The Deadly Companions (1961)

THE DEADLY COMPANIONS is a slow and long-winded low budget western chiefly of interest for being Sam Peckinpah's first movie. His presence is felt in the anti-hero qualities of the main characters; the hero of the piece begins the movie by shooting a kid in an accident and struggles to make amends for his misdeeds thereafter.Holding the whole thing together is old-timer Maureen O'Hara, who brings a wealth of cinematic experience to the production with her. The story follows her character as she leads her son's body through the desert in order to give him a decent burial. There are some double-crossings and macho heroism stuff en route, but the film's sense of weariness is heightened in the viewer himself, making this something of a slog at times.

Spoilers Ahead, Most definitely.A man accidentally kills a woman's son & to make up for it, he escorts her & her son's coffin through dangerous Indian territory??? I don't know about you but if somebody killed my son, accidentally or not, I'd be seething with rage.I wouldn't want them to escort me anywhere because any chance I'd get, I'd probably end up trying to kill them.The thing that truly surprises me is that she falls in love with him in the end, WOW!!! I kinda figured that was going to happen.Anywayz, The Deadly Companions was OK.Nothing great at all.It's watchable but I imagine if you watch it once, once is enough.Nothing really happens & it's almost boring at times.I think I might have even fell asleep watching it.In my opinion, the best thing about The Deadly Companions was Chill Wills & Steve Cochran as Turk & Billy.They were perfect together & at times, hilarious.It's a shame they turned on each other at the finale but that's what thieves do.I'd say watch it if you have the chance to see it for free but if you miss it, I don't think you're missing much

The beginning scenes in town made me think this would be first-rate Peckinpah. A demented Turk (Wills) balances atop an unsteady barrel while he hangs by a noose from the ceiling. All the time, the rest of the barroom plays cards. That strikes me as pure Peckinpah and it's a heckuv an audience hook. And soon after, flawed hero Yellowleg (Keith), mistakenly shoots a boy, an unconventional twist typical of Peckinpah's sense of irony. Then there's the church service in the barroom where our three roughnecks look on in curious discomfort. Now I don't know if Peckinpah originated these unorthodox episodes, but he definitely got them on screen. But once Yellowleg and Kit (O"Hara) leave town with the boy's body, the pace and inventiveness come to an unhappy halt. I understand that the ad-hoc production company interfered with the final cut, which may be the reason the second part dissipates. But it was also a low-budget production, causing me to think they may have improvised events along the trail. Certainly there's little costly dialog, plus Yellowleg's dubious raid on the Indian camp would have trouble withstanding serious second thoughts. Then too, the mercurial Peckinpah is not the most appropriate personality to work with a diva like O'Hara, especially when her brother is the producer. In short, I don't blame the director of the Wild Bunch (1969) for generally dismissing this as his first film. It's flawed in ways that would not be repeated.(In passing—for fans of Peckinpah, be sure to catch up with his brilliant but little-known TV series The Westerner (1960), starring the always low-key Brian Keith as an itinerant cowboy. It was clearly too unconventional to last beyond its 13 weeks. Now it can be seen as unfortunately ahead of its time. I caught up with it on The Western Channel.)

The Deadly Companions is directed by Sam Peckinpah and written by Albert Sidney Fleischman. It stars Brian Keith, Maureen O'Hara, Chill Wills and Steve Cochran. Music is by Marlin Skiles and cinematography by William H. Clothier. Plot finds Keith as an ex-army officer who accidentally kills the son of Kit Tildon (O'Hara) and tries to make amends by escorting the funeral procession through dangerous Indian territory.Historic in the context that it was Peckinpah's first feature film, The Deadly Companions has interesting themes of revenge, redemption and grief, all played out in a road movie formula. It's often pretty as well, as ace cinematographer Clothier photographs out of Old Tuscon, Arizona. Yet the trouble behind the scenes does show.Peckinpah, starting where he meant to go on, argued with producer Charles FitzSimons about Fleischman's script, the director constantly offering up rewritten passages to put zest and energy into a screenplay he felt was plodding. Keith was in agreement with his director, Clothier, too, was firmly on Peckinpah's side, even branding FitzSimons an idiot, while O'Hara naturally stayed loyal to her brother, one Charles FitzSimons! The film is often lifeless and silly, even reliant on too many convenient set-ups, dialogue is hackneyed and the musical score is infuriatingly intrusive. While the performances are in keeping with the sub-standard material they worked from. The director's cut turned in was tampered with by FitzSimons, leaving the film with an ending that quite frankly is bizarre. It has the odd fleeting moment of worth, mostly when Keith is reacting to Wills and Cochran, or with the small screen time afforded Strother Martin, but ultimately it's a damp squib, very much only half a Peckinpah movie and far removed from the original vision he had for the project. 4/10