Original subtitles

Here's to Bolden and Haimes.

Mr. Bolden, Mr. Haimes...

Like a drink, Mr. Bolden?

Yes, sir, Mr. Haimes, you and Mr. Bolden gonna make this

the biggest town this side of the Mississippi.

Mr. Haimes!

- Haimes! - Haimes!

Haimes!

Haimes!

I got word you wanted to see me, Bolden.

- That's right. - You're looking at me.

It's time we had a talk, Haimes.

We got nothin' to talk about, you and me.

We got your boy to talk about. Now, you keep him away from my girl.

You brought me all the way out here to Old Town to tell me that?

I'm telling you, keep your son away from my daughter.

If I had the chance, I'd pay him to stay away.

Course, he ain't the one that's been doing the chasing.

Maybe you'd better put a halter on that girl of yours,

teach her what's ladylike and what's not.

You all right, Pa?

If it were me, I'd have put that lead through his stupid head.

You want it with guns?

All right, that's the way you're gonna get it.

With guns.

Slipped up on that king.

I take care of my own mistakes.

Just trying to be a help, Mr. Avery.

Try by pouring me a drink.

A letter for you, Mr. Avery. Just come in on the Dodge stage.

Get him a glass.

Kind of real money there, Mr. Avery.

That stage heading back to Dodge tonight?

Soon as the horses are changed.

Thanks for the conversation.

That's a whole hundred-dollar bill.

He don't work much anymore.

But when he does, he still don't come cheap.

I think it's a reasonable question. Who started it?

Why don't you ask Haimes?

It wasn't me went running to the law, you know.

Yeah, that's the same thing he told me to ask you,

and he didn't run to the law either.

But somebody should have.

- Marshal. - Hello, Janie.

How is he, Doctor?

Like he deserves to be for trying to doctor himself.

This arm's gonna be stiff for a few days, I'll tell you that.

I've been creased before.

You going someplace?

The pinto needs work. I'll run him a while.

Just don't stay out too long, now, you hear?

I hear you, Pa.

All right, Clete, now what about it?

Haimes tells me that you were trying to brain him with a board,

so I can't very well arrest his son for trying to protect him.

Isn't it about time you two buried the hatchet?

Now, that's between him and me.

- And me, if you break the law. - It's got nothing to do with...

Hold still here a minute.

I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told him, Clete.

I want you two to stay away from each other

before one of you gets really badly hurt

and you'll find out just how much the law's got to do with it.

Coley.

I waited all day yesterday for you.

I waited last night too.

Why'd you shoot him, Coley?

He tried to ride down my pa. He tried to kill him.

Tried to kill him?

It never would have come to that.

The way I saw it, it could have.

I thought we promised not to get involved with their problems.

They're like two bull buffalos battering heads.

Been doing it for 30 years. They'll do it for another 30.

If they live long enough.

What are we to do?

Well, I've been thinking of something, Janie.

Us getting married, but leaving.

- Leaving? - Yeah, leaving them alone.

I mean, say it right out.

If they can't set their hate aside and shake hands,

then they've got no right to bring us into it.

Coley, I could never do that, just leave him.

It's what my ma did.

Your ma died natural.

She didn't just go away and never come back.

I can't do to my pa what my mother did.

It'll never end, Janie.

You don't know him like he is.

Not a kinder, better man in the world.

When you get past the hurt.

Maybe if you were more polite to him, Coley.

Well, how about him trying a little politeness?

I didn't see much of it that morning he went after my pa.

If he'd been carrying a gun, I'd be burying Pa.

But he doesn't carry a gun, and you do.

And maybe you shouldn't, Coley, because I...

I think you like to use one.

There you are, sir. Fine horse, very fine horse.

I wonder if you could direct me to the Bolden spread.

Bolden spread?

Uh, just head west out of town, about eight miles to the road fork.

Turn left, and Bolden's place is just beyond the hill.

Thank you, sir. Have a pleasant stay while you're in town.

Have you ever saw the hair on an old dog's neck

get all stand-uppitty and stickedy out,

kind of slow and scared, like,

and then he starts to grumble and growl away down deep?

- Did you ever see that? - Certainly. Of course I have.

All right, then you look around, there ain't nothin' there.

You can't see nothin'. You can't hear nothin'.

You can't smell nothin'.

But you know blamed well that there's somethin' there, now, don't you?

Why?

Well, because of that grumblin' old growl like that.

No, not necessarily. The dog might have indigestion.

Oh, well, you see, Matthew, you can't...

- Isn't that Boyd Avery, Matt? - Yeah, that's him.

- Put that on my bill, Sam. - Right, Marshal.

Well, that's a nice friendly way of saying hello, Matt.

- Or goodbye. - That fast?

I don't like gunfighters in Dodge, Avery.

So I've heard.

- You got business here? - Just passing through.

I'll make it plain.

You draw that gun here in Dodge, you're gonna need more than one witness

that you were protecting yourself.

This isn't Marshtown or Colford Creek.

Seems you haven't heard there were several witnesses at both places.

Just remember what I said.

He a gunfighter, Matt?

One of the best, or worst, depending on how you look at it.

- Is he here on business? - He's passing through, he says.

Hey! Watch where you're going, mister.

Sorry. It was my fault.

Set a bottle up for the gentleman.

That's not the Boyd Avery I've heard about.

Same fella.

Hey, Coley! Hold up!

Forgot your sugar, Coley.

Tell Mr. Jonas to let my pa know as soon as he hears a price on that wire.

Sure do that. So long.

Son.

That fella, is he Coley Haimes?

- Yes, sir, who it is. - Thank you.

- Nothing on who he is, Pa? - No.

But he should be coming around shortly.

Maybe you can sit with him here a while, son.

If he's not looking any better, you might ride into town for Doc.

I've gotta tend to that fencing.

Won't find nothing missing.

Man drawing like that must be feeling plenty better.

Sorry.

How'd I get here?

My pa and me carried you.

The name's Haimes. Coley Haimes.

Well, you'll have to fill me in.

- The last I remember... - Shot a rattler.

Horse got spooked and you got thrown.

Then you brought me here?

Mm-hm.

Pretty fast draw, Mr...?

Avery. Boyd Avery.

- I heard of you, Mr. Avery. - That so?

You used to have a reputation.

You hiring out down here somewhere? Gun-slingin' job?

Look, son, I might be obliged to you,

but I'd say you ask too many questions.

Just curious.

I mean, you heading out this part of the country.

You can stay over a couple of hours if you feel like it,

just to rest yourself up.

No time.

Maybe over a cup of coffee.

We could do some shooting together, some targets.

Like I said, son, no time.

Unless, that is, you're scared I might show you up.

Guess that wouldn't be too good for your reputation.

You sound like you consider yourself pretty good.

Best this end of the state, I always figure.

I hope coffee making is another one of your talents.

You met a talented family, Mr. Avery.

Fair.

Five out of five.

Wouldn't say your time was the best.

- I'll set 'em up for you. - One's enough.

I might have been out a couple of fingers.

But you weren't.

And you got a cheap lesson on turning your back to another gun.

Say your pa and you live here alone?

That's right.

I'd like to thank him for the hospitality.

- Well, he's out fixing our wire. - Have fence troubles?

No, trouble with a neighbor. Maybe you heard of him. Clete Bolden.

Yeah, he cuts our wires, Pa burns his grass.

He salts our waterhole, Pa blasts his well.

Doesn't sound like that'd make either one of 'em very rich.

It don't.

What keeps it going?

Janie.

This is Mr. Avery. Janie Bolden.

My pleasure, Miss Bolden.

Hold your hand back another inch.

Make the grab and the squeeze all in one move.

Coley, I've thought it over all morning.

Maybe it is the only way to end this, by us leaving.

Unless they shake hands, we'll let them know we're just not staying around.

Coley, what's wrong?

Boyd Avery's a gunfighter.

I can't prove this, but I think he's down here hired by your father.

That can't be true. Why would my father hire a gunfighter?

He said if we wanted it with guns, we'd have it.

If there's one thing my father would never do...

Janie, he was carrying a lot of money, new money.

He also had a newspaper clipping with that money.

It was about the trouble between the Boldens and the Haimes.

- Coley, I can't believe that... - Janie.

I'm not gonna let my pa be set up for a gunfighter.

If I find out your father hired a gun,

I'm not gonna wait for them to pick the time or the place.

Coley... there's a mistake here, I know that.

If he's riding out toward your place now, that's proof enough for me.

Mr. Bolden.

Avery.

You know, I looked for you earlier.

I was busy.

- Busy? - Getting thrown by my horse.

Getting found by this young fella and taken home.

Name of Coley Haimes.

- Haimes? - Hard kid to figure.

His words don't quite figure the same as he's thinking.

Do you mean to tell me that he knows who you are?

That kid and his yen for guns,

why, he'd know the name of every living and dead gunfighter.

Yes, but does he know why you're here?

Curious about what I'm doing up this way.

That's about all.

I didn't meet his father.

He as good as his kid with a gun?

The father? No, no. No, Haimes never wears a gun.

So it's the kid you want out of the way.

In... In a manner of speaking, yes.

You see, Mr. Avery... I have a situation on my hands.

I met her.

- You what? - Your daughter.

Half the situation.

I know they've been seeing each other.

Mr. Bolden.

On the way over...

after seeing your daughter and the Haimes boy together,

I began to add why I was called by you.

Now, one job's the same as another to me.

But you'd better think twice about this one.

Avery, I don't need any advice from you.

Comes with the gun. No extra charge.

Do you really think your daughter won't know who hired me

to have her man friend buried?

Buried?

You don't hire a gun for a gospel meeting.

I just want you to make a fool out of him, that's all.

Rub his nose in the dirt. Make him crawl.

You see, he fancies himself as fast with a gun.

He is.

That's the whole point.

I want you to make him back down.

You see, Mr. Avery, my daughter is a very proud girl,

and I want her to see how hollow this Coley boy really is.

If he draws, I'll have to kill him.

Mr. Bolden... I'm a professional.

When I work, my life is on the line. I don't hire out to play games.

I don't want any killing.

Nobody's pushing.

You wanna pay me off, I'm gone.

Pay you off?

You've already got 500.

The full price you promised me was 1500.

Another thousand when I left town.

I'm ready to leave town.

It seems to me the balance is due.

- Yes, but I... - One thousand dollars.

All right.

But I... I don't have that kind of money here.

I'll have to ride in to the bank in the morning.

I'll be at the hotel.

You've been gone a long time.

I want to ask you something, Pa.

I want the truth, Pa.

What was that man doing here just now?

Avery?

He was, uh, just here on a matter of business, that's... that's all.

- What kind of business? - Ju... Just business.

Why'd you bring him here?

Now, look here, I... I don't have to sit here...

You hired him to kill Mr. Haimes.

Now, that's just where you're wrong.

- If I'd wanted to kill that old goat... - I know you, Pa.

I know how much you hate Mr. Haimes.

If you didn't hire that gun hand for him...

Coley.

I told you, Janie, there's nobody going to get killed.

I just wanted to shame him, to... to scare him with a faster gun.

To make you see him different.

- You'd take a chance like that? - No, I've stopped it now, Janie.

Avery's leaving. I'm paying him off tomorrow.

Oh, I know. I know I didn't think it through enough.

But I... I was mad and angry.

I never carried a gun and there I was getting shot at by that...

Best not say it, Pa.

Coley and me... we'll be getting married.

I think you always guessed it'd come down to that.

Now, Pa, you'll be thinking over something tonight.

If you can shake hands with Mr. Haimes.

- Shake hands with that... - Pa, stop it. Where does it end?

Look what you've done to each other. You've destroyed each other.

You had everything, you and Mr. Haimes.

A fine business. Owned almost a whole town.

Had two spreads was gonna be the biggest in Kansas.

Pa, don't you see?

You're gonna keep at it until there's nothing left for either of you.

None of... None of it is my fault!

- None of it! - I don't care whose fault it is.

Pa, I just don't care.

You'll be thinking this over.

If you and Coley's father can't bury peacefully all that's been between you,

Coley and me... will be leaving

to make our own lives.

Deputy?

Is the marshal in?

No. He's went out of town for a hour or two.

Is there anything I can help you with?

No. I just wanted him to know I'd be in town for the night.

Leaving in the morning.

Well, I can tell him that for you.

- Thank you. - You betcha.

Avery.

Bolden hired your gun against the Haimes.

- Who told you that? - Don't matter.

You've got one of us here now.

I've got no quarrel with you, boy.

With my pa, it's the same as it is with me.

Thinking you'd gun down an old man like that.

- You're wrong. - You're a liar, Avery.

- I think you've said enough. - I said a liar.

Don't that give you a reason to draw on me?

Or are you more than a liar, a coward in the bargain?

You're lucky I owe you, boy.

I owe you too.

Like I found you, in the dirt, just where you belong.

Cut this out now! Quit that!

Look out. Get out of the way.

Now, who stirred up this ruckus anyhow?

It's just a little misunderstanding, Deputy.

Everything's going to be all right.

Getting in kind of late tonight.

Been in town.

That fella feelin' all right when he left here?

Didn't seem to have any complaints.

He ever say where he was heading?

Wasn't a man to do much talking.

You appear to be the same tonight.

I'm getting scared, Pa.

Never thought I would, but I am.

- Scared of what? - It's not like playing games.

Would you mind telling me what you're trying to say?

All got very real all of a sudden.

Making it so he'd come out after me.

Who's coming out?

Pa, I never understood how you and Mr. Bolden could keep this going on.

After all these years, couldn't you say one word to each other?

Don't talk to me about Bolden!

Was him burnt our field in '52, wiping out our last penny.

Don't tell me your ma didn't die

'cause... she expected we'd be losing everything.

She was...

You did expect to see me again?

I'll give you a chance to prove it all.

Chance?

You name it, boy.

The place.

Anywhere but in Dodge.

Old Town.

It's up the road. Hour away.

What's going on here?

Any special time?

As soon as it's light, I guess.

I'll be looking for you.

I said what's going on here?

His name is Boyd Avery.

He's a gunfighter hired by Mr. Bolden.

A gunfighter? Hired...?

That don't even make sense.

Nothing you or him does makes any sense, Pa.

But now Mr. Bolden has gone one step too far. He's brought in Avery.

Well, wait a minute, boy. I ain't letting you face any gunfighter.

You ain't got no say now, Pa.

I say I have.

Pa, will you listen to me?

You face him, you'll just be dead, and he'll still come looking for me.

This is my fight with Bolden. That includes anybody he brings into it.

I'm sorry, Pa, but you just ain't no match for Mr. Avery.

Bolden, open up!

Open up, do you hear me?

All right, all right, I'm coming!

- Do you want me to break it in? - All right, I'm coming, I said.

Bolden, what happens to my son happens to you, and I swear...

What are you talking about? And what are you doing on my land?

So help me, I'll hunt you down,

and I won't need no gunfighter to do my killing for me.

Just a minute. Just a minute. Hold it.

If you're talking about Avery, there isn't going to be any killing.

Well, then, you better get moving and call him off.

He is called off. Wasn't gonna be any killing in the first place.

Well, he's out at Old Town right now waiting for Coley.

First light they're going at it.

Well, that can't be. He's supposed to be in the hotel waiting for his money.

I'm telling you, Bolden, you started this and you better be stopping it.

Right on time.

No reason I shouldn't be.

Ever face a gun before?

No.

Not an easy thing.

Go through it a dozen times, it's never easy.

I'm not scared of you.

Sure you are, boy.

And I'm scared of you.

My gun might jam, shell maybe misfire.

But fear's good.

Makes your hand faster.

Brings out the animal instinct to get in there first.

I'm ready, Avery.

Understand your father and Bolden built this old town.

- You gonna keep on talking? - Be one of us dead in a minute or so.

- You in that much of a hurry? - I know your game.

Trying to get me nervous.

You're that already, boy.

Your gut's tied in a knot right now.

Check your gun, boy.

I told you I'm ready.

Well, I just thought I'd give you a little advice, the first time out.

Sometimes a fella uses his gun, he... forgets to reload.

I read about you, Avery.

Half trickery, half gun hand.

You draw on the other fella when his mind's on other things.

That's called an edge, boy.

Part of the game.

Coley, stop! No!

- Don't! You can't! - Janie!

- Miss Bolden, get back. - No!

Janie, please.

Aren't there enough graves up here already?

Your Uncle Ben, my Uncle Joe.

Abe Sparry, Paul Hawkins. Six, eight others.

'Cause two old man been living on hate.

Makes no sense, Coley, to add your grave to theirs.

Please, Coley, for me, for us.

Coley, we can ride out of here and never see them again.

They don't matter no more,

just us, the whole rest of our lives.

I'm not drawing against you, Avery.

You disappoint me, boy.

I had you figured different.

A man who backs his hand, calling another man a liar and a coward.

I'm gonna have to say I'm sorry for that.

Not enough, boy. The town saw me in the dirt, you calling.

It's just not enough.

Don't you turn your back on me, boy.

Fastest gun in this end of the state, you said.

Please, Mr. Avery.

Chance to prove you're a man.

I'll only prove I was a fool.

Who's the coward, boy?

Coley, no!

It's now, boy.

Avery!

Me and this town...

A little too old.

All right, Bolden.

I'll take your word for it that you didn't hire this Avery fella

to come in here and do any actual killing.

We'll have to wait and see if Judge Brooker buys the story.

But as far as I'm concerned,

you're all kinds of a fool for starting something like this.

Not so sure that I started in the first place.

Huh.

Anybody that'd send money to hire a gunfighter

hasn't got brains to fit into a thimble.

How about you calling my daughter, calling her a tramp?

- Something I never said. - Well, you certainly did.

All right, that's enough out of both of you.

I think you've both said way too much already.

Now, why don't you break this off

and go on back to your homes where you belong?

Here they come. Now, don't give in.

You going someplace?

Garden City. Getting married.

Well...

Why don't... Why don't you just get married here in... here in Dodge?

Making our home there, Garden City.

Well, you were raised right here in Dodge.

It seems to me like a good place to get married in.

Sure.

There'd be an awful lot of... lot of people around here that'd...

that'd like to come to the ceremony here in Dodge.

Kind of made up our minds.

Well... I guess, you know, me and Mr...

well, himself here and myself, we thought that...

be nice if we could go to the wedding too.

I... I kind of guess.

Well, what are we standing around here for, huh?

Well, I'd have never have thought it, Matthew.

You know, you just kind of think about somethin'

without never not thinkin' about it.

You know what I mean?

Festus, I'll have to let you explain that to me over a beer.

- How about it? - Yeah.

Well, you see, what I'm talkin' about...