The looters

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Movie
German title The looters
Original title The Plunderers
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1960
length 96 minutes
Rod
Director Joseph Pevney
script Bob Barbash
production Joseph Pevney
music Leonard Rosenman
camera Gene Polito
cut Tom McAdoo
occupation

The Plunderers (original title The Plunderers ) is an American western from 1960 with Jeff Chandler , John Saxon and Dolores Hart in the lead roles.

action

The four young cowboys Jeb, Mule, Rondo and Davy come to the town of Trail City and order a bottle of whiskey in Mike Baron's saloon , but they cannot pay for it because they have just blown all their savings on their heads in Dodge City . For this offense, they are imprisoned overnight by Sheriff McCauley, with an agreement that they will leave the city directly the next morning after their release. But the four men don't even think about that. Because overnight they had realized that there was obviously no one in this city who could have taken them on. Since they would like to get rid of their stinking clothes, they first visit the Walters family shop and buy new clothes there; of course without paying. To freshen up and put on new clothes, they then rent two rooms in Kate Miller's hotel. The aging sheriff tries to talk to them once more, but cannot do anything.

After the four men have freshened up, they go into the saloon and order four juicy steaks and a bottle of whiskey. Now the owner Mike Baron is upset. He refuses the order and wants to show the boys out. In order to gain respect once and for all in the city, the powerful giant Mule stands up and brutally beats Mike Baron.

Soon enough, Sheriff McCauley has enough. He wants to urge the four bandits to leave the city and is shot by their self-appointed leader Jeb. But from now on, things change radically. The killer Jeb gets increasingly nervous, while the young Davy wants to leave town. Meanwhile, the injured civil war veteran Sam Christy, who can no longer use his right arm, forms the resistance in the form of a ten-strong vigilante group . They plan the elimination of the men individually and Sam wants to start with the Mexican Rondo, since he considers him the most dangerous.

But first they catch young Davy when he enters the barn where the vigilante group is gathered. Then Sam disarms Rondo after attacking Ellie Walters, the daughter of the merchant family. Together with Ellie he brings the Mexican into the barn, where Rondo first uses the men’s inattentiveness and sneaks up on Sam from behind with a knife. But Ellie paid attention and shoots Rondo.

The shot startled Jeb and Mule sitting in the saloon. They run into the street and call for Rondo and Davy when they suddenly see ten armed men approaching them. Thereupon they run back into the saloon, but Sam can lure Mule outside by provoking him to get the knife of the shot Rondo if he is not too cowardly. Mule, who is convinced that he can easily play with "the cripple ", gets involved in a fight and finally falls into Captain Sam's knife. When Jeb realizes the shocking outcome of the fight, he runs into the street in panic and shoots wildly. On this occasion he is shot by Sam.

Davy, as the only survivor of the four cowboys, is granted free withdrawal and Sam's following words conclude the film: “When we saw young Davy riding away, we knew: he would be just as unable to forget what was going on with us these days happened and how it came about. None of us were guilty. But the feeling of shame at one's own failure was mixed with something like hope, a new self-confidence. Because we had learned that no one can gain power over us as long as we do not give up on ourselves. "

Reviews

“Four young drovers harass a small town in the Wild West. A wounded Civil War veteran stands in their way. The familiar topic is exciting and psychologically nuanced; an original western. "

- Film lexicon

“The three stars of the film highlighted by the opening credits - Chandler, Saxon and Hart - provide the acting highlights. Once again, one is reminded of the losses the film industry suffered when Jeff Chandler, whose last western was this, died two years later, and when Dolores Hart, who was very successful in the film business at the time, left Hollywood three years later to enter an order. [...] It's not for nothing that the film is still an insider tip today. ""

- Gregor Hauser

literature

  • Gregor Hauser: Muzzle flashes: The 50 best B-Westerns of the 50s and their stars. Verlag Reinhard Marheinecke 2015, ISBN 978-3-932053-85-6 , pp. 166-170.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Film lexicon at two thousand and one
  2. ↑ Gregor Hauser: Mündungsfeuer: The 50 best B-Westerns of the 50s and their stars . Verlag Reinhard Marheinecke 2015, ISBN 978-3-932053-85-6 . P. 169.