***SPOILERS*** In what he considers to be the best movie role of his career better then "Paths of Glory" "Champion" and even that unforgettable as well as cheesy and overblown soap opera "Once is Not Enough" Kirk Douglas is modern day, circa 1962,cowboy John W-just call me Jack-Burns. A man who's time has long since passed but he just doesn't quite know it yet.
Riding into the one horse town of Duke City N.M to see a good friend of his convicted illegal Mexican immigrant smuggler Paul Bondi, Michael Kane, who's now serving two years behind bars in the local jail Jack somehow plans to crash him out of it. Stopping of to see Paul's old lady Mrs. Jerry Bondi Genda Rowlands, to get a home cooked meal Jack tells her that he'll go get Paul out of jail even if he has to commit a crime in having him ending up in it. It doesn't take long for Jack to get into trouble with the law which in this case was minding his own business. It was that dangerous and deranged one armed lunatic Lapatin played by Bill Raicsh who later would become known as the equally insane and homicidal One-Armed man in the "Fugitive" TV series who made Jack's wish of being thrown behind bars a dream come true. That's by Jack being beaten by Lapatin and his drinking buddies into a bloody pulp and him, the victim, being the only person arrested by the clueless police!
Getting into even more trouble by belting a deputy sheriff while being booked for vagrancy the by now out of control, as well as out of his head, Jack ends up in the holding pen at the county jail. It's there where Jack finally meets his good friend Paul Bondi writing his what he considers to be the next great, after "Gone With the wind", American novel. In no time at all Jack, who seems to be suffering from some kind of death wish, starts up with head jail-guard the hulking and brutal Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez, George Kennedy, by mouthing off to him. This ends up with Jack losing one of his teeth as well as a getting few bruised ribs.
You always knew that Jack was a bit nuts but his plan for him and Paul to break out of prison, and thus add five years on top of their already light sentences, was about as crazy,if not more so, then anything else that he did in the movie. With Paul refusing to participate in the break out Jack goes it alone and the what seems like brainless jerk, after telling Paul that he won't, implicates Paul's wife Jerry in his escape! That's by having her give aid and comfort to an escaped fugitive, Jack, by him dropping over to her place for a quick and free meal as well 40 winks.
It's now off to the hills or the High Sierra Mountains for Jack and his faithfully and long suffering mare or horse Whiskey, in her having to put up with him, as there's a five state manhunt out to get the crazy nut before he does any more damage to either himself or anyone else he comes that in contact with. Jack gets reunited with his tormentor from the holding pen Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez,who's part of the posse looking for him, whom he works over and leaves him his tooth,that Gutierrez knocked out, as a memento.***SPOILER ALERT*** There's also tractor trailer driver Hilton, Carroll O'Connor, whom we have no idea why he's in the movie until the last final moments. That's when Jack together with Whiskey meet up with Hilton on a rain slick highway with disastrous results.
Oddball of a western with Kirk Douglas having the time of his life as the free living John W-just call me Jack-Burns. In fact watching the film and realizing that it was made years before the 1960's nonconformist movement became popular and really got going with the mostly young and collage crowd it may very well in a backhanded kind of way have encouraged it without even knowing it at the time that it was released!
Riding into the one horse town of Duke City N.M to see a good friend of his convicted illegal Mexican immigrant smuggler Paul Bondi, Michael Kane, who's now serving two years behind bars in the local jail Jack somehow plans to crash him out of it. Stopping of to see Paul's old lady Mrs. Jerry Bondi Genda Rowlands, to get a home cooked meal Jack tells her that he'll go get Paul out of jail even if he has to commit a crime in having him ending up in it. It doesn't take long for Jack to get into trouble with the law which in this case was minding his own business. It was that dangerous and deranged one armed lunatic Lapatin played by Bill Raicsh who later would become known as the equally insane and homicidal One-Armed man in the "Fugitive" TV series who made Jack's wish of being thrown behind bars a dream come true. That's by Jack being beaten by Lapatin and his drinking buddies into a bloody pulp and him, the victim, being the only person arrested by the clueless police!
Getting into even more trouble by belting a deputy sheriff while being booked for vagrancy the by now out of control, as well as out of his head, Jack ends up in the holding pen at the county jail. It's there where Jack finally meets his good friend Paul Bondi writing his what he considers to be the next great, after "Gone With the wind", American novel. In no time at all Jack, who seems to be suffering from some kind of death wish, starts up with head jail-guard the hulking and brutal Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez, George Kennedy, by mouthing off to him. This ends up with Jack losing one of his teeth as well as a getting few bruised ribs.
You always knew that Jack was a bit nuts but his plan for him and Paul to break out of prison, and thus add five years on top of their already light sentences, was about as crazy,if not more so, then anything else that he did in the movie. With Paul refusing to participate in the break out Jack goes it alone and the what seems like brainless jerk, after telling Paul that he won't, implicates Paul's wife Jerry in his escape! That's by having her give aid and comfort to an escaped fugitive, Jack, by him dropping over to her place for a quick and free meal as well 40 winks.
It's now off to the hills or the High Sierra Mountains for Jack and his faithfully and long suffering mare or horse Whiskey, in her having to put up with him, as there's a five state manhunt out to get the crazy nut before he does any more damage to either himself or anyone else he comes that in contact with. Jack gets reunited with his tormentor from the holding pen Deputy Sheriff Gutierrez,who's part of the posse looking for him, whom he works over and leaves him his tooth,that Gutierrez knocked out, as a memento.***SPOILER ALERT*** There's also tractor trailer driver Hilton, Carroll O'Connor, whom we have no idea why he's in the movie until the last final moments. That's when Jack together with Whiskey meet up with Hilton on a rain slick highway with disastrous results.
Oddball of a western with Kirk Douglas having the time of his life as the free living John W-just call me Jack-Burns. In fact watching the film and realizing that it was made years before the 1960's nonconformist movement became popular and really got going with the mostly young and collage crowd it may very well in a backhanded kind of way have encouraged it without even knowing it at the time that it was released!