all 90s action all the time and yes he will definitely appear on one of these peckinpah
episodes i won't reveal which one yet but um he will definitely appear yes well he's in it and he helped
produce it and yeah we're just making the festival rounds at this point and see where it goes so it's
exciting excellent excellent excellent um yeah and um yeah if you do have any more information about that
i can definitely uh put it in the show notes when when this episode comes out probably probably um
so this is either come out at the end of 2025 or the start of 2026 i'm not quite sure yet but whenever
you listen to this is yeah this is when it comes out um so so yeah i'll definitely definitely give it
information so it's it's it's been great um uh chatting to you once again once again kyle um it's always fun
recording with you and uh yeah thanks again for coming on yeah thank you for having me uh and uh yes do join us
again next month when as i mentioned i will be talking all about ride the high country until then see ya