Directed by BARRY SHEAR Story by SAMUEL FULLER Screenplay by LUKAS HELLER     CAST RICHARD HARRIS as Sheriff Sean Kilpatrick ROD TAYLOR as Frank Brand AL LETTIER as Mex. Policeman Gutierrez WILLIAM SMITH as Schoolboy NEVILLE BRAND as Choo Choo PAUL BENJAMIN as Jacob PEDRO ARMENDARIZ Jr. as Herrero ISELA VEGA as Maria KELLY JEAN PETERS as Katharine Kilpatrick WILLIAM BRYANT as Deputy Bill SEAN MARSHALL as Kevin Kilpatrick REED MORGAN as Deputy Bob JOAN SWIFT as Teacher RAY MOYER as Priest ARMANDO ACOSTA as Mole PEPE CHAVEZ as Mexican Priest FEDERICO GONZALEZ as Bar Customer JOHN KENNEDY as Santa Rosa Banker

The Deadly Trackers is a violent, gritty film from the screenwriter who previously penned The Dirty Dozen and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?.  Under the opening credits are flashed stills of a peaceful industrious little western town with special emphasis on the competent sheriff with his loving wife and adorable little boy.  Interspersed are stills of the four men coming to rob the bank.   It wouldn't seem that an ex-Confederate officer leading a former slave, an amputee and a mentally retarded man would pose much of a challenge.  However, when the amputee is Neville Brand, called Choo Choo because he's attached part of a railroad tie to his arm to replace his missing hand and the mental deficient is William Smith in his physical prime and at his evil worst, the gang takes on more menace.

The sheriff and his loving wife and son

Frank Brand, Jacob, Schoolboy and Choo Choo

Although the gang succeeds in taking the money from the bank and murdering the banker, they haven't reckoned with the way the sheriff has organized the town for just such marauding.  The town folk quickly hand out rifles from a locked box near the sheriff's office, pull in wagons to block the street and block another escape route with fire.  Quickly three of the men are captured.

Schoolboy takes a special liking to a bank customer's hat and gets it the best way he knows,  a knife through the gut.

Wagon blockade

Fire blockade

The armory

The townsfolk

Jacob caught

Choo Choo caught

Schoolboy's horse goes down

Schoolboy tries to take a hostage but lets him go in the face of a dozen rifles.

And Schoolboy is caught

However, Brand is not about to see his plans go for naught.  He invades the schoolhouse and takes the sheriff's little boy hostage.  His men are released.

With a gun to the little boy's head, Brand gets his men released.

Brand rides off with the boy to ensure he won't be stopped.

Banks momentarily hands the boy off to Schoolboy who then lifts him up to Brand on his horse.

When the boy's mother sees the men riding off with her boy, she runs after Brand and grabs on to his horse.  Brand shoots her in the face and then throws the little boy in the path of the galloping horses behind him.

The boys mother is dragged down the street before being shot

The boy is crushed under the horses' hooves.

With the murders of his wife and child, Kilpatrick changes from a peace-loving man of the law to a man with nothing but vengeance on his mind.  He tracks the gang to their camp where they're dividing the loot.

It's a shame this magnificent look had to be wasted on a mentally deficient psycho

Despite the urging of the others, Schoolboy is so enamored of his new hat, jewelry and cash, he stays behind to be the first one killed.  He's shot but has to be finished off with his own knife.

Bill's dead hand is the last we see of him.

Kilpatrick has a chance to pick off one or more of the gang from a ridge but is stopped by Gutierrez, a Mexican police officer who believes in the rule of law in the same way Kilpatrick used to. For the rest of the movie, Kilpatrick eludes Gutierrez and the traps laid by Brand.  He fairly quickly manages to get rid of Choo Choo, who sinks to his death in quicksand, and Jacob who is shot in a bar.

Choo Choo sinks

Jacob is shot

Twice

As Kilpatrick tracks down Brand, he finds out Brand's weak spot.  He has a little daughter being raised in a convent.  At first Kilpatrick thinks to trade a murder for a murder, but he hasn't deteriorated that much.  He does manage to capture Brand however.

However, when he gets Brand into the nearby town, Gutierrez tells him they no longer have any witnesses for the crimes Brand committed in Mexico and they can't extradite him to the United States.  He urges Kilpatrick to let Brand go.  Brand mocks his helplessness.  At least he does until Kilpatrick shoots him dead.

As Kilpatrick slowly rides out, we can see he knows what is coming as Gutierrez shouts at him to stop.  When he doesn't, Gutierrez shoots him in the back.  And thus ends this sad tale.

NiteOwl Review:  There were a number of things to like about this movie.  This was the first time we remember Rod Taylor playing a villain of this type and we heard he had fun with it.  And as Laredo fans it was interesting to see Bill and Neville together here with such different characters.  Although a good portion of us lost interest after Bill's character was killed off, his magnificent look in his great costume made it worth watching.  Those of us who really liked The Wild Bunch liked this one pretty well although it's not the "masterpiece" the Wild Bunch enthusiasts insist that movie is.   However, despite the theme, this didn't especially appeal to those of us who generally love revenge films.
 

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