Payne plays John Willoughby, a Union veteran now living in the small western town Kittreck Wells with his wife Nora (Ruth Roman) and young son Petey. The local marshal asks for John's help in tracking down a band of Confederate veterans who are responsible for a robbery in a nearby town. Since he has a grudge against all rebels, John agrees to go despite pleas from Nora to stay.
The robbers, a father and his four sons, are actually camped near Kittreck Wells and running low on water. Patriarch Bedloe Mason sends Wesley, Gray and Frank into town and remains behind with Cain. Nora and Petey are in town for his birthday party, and Petey remains outside while his mother goes inside one of the buildings to help prepare. Petey dislikes Confederates as much as his father, and has a cap pistol he fires at the trio while their backs are turned. Wesley whirls around, pulling his gun and shooting the boy before he realizes what has happened.
Naturally the trio head quickly back to camp, where events escalate even further. Gray feels Wesley should return to town and face the consequences; everyone else disagrees. When he takes off for town to see if Petey is actually dead, Wesley follows him, stabs him in the back, ties him to his horse and sends what he assumes is a dead body on its way. When he returns to camp he claims Gray is determined to head into town, and will meet them in another location in three days.
After Petey's funeral a posse heads out to find the killer, but they refuse to take the distraught Willoughby. He sets out on his own and soon finds Gray on the horse. He takes the young man home, and he and Nora begin to nurse him back to health. They slowly learn the story of his involvement in the gang, and an eyewitness claims Gray killed Petey. Mason has finally learned the truth himself and rides into town with his other sons just as vigilantes seize Gray to hang him. Wesley's guilt is soon known to all, and as he tries to escape John arrives to fight with and then kill him.
More comments are below some of the photos.
The film was released on July 30, 1956, and is 78 minutes long. Blogger Randy Johnson commented on this film in a January 2, 2012 post.
Many southerners left their devastated homeland after the Civil War and headed west to join a general westward migration also underway. One spot was Texas, which had a population of just 200,000 in 1850 and 1,600,000 by 1880. Others headed south, especially to Mexico and Brazil.
Danny Arnold had a long entertainment career as comedian, actor, writer, director and producer of successful television show like Barney Miller, That Girl and Bewitched. He was born in New York City and spent much of his life in Hollywood. This film was the next-to-last directed by Alfred L. Werker, who doesn't seem to have had any Southern U. S. connections either.
Gray, Wesley and Frank Mason ride into town just looking for water. Gray was played by Ben Cooper; see below for more info on his career. John Smith played Wesley; he acted in many films and on television including lead roles in Cimarron City and Laramie. Ben Johnson worked as a stunt man, rodeo champion and actor in numerous films and TV shows that were mostly westerns. He won a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show.
By the time this film was released, Roman had been acting in Hollywood for a decade and her career in film and television would continue until 1982. Payne starred in a number of crime thrillers, westerns and more and the television series The Restless Gun. He was the male lead in one of my favorite movies, the original Miracle on 34th Street.
As the Mason family sits around their campfire after Petey's death and funeral, patriarch Bedloe Mason reminisces about the fine parlor they once had in their house [back in Alabama] and how he raised his sons to be gentlemen even if they weren't high society. Then he acknowledges all the death and destruction of the war...
J. Carol Naish was also a veteran actor with eventually more than 200 credits in his long film and television career. He received two nominations for best supporting actor Academy Awards.
"I haven't been around here very long, I'm from Alabama", Gray says to Willoughby after he brings him home. Petey's father found him unconscious & tied to a horse after brother Wesley stabbed him. The actor playing Gray was Ben Cooper, who appeared in a number of film and television westerns
"Our patient's from Alabama, Nora" John tells Nora. "I know", she replies. A few moments later in the conversation Payne notes that Alabama is a long way off, and the patient agrees.
Gray Mason is the youngest of the sons, & the one who wanted to return to town to see if Petey had been killed. He is thus the "rebel in town". He served as a Lieutenant in Murphy's Alabama battalion, as identified by the sheriff who thinks he may be one of the bandits that recently robbed the bank in White Springs.
Murphy's battalion was a real Confederate cavalry unit in the Civil War; three Alabama men named Mason were part of it.
At the end of the film Gray is led away to face the consequences of his family's robbing ways. He tells the little girl Elizabeth who saw Petey shot that "I come from a long way from here, Liz, a place called Alabama".
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