I like Randall's comment at the end when these town idiots offer him the sheriff's job, saying "you got friends here now." His reply:
"It depends what you mean by friends. Sometimes it's a lot easier to recognize enemies."
In the introduction, we see there is bad blood between "Judge Coogan" (Alexander Scourby) and the man Josh just brought in for bounty, "Jumbo Kane" (Lee Van Cleef). Coogan was the guy who sentenced Jumbo to hang but the latter escaped.
Cleef, by the way, became semi-famous in Clint Eastwood's "spaghetti westerns" and Sourby as the "voice of NFL films."
Anyway, the story is all about Jumbo holding the sheriff hostage. Yup, this outlaw works fast. Within a minute of being dropped off at jail, he's got the sheriff tied up in his jail and the people on the outside wondering how to best handle the situation. Not helping matters is the sheriff's daughter, "Miss Julie," who is one big pain-in-the-butt criticizing anyone within earshot, calling Josh a murdering no-good bounty hunter, etc. etc. Too bad Jumbo doesn't shoot her!
Poor Josh winds up against the whole town, or at least the ones shown on screen. The judge isn't exactly a morally-sound person, either. As one guy says, "When he sentences someone to death, he doesn't seem care who goes along with him, either." He means Josh whom the sheriff - at gunpoint - uses as bait to get the killer, a ploy that almost gets our hero murdered.
"It depends what you mean by friends. Sometimes it's a lot easier to recognize enemies."
In the introduction, we see there is bad blood between "Judge Coogan" (Alexander Scourby) and the man Josh just brought in for bounty, "Jumbo Kane" (Lee Van Cleef). Coogan was the guy who sentenced Jumbo to hang but the latter escaped.
Cleef, by the way, became semi-famous in Clint Eastwood's "spaghetti westerns" and Sourby as the "voice of NFL films."
Anyway, the story is all about Jumbo holding the sheriff hostage. Yup, this outlaw works fast. Within a minute of being dropped off at jail, he's got the sheriff tied up in his jail and the people on the outside wondering how to best handle the situation. Not helping matters is the sheriff's daughter, "Miss Julie," who is one big pain-in-the-butt criticizing anyone within earshot, calling Josh a murdering no-good bounty hunter, etc. etc. Too bad Jumbo doesn't shoot her!
Poor Josh winds up against the whole town, or at least the ones shown on screen. The judge isn't exactly a morally-sound person, either. As one guy says, "When he sentences someone to death, he doesn't seem care who goes along with him, either." He means Josh whom the sheriff - at gunpoint - uses as bait to get the killer, a ploy that almost gets our hero murdered.