The Deadly Companions

Yellowleg (Brian Keith) escorts Kit Tilden (Maureen O'Hara) through hostile Apache territory to bury her son, who he accidentally shot while trying to stop a robbery. A couple of shady characters, Turk (Chill Wills) and Billy Keplinger (Steve Cochran), are recruited to ride along for reasons only Yellowleg knows. Director Sam Peckinpah's first feature, The Deadly Companions (1961) was shot in 21 days at Old Tucson Studios. Brian Keith had appeared in Peckinpah's TV series The Westerner, and had recentlycostarred with Maureen O'Hara in The Parent Trap. Peckinpah was not allowed to rewrite the script or supervise the editing (it was produced by O'Hara's brother), but his direction is assured, his strong visual stamp is already evident, and his typical themes front and center. (Toby Roan)