Buffalo Gun (1961)

Plot: Three government men are on a mission to recover some stolen guns and re-establish peace with the Indians in this film sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek humor.


Starring. . . .

Webb Pierce
Carl Smith 
Marty Robbins
Wayne Morris 
Don "Red" Barry
Mary Ellen Kay
Douglas Fowley
Harry Lauter
The Jordanaires
        Gordon Stoker
        Neal Matthews Jr.
        Hoyt Hawkins
        Hugh Jarrett
Eddie Crandall
Bill Coontz
Eddie Little Sky
Charles Soldani



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Storyline Roundup: (note: SPOILERS)

It's 1871, and Marty Robbins, Carl Smith, and Webb Pierce are on a trail drive, delivering a herd of cattle to the Cheyenne reservation. But they are no ordinary cowpokes; Webb Pierce is a government agent from back East ("a real dude"), and he deputized Carl and Marty to help him find a shipment of stolen buffalo guns and to stop those who have been rustling the Indians' cattle. The Indians are growing restless, and war on the horizon.

While the "three musketeers of the West" are driving the cattle down the trail, a suspicious-looking group forms not far away. After the boss, Roeca (Morris) gives his orders to steal the whole herd, he leaves. Vin (Lauter) is not too happy with the boss missing out on the dangerous part of the job, but Murdock (Barry) sides with the boss.

When the rustlers move in, there's gunplay. Carl and Webb hear a thundering shot and recognize it as that of a buffalo gun. "Let's get it, Webb!" Carl shouts. "Marty, you stay with the herd!" Marty is just wading out of the murky river water after a fist fight with one of the bad guys.

Carl and Webb chase a couple of the men, and Carl gets into a fight of his own. He gets the buffalo gun he was after, but the man he fought with gets away.

Webb catches up with Carl. "Things like this just don't happen in Nashville," he says.

They stash the gun away, and then go up to the nearby reservation. They talk with the chief (Soldani) and the Indian agent, Roeca (the outlaw boss). Roeca offers his help, and suggests Carl and Marty go to Basquo Rocks to find the rustlers. After Roeca leaves, the chief says, "If I wished to see white man die, I tell him go to Basquo Rocks. Many angry Comanche hide there." This leads Carl and Webb to suspect Roeca.

They backtrack to go pick up the buffalo gun, which Webb hid in the base of a hollow tree, and Marty joins up with them again. But someone else found the gun first, and the three men lose the battle with the intruder.

Skunk & Gun

Even a jump in the creek doesn't help the smell go away. They build a fire to dry their skunky clothes, and attitudes are less than pleasant. Carl and Marty rib Webb about being a tenderfoot.

Soon a wagon comes rumbling down the road, and the trio rushes up to it. The driver, Edward G. Hubbard (Crandall) at first thinks it is a holdup, and willingly sells them beans, apricots, fresh clothes, and a guitar from his wagon. They go into the brush to change into their new clothes, and when they come out, they are dismayed to find themselves in matching outfits. Before they can complain, Eddie Hubbard takes his wagon and leaves.

The boys go back to their campfire and eat apricots and play their new guitar. Marty complains about the apricots, "They are about the worst I ever tasted. Taste like the have gunpowder in 'em." He takes another bite and finds a percussion cap. Carl jumps up and digs into the apricot bucket.

"Well, look at this." He finds shell caps for buffalo guns.

They send a telegram to the sheriff in Las Cruces, but what they don't know is that the telegraph operator is Vin, one of the outlaws.

Despite being ambushed, chased, and attacked by some renegades, Carl, Marty, and Webb manage to make it into town. They go to the general store run by Eddie and his sister to investigate. Marty is immediately smitten with the girl, Clementine (Kay). He gets a date with her for a dance that night. Carl and Webb give Eddie the third degree and find out he was just delivering those apricots to Murdock.

The three men head over to the sheriff's office. The sheriff (Fowley) is quite a character, but he's honest. All four head to the telegraph office to find out why the sheriff never received the message that Webb sent. They talk to Vin and realize that he is lying and must be one of the bad guys. Later they follow Vin to Roeca's. They go in and find Roeca and Murdock (Vin is in the back room) and have a little conversation.

Murdock and Roeca

Shortly after they leave, they see Vin ride away from Roeca's, and Marty goes after him and catches him. Then, Carl, Marty, Webb, and the sheriff trail Murdock and Roeca back to town, to Murdock's barn, where the dance is being held. Little do they know that the barn is also where the guns are being kept. They put Vin in jail. Eddie finds out, and they deputize him in hopes of keeping him quiet about it, but it doesn't work for long. Roeca tricks Eddie into telling him about Vin.

Marty meets up with Clementine at the dance, and Webb finds a girl named Lucy to dance with. Carl sings a song and then starts poking around the barn. Murdock keeps Marty and Webb busy singing songs, while his men are out on the range, gathering up cattle for a planned stampede into town.

While the cattle are creating a dangerous distraction, one of the renegade Indians working for Roeca slips into the jail and stabs Vin, and Roeca and Murdock work on loading the rifles, which were hidden in the loft of the barn, into a wagon.

The Indian who killed Vin tries to kill Eddie, but Webb shoots the Indian and saves Eddie. Marty and Carl come back from driving the cattle out of town with two outlaws. They take them into the barn in hopes of forcing them to show them the guns, but Roeca and Murdock jump out of the hayloft and a fights begins.

Of course, the good guys win, and the sheriff shows up just in time to take the bad guys to jail. With the buffalo guns recovered, Marty suggests that they start the dance back up.

Marty narrates (as he did throughout the entire film), and says, "Yep. Old Carl, Webb, and me rode out of town in true Western style—right into the sunset. . . . But I rode back."

Marty, Clementine, and their family

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Songs:

The Same Two Lips (written and sung by Marty Robbins)

Sugaree (written by Marty Robbins) (sung by the Jordanaires)

You Can't Hurt Me Anymore (sung by Carl Smith)

Oh, My Darling Clementine (traditional, written by Percy Montrose [?]) (sung by Marty Robbins and the Jordanaires)

Someday (written by Sonny Curtis and Webb Pierce) (sung by Webb Pierce and the Jordanaires)

Buffalo Gun (sung by the Jordanaires)



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Notes:

Buffalo Gun was actually filmed simultaneously with Raiders of Old California, which starred Faron Young, in 1957, and was not released until '61. Many of the same actors are in both: Douglas Fowley (playing the sheriff in both), Harry Lauter, and Marty Robbins, for example. Marty's role as an outlaw in Raiders was much smaller than his leading role in Buffalo Guns. 

Also much of the same footage was used in both films, and Faron Young wears the same kind of outfit as Pierce, Smith, and Robbins wear.

The three singers appeared together on The Country Show (Grand Ole Opry Stars of the 1950s) in their costumes and sang "Why, Baby, Why."

  





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Buffalo Guns is a 1961, Albert C. Gannaway Production, distributed by Globe Pictures.

72 minutes running time.

Filmed at: Corriganville Movie Ranch, CA
                   Walker Ranch, CA
                   Monogram Ranch, CA


Director: Albert C. Gannaway

Assistant Directors: Frank Fox
                                  Dick La Croix

Producer: A. R. Milton

Associate Producer: William Ward

Screenplay by: A. R. Milton

Cinematographer: Perry Finnerman

Editor: Carl Pingatore

Art Director: George Troast

Sound Effects: Kay Harris

Music Department: Ramey Idriss

Marty Robbins' Birthday

By NBC Television [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Martin David Robinson and his twin sister Mamie Ellen Robinson were born September 26, 1925.

Martin's father was an abusive man, an alcoholic. The powerful Arizona desert was Martin's playground and sanctuary. He took on the name "Marty Robbins" when, as a young adult, he started singing in public. He didn't want his family to know what he was doing because they would consider singing a lazy way to make a living. It wasn't until he became famous that he openly admitted his career choice

Marty married Marizona Baldwin in 1948, and they were happily married the rest of his life.

Although rock 'n roll was usurping most all other genres of music by the late 1950s, Marty always favored Country and Western music. He was a fan of Gene Autry and never outgrew his desire to be a "singing cowboy." His recordings of such songs as "El Paso," "Big Iron," and "The Hanging Tree" helped revive Western music.

Marty made a TV series that lasted only twelve episodes in 1965. It was called The Drifter and starred Marty as a singing cowboy, always on the move. And he also appeared in films such as Buffalo Gun (1961) with fellow Country music legends Webb Pierce and Carl Smith, Ballad of a Gunfighter (1963), and Guns of a Stranger (1971), which Marty co-produced.

Even after experiencing a couple of heart attacks and bad wrecks, he still liked to race cars, which was a lifelong love for him.

In December, 1982, Marty went through one last heart attack. On December 8, 1982, days after an 8 1/2-hour operation, Marty Robbins died, leaving his wife and two children.






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Sources:

"Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins" by Diane Diekman.

Raiders of Old California (1957)

Plot: The story of a man (Jim Davis) determined to establish his own empire in California. Marshal Faron Young and a few other law-abiding citizens fight back.

Starring . . .

Jim Davis
Arleen Whelan
Faron Young
Lee Van Cleef
Harry Lauter
Louis Jean Heydt
Marty Robbins
Douglas Fowley
Lawrence Dobkin
Bill Coontz
Don Diamond
Rick Vallin
Tom Hubbard
Edward Colmans
Gerald Mohr (Narrator)




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Storyline Roundup: (note: SPOILERS)


The Mexican-American War has been over for three years, but ex-captain Angus Clyde McKane (Davis) and his old crew are forcing peaceful Mexican settlers off their land. McKane claims he owns the large stretch of land that was once belonged to Don Miguel Sebastian (Dobkin), who gave the people permission to live there.

Cleef, Lauter, Davis

Marshal Faron Young (guess who?) and his father, Judge Ward Young (Heydt) come to McKaneville, the county seat of McKane county, to try and put a stop to the violence. The only law in McKaneville is the sincere but incompetent sheriff (Fowley) who, as he says himself, just "strings along."

McKane's top man, Pardee (Van Cleef) comes to talk the the Youngs in the sheriff's office. He explains that, in order to move a herd of cattle through to Santa Fe, McKane is moving people off the land. Pardee tells them McKane has the document known as the "Sebastian Land Grant."

"We'd like to see this deed," Marshal Young says. Pardee says to come on out anytime, and McKane will show them the grant. The marshal and the judge still aren't very impressed, and Pardee keeps talking. Marshal Young tells him to remove his hat while talking to a judge.

Fowley, Young, Heydt

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me."

A fight erupts, and the marshal lands Pardee facedown in the dirt outside the office.

After that, the Youngs go and talk to one of the settlers who complained about McKane. The man has no deeds to back up his ownership of the land, but is sure that Sebastian would not sell the land out from under his friends.


Then, they go and see McKane, who produces a deed and gives them a story about buying the deed from a drunk Mexican in Mataroros before the war was over, and that they paid for it by covering the man's gambling debts. Pardee and another one of McKane's men, Boyle (Robbins) back up the story. There is one more signature on the paper—that of witness Scott Johnson. McKane says that Johnson will further enforce the story, but as soon as the Youngs leave, McKane sends Pardee to tell Johnson what to say when the marshal comes by.

Johnson (Lauter) regrets his past with McKane. Pardee threatens Johnson's wife (Whelen), but despite that, Johnson levels with the marshal and the judge, and plans on leaving town with his wife and then coming back to testify against mcKane.

"Leavin' town's a dead give away of what you aim to do," the marshal tells him. "McKane's men would hunt you down."

Even as they speak, McKane and his men descend upon Johnson's home and shoot at the Youngs and the Johnsons. Scott gets wounded while they are escaping. Unsure if  he'll live, he tells the judge that Sebastian is not dead as everyone believes, but is very much alive. . . . somewhere.

Pardee heard Johnson confessing. Neither McKane nor his men are aware of Sebastian's location, but one of the settlers is. They kill the him after learning that Sebastian is in La Crista. The settler's widow tells Marshal Young where and why the men are going.

On the way to La Crista, the marshal is attacked by Indians, but he manages to fight them off. He catches up with McKane's men and shoots Boyle. He takes the nearly-dead Boyle to a priest in La Crista.


McKane's men trick a local man (Diamond) into telling them where Sebastian is.

Marshal Young finds out where Sebastian is, too—Young is sitting alone with Boyle, and Boyle tells him that the priest who came to see him was Miguel Sebastian.

Meanwhile, Judge Young goes to see McKane about the murder of the Mexican settler. He gives McKane a subpoena to appear in court the next day at 10:00 A.M.

Marshal Young has a little difficulty getting Sebastian to town in one piece, and it is morning by the time they get there. And court is soon is session. (Scott Johnson is not yet well enough to testify.)

McKane has a plan up his sleeve; he persuaded several men to join him in return for land—he plans to found his own government. He will have a herd of cattle stampeded through town during the trial and will kill every man in the courtroom who is not on his side.

During the trial, it is learned that McKane traded Sebastian—the land for his life—the day the war ended. McKane forged official documents stating that Sebastian was dead.

The jury is dismissed as the case enters a new level, but just then, cattle start pouring onto the streets of McKaneville, and people pour out of the courtroom.

Two men are killed in the stampede: the sheriff and McKane himself. The plan backfired,and the brief incident took McKane's life.

"Well, I guess that settles his claim," Marshal Young says soberly.

Sebastian gives legal deeds to the settlers on his land, and the film ends as Marshal Young and Judge Young ride away.

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According to Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story, Young did all of his own stunts, and the knife fight scene with an Indian resulted in Faron getting three stitches in his left eyelid. He zigged to the left when he should have zagged to the right.

Screenshots from knife fight scene

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Raiders of Old California is a 1957, Republic Studios Production

72 minutes running time.

Associate Producers and Written by: Sam Rocea
                                                                Thomas G. Hubbard

Photographed by: Charles Straumer, A.S.C.

Supervising Editor: Carl Pingitore

Technical Advisor: Bill Ward

Assistant Director: Les Guthrie

Script Supervisor: Mai Deitrech

Production Assistant: Richard La Croix 

Makeup: Carlie Taylor

Wardrobe: Bob Richards

Sound Mixer: Leon M. Leon

Produced and Directed by: Albert C. Gannaway