The Tall T

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The Tall T
Directed by	Budd Boetticher
Produced by	Harry Joe Brown
Written by	Elmore Leonard (story) Burt Kennedy (screenplay)
Starring	Randolph Scott Richard Boone Maureen O'Sullivan
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	April 1, 1957 (U.S. release)
Running time	78 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Tall T is a 1957 western film directed by Budd Boetticher. The movie was adapted by Burt Kennedy from Elmore Leonard's short story "The Captives." In 2000, The Tall T was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

[edit] Plot

Passing a stagecoach way station on his journey into town, Pat Brennan agrees to return with some storebought candy for the friendly station manager's young son. At a ranch where he once worked, the cheerful Brennan loses his horse in a wager and is forced to walk home. He gets a welcomed rescue from stagecoach driver Rintoon (Arthur Hunnicutt), hired to transport Willard Mimms (John Hubbard) and his new wife Doretta (Maureen O'Sullivan) on their honeymoon. So far, the mood of the film has been light-hearted. Suddenly, it takes on an altogether darker mood. Mistaking the coach for the regular stage, a gang of outlaws hides in the dark interior of the waystation. Led by Frank Usher (Richard Boone), the gang's ambush leads to the shooting of Rintoon by Chink (Henry Silva), the vain and heartless second member of the gang. Brennan then learns that the station manager and son have been killed too, with their bodies thrown down a well. Fearful of sharing the same fate, Mimms's terror leads him to reveal that his wife is wealthy and worth a ransom. Usher relocates Brennan and Mrs. Mimms high up in the rocks (on location, at Lone Pine, California) until the ransom is paid. Unlike Mimms and the two young gang members, Usher and Brennan recognize in each other people of worth, men who in different circumstances might have been friends. Brennan knows, however, that he and Mrs. Mimms can survive only with the deaths of the whole gang. The gang will therefore die one by one by Brennan's hand.