Now, Director George Sherman does not ring any bells in my film cortex and, having taken a glance at IMDB's biographical and other information on the man I can see that there is good reason for my ignorance: he did mostly B pics and very few of them rate above 5.
One such exception is HELL BENT FOR LEATHER, which contains one of WWII hero Audie Murphy's finest performances as horse trader Clay Santell willing to serve as good Samaritan when horseless but gun-carrying Travers (cunningly played by Jan Merlin) comes to him for water and assistance, but then hits him with the butt of his fancy carbine and proceeds to steal his horse.
Santell is understandably peeved and manages to fire off a shot that causes Travers to drop his fancy weapon. Now horseless Santell picks up the carbine, trundles into the nearest, rather gost-like town and that is when something truly odd happens: everyone had been attending a funeral and everyone recognizes the weapon but does not know what its owner looks like, so everyone thinks Santell is Travers.
Though of course no phones were available at the time, Marshall Deckett (played with a mean streak and a touch of madness by Stephen McNally, usually more adept at crime than at serving the law) turns up pretty quickly and confirms Santell is Travers, even though he knows otherwise. The thing is, after a 4-year chase Deckett is getting tired and all the ducks seem to be in a row for Santell to fit the fall guy profile. Nor does he want to waste any time: as soon as he and the hand-tied Santell move away from inconvenient witnesses, Deckett decides to fill Santell's brain with lead.
Problem: Santell's brain wants no lead and had other ideas, so he scrambles aways, hands tied and all, and finds lovely Felicia Farr. Of course it is love at first sight but Murphy is a very respectful man so expect no intimacy.
Other baddies interfere with the couple's flight, including an injured and free-drinking Robert Middleton, but it is Marshall Deckett who wants Audie and Felicia shot on sight. From this partial account you can infer that it is a tale with quite a few twists, some of which make less sense than others, but justice is finally served against most odds, and the happy ending helps.
One such exception is HELL BENT FOR LEATHER, which contains one of WWII hero Audie Murphy's finest performances as horse trader Clay Santell willing to serve as good Samaritan when horseless but gun-carrying Travers (cunningly played by Jan Merlin) comes to him for water and assistance, but then hits him with the butt of his fancy carbine and proceeds to steal his horse.
Santell is understandably peeved and manages to fire off a shot that causes Travers to drop his fancy weapon. Now horseless Santell picks up the carbine, trundles into the nearest, rather gost-like town and that is when something truly odd happens: everyone had been attending a funeral and everyone recognizes the weapon but does not know what its owner looks like, so everyone thinks Santell is Travers.
Though of course no phones were available at the time, Marshall Deckett (played with a mean streak and a touch of madness by Stephen McNally, usually more adept at crime than at serving the law) turns up pretty quickly and confirms Santell is Travers, even though he knows otherwise. The thing is, after a 4-year chase Deckett is getting tired and all the ducks seem to be in a row for Santell to fit the fall guy profile. Nor does he want to waste any time: as soon as he and the hand-tied Santell move away from inconvenient witnesses, Deckett decides to fill Santell's brain with lead.
Problem: Santell's brain wants no lead and had other ideas, so he scrambles aways, hands tied and all, and finds lovely Felicia Farr. Of course it is love at first sight but Murphy is a very respectful man so expect no intimacy.
Other baddies interfere with the couple's flight, including an injured and free-drinking Robert Middleton, but it is Marshall Deckett who wants Audie and Felicia shot on sight. From this partial account you can infer that it is a tale with quite a few twists, some of which make less sense than others, but justice is finally served against most odds, and the happy ending helps.