Chill Wills

Supreme Court Justice John Josephus Grant (Frank Morgan) slips away for a quiet duck-hunting trip and lands in a small town ruled by a corrupt mayor and a bought judge. Incognito, he watches local politicians railroad an innocent young man and decides to put the system on trial himself. A warm, Capra-flavored civics comedy built around the Wizard of Oz himself, with Richard Carlson and Jean Rogers as the young couple caught in the machine. The film is in the public domain.

Comedy · Drama · Romance

Sam Peckinpah's feature directing debut, made after years of television westerns. When drifting gunfighter Yellowleg (Brian Keith) accidentally kills the son of dance-hall hostess Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara), he insists on escorting her across Apache country to bury the boy beside his father — a journey the whole town considers madness. Steve Cochran and Chill Wills play the outlaws who tag along for a bank payroll. The film already shows Peckinpah's fixations: guilt, obsession, and violence that solves nothing. Shot in CinemaScope on Arizona locations, it flopped on release but is now watched as the first chapter of one of the great western careers. The film is in the public domain after its copyright was not renewed.

Western