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If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely the worst movie.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

A film who seems have no story. in strange way, that is not a problem. first, for the well made characters. second - for the performances. and for silences. for small gestures and for inspired exploration of past. not the last, for the fine equilibrium between the pieces of drama. a man. a woman. a coffen and a film who could be defined as western. not an ordinary one. but one of the most useful. as a story. about the angles of solitude.

The Deadly Companions is one of those star produced vehicles, in this case unofficially by Maureen O'Hara although her brother Charles Fitzsimmons is the nominal producer. According to her memoirs she wanted Brian Keith as her co-star, but Keith wanted Sam Peckinpah to be given his first shot at directing a feature film. O'Hara agreed much to her regret.The film is an interesting and most adult western. Keith is a Union army veteran whose thrown in with a pair of ex-Confederates, Steve Cochran and Chill Wills. But he's also got a mission to avenge a scar given him by a former Confederate sergeant in a brawl. Still he takes his time as he believes as that revenge is a dish best served cold.While stopping over at a town where the three are contemplating a bank robbery, some other robbers beat them to it. Keith, Cochran, and Wills shoot it out with the others, but in the process Maureen O'Hara's son is killed by Keith.The grieving widow is determined to take her son's body back to a place that is now a ghost town and the way is through Apache territory. Keith agrees to accompany her out of obligation, Cochran has his hormones in overdrive and Wills goes along for the ride. These are not three guys I would want to be out on the trail with and they prove it soon enough.Given all that happens to them and the characters that Peckinpah develops, they all should have died on the trail. There's violence enough in The Deadly Companions, but Peckinpah had not yet developed one of those slow motion violence ballets he would later use to great effect in The Wild Bunch.Peckinpah didn't like the film, he preferred to think of Ride The High Country as his cinematic debut. O'Hara didn't like the film and doubly didn't like Peckinpah. In this she echoed Charlton Heston who had a similar opinion, though Heston gave Peckinpah his due insofar as talent was concerned. Both thought he had a screw loose. O'Hara also said he didn't have a clue as to how to direct a feature film his experienced crew carried him along. I would say he learned though.But for this film I have to agree with Sam and Maureen. It really is quite mediocre.

Yellowleg is a veteran Civil War Yankee officer.He saves the cheater Turk in a card game.Together with a gunslinger Billy Keplinger they ride to Gila City with a bank robbery in mind.There some bandits rob a store and Yellowleg accidentally kills the son of the cabaret dancer Kit Tilden.She has determined to bury her son in the Apache country Siringo, where her husband is buried.Yellowleg has determined to take her and her son there, even though she doesn't want his help.The Deadly Companions (1961) marks the directorial debut of Sam Peckinpah.This is also the least known of his movies.But it is a good movie nevertheless.I enjoyed watching the work of Maureen O'Hara, who turned 90 last month.Her role as Kit Tilden, the mother who has lost her child, is memorable.There's a lot of depth in Brian Keith's acting and his character Yellowleg.Steve Cochran is terrific as Billy.And so is Chill Wills as Turk.Strother Martin does great job as Parson.James O'Hara (Maureen's brother) plays Cal, General Store.Billy Vaughan is Mead Tilden Jr.One of the finest moments in this movie is when Yellowleg shows his scar under his hat, the scar he got when a man tried to scalp him during the war.Also a great moment is when the Apache soldier is causing some trouble.A good start for Sam Peckinpah.

Early Sam Peckinpah western is a ragtag second-feature with Maureen O'Hara improbably cast as a dance hall hostess in 1860s Arizona. Her young son has been accidentally shot and killed by Yankee cowboy Brian Keith, who has come out west seeking revenge; after the lady takes off for a neighboring town to bury her boy, the cowboy (with a bad shooting arm!) trails behind her to keep her safe from Apaches. Scrappy, unabsorbing outdoor yarn with mediocre cinematography and scoring, also a disappointing performance by O'Hara (stubborn as usual, yet exasperatingly so). Screenwriter A.S. Fleischman (who later novelized his script, which was published prior to filming) certainly takes his time ironing out the relationships in this story. By the time he and director Peckinpah have finished, it seems a wasted effort. ** from ****