The Bravados is a 1958 western film directed by Henry King and starring Gregory Peck, Joan Collins, Stephen Boyd, Henry Silva, Albert Salmi, Kathleen Gallant, Barry Coe, George Voskovec, Lee Van Cleef and Gene Evans. Henry King (* 24th January 1886 in Christiansburg, Virginia; † 29th June 1982 in Toluca Lake, California) was an American film director. ... Frank ORourke (1916-1989) was an American writers known for western and mystery novels and for sports fiction. ... Philip Yordan (April 1, 1914 - March 24, 2003) was a popular and talented screenwriter of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. ... Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an Oscar-winning American film actor. ... Joan Henrietta Collins OBE (born May 23, 1933) is a Golden Globe Award winning British actress and bestselling author. ... Born in New Haven, Conn. ... Leon Shamroy (July 16, 1901 – July 7, 1974) was an American film cinematographer. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the major American film studios. ... Justus D. Barnes, from The Great Train Robbery The Western is one of the classic American literary and film genres. ... Henry King (* 24th January 1886 in Christiansburg, Virginia; † 29th June 1982 in Toluca Lake, California) was an American film director. ... Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) was an Oscar-winning American film actor. ... Joan Henrietta Collins OBE (born May 23, 1933) is a Golden Globe Award winning British actress and bestselling author. ... Stephen Boyd Stephen Boyd (born William Millar, July 4, 1931 – June 2, 1977) - was an Irish actor, born in Glengormley in Northern Ireland, who starred in over fifty films. ... Henry Silva (born September 15, 1928) is an actor of Puerto Rican descent who has played a wide variety of movie roles. ... Albert Salmi (born March 11, 1928; died April 23, 1990) was an American actor. ... Jiří (George) Voskovec made his first stage appearance in his native Czechoslovakia. ... Lee Van Cleef (January 9, 1925 – December 16, 1989) was an American film actor, who appeared mostly in Western and action pictures. ... Actor Gene Evans in Crashout Film actor Gene Evans (July 11, 1922 - April 1, 1998) began his acting career while serving in World War II while performing an a theatrical troupe of GIs in Europe. ...

Plot

Jim Douglas is a rancher who has been pursuing for six months the four outlaws who murdered his wife. He rides into a town where four men fitting the description are in jail awaiting execution, so that he can see the hanging. The town has issued instructions to only allow the hangman to enter, so Jim is taken to the sheriff's office to state his business. The town had never had an execution before, so they brought in a man from outside town to do the job. The sheriff allows Jim into the jail to see the men, who say that they had never seen him before, but he has the face of a hunter. In town Jim meets Josefa Velarde, who he had met five years previously in New Orleans but hadn't seen since. Through their conversation we learn that she was husband hunting when they knew before, but she had been looking after her father's ranch since he died. Jim reveals to her that he has a daughter. Other inhabitants of the town include businessman Gus Steimmetz, his daughter Emma and her finacé Tom. The executioner arrives the same day.

While the town is at church attending the evening mass, which Jim attends with Josefa, the four men escape, with the aid of the executioner who is an accomplice. The executioner stabs the sheriff, who in turn shoots him dead. They capture Emma, who has left the church to return to her father's store, and take her with them. The wounded sheriff comes into the church during the service and tells the townspeople that the prisoners have escaped. The townspeople then enlist Jim's aid to track them down.

Jim corners one of the men in a grass field, who pleads for his life before Jim kills him. Then Jim ropes another man by the feet and hangs him upside-down from a tree. The two remaining men head reach the house of John Butler, a prospector and Jim's neighbour. They kill him and steal the gold he tried to run off with, but they see someone approaching in the distance and leave in a panic, leaving Emma behind. The people coming turn out to be Josefa and Jim, coming from different directions. Jim identifies the body, and the posse arrives and finds Emma in the house. Jim tells the posse to ride on while he goes back to his ranch to get fresh horses.

However, when Jim arrives home, he hears that one of the men he is pursuing had taken the last horse. Leaving Josefa with his daughter, he rejoins the posse. When they arrive at the Mexican border, Jim goes on alone. He finds one of the men in a bar and kills him. He then goes on to the home of the fourth man. However, while talking with the man, Jim realizes that he had been pursuing the wrong men, for although the men were justly convicted for murder, they had nothing to do with his wife's death. Indeed, when he showed each of them a picture of his wife, all of them denied ever having seen her. Jim realizes that he is no better than the men he has been pursuing, having killed in cold blood, and he returns to town and goes to the church to beg forgiveness. The priest says that he did what he felt was right. Josefa then arrives with Jim's daughter, and as they exit the church together, the sheriff, who has recovered, thanks Jim for his service to the town.

External links

• The Bravados at the Internet Movie Database