Original subtitles

Well, Slick, I'll be made of milk if he don't hang on.

I took him up a rock slide that'd slip an ant,

through water where a trout couldn't find his own shadow.

I don't know.

There he is.

Just keeps comin' on steady and even

as a toenail growing in a casket.

Yes, sir, Slick.

I'll be a gelded rooster if I figure out why they do it.

All on account of I gutted me a gambler

as crooked as a gully.

You figure they'd be right glad to get rid of him.

But no, got them laws tattooed on their eyeballs.

The Bible ain't no seriouser to 'em.

They don't ever learn.

Just keep comin' after ya.

Bigger than a skinned mule.

Fool doin'.

Oughta be a law about the law.

This one here though, he's got sand to him.

Most of 'em don't have.

Still and all...

gonna lose his life.

They don't never learn.

Did you want me?

They don't ever learn.

Just never learn.

They do not ever learn.

Come on in, Settler.

You didn't dream about a short tree full of coons last night,

I heard 'em too.

Gonna be a year for wolves.

They'll be welpin' about the same time we'll be calvin'.

Just keep your eyes skinned.

Let's see if we can trick those chickens out of some eggs.

You've smoothed out some country, boy.

Did you throw him?

Did he take off up the creek after a gold sign

and get lost in his own shadow.

Bet he's in trouble wherever he is.

Come on, Settler, come on.

See him, Settler?

Well, you just gonna stand there

or you want me to sing a hymn over ya?

Go get him.

Well, Settler, he finally surfaced after all.

Two days you snored loud enough to fetch hogs from a mire.

Here, drink this.

Elk oil juice and liver soup.

Doesn't sound nor taste pretty

but it'll make a fort out of soft sand.

Obliged.

You got no papers on ya,

so I gotta ask you right out who you are.

All right, where ya from?

Well, who shot ya?

Look, what I'm gettin' at is are ya wanted?

I don't know.

You don't remember gettin' shot?

No.

You don't remember none of nothin'?

I guess not.

Well, I'm a, I heard about such

but I never believed it.

Not recollectin' anything?

Like they put ya in a box and raised the lid another time.

I'm sorry to have trouble ya, ma'am.

I'll be leavin'.

You'll do crawlin, that right ankle's bad swollen.

But you don't remember none of that.

No, ma'am.

My name's Mike.

Mike?

I was supposed to be a boy, Ma tried for Peggy

but mountain for stubborn Pa was, and Mike it is.

And I'm gonna call you Dan.

'Cause Daniel come into the lion's den

and that's what you'll be in

if you take light to circumstances here abouts.

Now drink that.

Yes, ma'am.

How'd you get me here?

Your horse came in sore footed.

Settler, that's my dog,

and me backtracked to where you were.

Got you on the horse.

You got me on a horse?

Well, you helped some.

But I guess you could push a grizzly

over the rafters easier.

- Drink that. - Yes, ma'am.

And isn't ma'am, it's Mike!

Yes, ma'am, ah, Mike.

You know I may not remember who I am or how I got here,

but I'll tell you one thing.

I never knew anybody called Mike looks as good as you do.

You want to know something?

I shouldn't never have picked you up.

Never.

Anything?

No, ma'am.

Old Canoot says he ain't seed hide nor hair of him

or heared nothin' neither.

Doc, I'm worried.

He's been gone over two weeks.

Well, Kitty, how many times have we sat at this very table

and worried about Matt?

Now you know as well as I do,

he'll come right in here before long, you can bet on it.

Well, I don't care what anybody says.

If he's not back here pretty soon,

somebody's gotta go lookin' for him.

Well, that's just what I'm fixin'...

Now hold on, just a minute.

Let's don't go traipsing around the country

without knowin' what we're doin'.

Tell you what we'll do.

Festus, you go over to the telegraph office.

You tell Barney to wire every station up north.

Now we'll get a line on him that way.

I'm gonna do her, Doc.

Now that's the only sensible thing to do.

You're not foolin' me one bit, Curly.

You're just as worried as I am.

Just what do you think you're doin' out here?

Good morning.

I asked you a question.

Well, I figure I'd been gold breaking around here

for a week, I, well, it's about time I started to earn my keep.

Who said I was gonna keep you?

Just a figure of speech, ma'am, Mike.

I'll be leavin' in the morning.

Leaving!

You can't even walk, let alone ride.

Well, I've been a burden to ya long enough here.

I'll tell ya when you're a burden to me.

I'll also tell ya when you're fit enough

to ride out of here.

And let me get some peace and quiet in the morning.

Sorry I woke ya.

Breakfast will be ready in 15 minutes.

Don't let me call you again.

Yes, ma'am.

Whoa, Slick.

Had to be Hasty darn Starcourt's spread.

You gotta figure it'd come legal,

bein' as he wouldn't know a runnin' iron

from his own backside.

Yeah, but he's smart, Slick.

The Devil in his pocket with a lock on it.

But, maybe we can get us a short roost here.

Opposites attract, my papa said when he left Mama.

You know, it ain't the world I'm askin' for, Judge.

Just one valley.

Just one valley, Ray.

Near 100 miles of the spine of this land, this county.

I don't care if it's the stairs to the moon, Ray.

I want her land.

I want to make something of this valley

and I can't do it with her owning the rights to those headwaters.

Ray, if we could get a federal grant for a stage line,

it'd have to come right down the divide

and right through her bonnet.

Property condemned and the public need.

Be a train coming down shortly to Bulle.

We're gonna need that rail line, Judge.

You see that, don't ya?

Like to make somethin' of this God chosen earth that lasts.

But I need those headwaters, Ray.

That Yardner women,

she couldn't find a smile to life if she had a net.

No way to her.

Well, I see your concern.

And I don't say I don't agree in the long of it.

And I'd be a liar

if I said you hadn't helped me into office.

But I never asked ya for a favor, Ray.

That was the bargain.

Yeah, we made an agreement, Hasty.

What was good for the land.

Land bein' this country.

Now this Yardner woman, well, maybe she's a might frosty

but she's got guts in an iron basket

workin' that spread of hers alone.

And that's how it all started, with guts.

We gotta have the likes of that woman.

The country needs 'em.

Now you talk to her, Hasty.

We all tried.

Nobody but a fool shakes hands twice with a bear trap.

Why don't you try incorporating her, Hasty?

She's still a woman.

I know that they can be forward sometimes,

but they still got a pulse.

Oh, now looky here, Judge.

Hasty, you're makin' an empire

and I'm makin' a judgment.

What that woman owns she's earned.

When you try to use the law to break a part of life,

I can't sanction it and I won't.

And that's all.

Yeah.

You a hard man.

I was just born on the hard side of the bed.

We ain't far apart.

Hey, watch it, Slim, no!

Hey, hold it!

What's goin' on here?

This here one, come in, no askin', just straight.

Comet outraced him.

Took to horse and that ol' bait bit me!

Done sent him East to all the best schools.

Still and all, I guess the skunk still smells

like a skunk to him.

That's about it.

My thoughts as well.

Didn't mean no runction, Starcourt.

It ain't Starcourt, it's Mr. Starcourt.

Now you water your horse and you ride outta here, right now.

I go where I want, when I want, junior boy.

Wait a minute, Monte, wait a minute.

Where you come from?

About anywhere's the compass turns.

Where you going?

Where the spirit moves me.

What can you do?

'Bout anything ever thought of.

Use that gun?

Some.

Get.

You're hired, 25 a month and found.

Bunkhouse is yonder.

Don't use it.

I'll bed in the river wood, fetch my own found.

Thirty a month.

What's your name?

Lester Dean this year.

You found work, Dean. See you at first light.

Come on, Slick!

Mr. Starcourt, $30 a month?

Right.

Excusin' me, Mr. Starcourt.

But that's $10 more than our top hands are gettin'.

Oh, he'll earn it, Monty.

Don't you worry.

He'll earn it.

Go get him, Settler, before he thinks himself to death.

Go on!

All right, Settler, general calls the troops move.

Settler come in?

No, he's a dog.

He sure doesn't know it.

Ah, it smells like pie.

It's a settlers' muley roast,

they're prime this time of year.

Should made a stout son of a...

Son of a gun stew?

Yeah, son of a gun stew.

I can carve if you want.

I never want and I've been carvin', butcherin',

skinnin' and scalin' since before I can remember.

Get some plates.

Yes, ma'am, ah, Mike.

Plates.

Plates.

Knives and forks are in the...

Wrong cupboard.

Sorry.

Sorry, ain't that the common word these days?

The plates are in here.

So you like muley roast?

Oh, I'm not particular.

Same as Ma, not particular.

That and a pound of tears at night.

That dress, did you ever wear it?

Once.

Johnny Yardner was all this land.

Big, wild as any cliff eagle

and kind as clover.

He always had a smile and a joke to the day.

Come out here together.

Sunday morning he was out mustanging,

wind howling like a banshee.

His horse found a prairie dog hole.

Got to him as quick as I could.

When I turned him over he was grinnin'

that sideways grin of his.

He said, "Sorry, hell of a way

"to take the honey out of honeymoon."

And he died.

That'll be three years ago, Friday next.

You been takin' care of this place alone ever since?

I have me a Mexican field hand from time to time.

But yeah, I run it.

It's gettin' cold, let's eat.

Stop all that sugar footin'.

Dear Chief, a mule deer I shot

and it rolled down the side canyon,

so as I had to quarter it to get it out.

Some potatoes I kept from freezin' this year

by doin' everything but putting them under the hens,

Some dried apples in a pie, for all the bounty you laid

on this table without an ounce of effort from us,

we're right here to thank ya, Amen.

Eat.

I thought you were hungry.

Now we've talked on it.

You know what stand and where.

I do, Starcourt.

Mr. Starcourt.

You know somethin', Starcourt.

I do believe if you was to tie his tongue down,

his arms would talk enough to flap him to death.

A hundred dollars here, $100 in the bank in Starcourt when it's done.

I don't care how she's removed.

I don't like murder but I've been around it.

I sense you're a better man.

But you've got needs, that's plain to see.

And you're not known, that's my concern.

But you double back on me, Dean, and I'll skin you.

I'll set my men on you.

I'll drag you back and I'll skin ya,

slow as any squaw ever wished.

Understand?

Monte, there's a hundred silver pouch

in the right dresser drawer, get it.

But Mr. Starcourt!

Get the money, junior boy, let the men talk.

Gentleman might be right, Monte.

So you have your own idea what money is, Mr. Dean.

Yep.

Reward.

Reward?

You trap, you shoot, you do your gettin'.

Doin' the best that's in ya and you get that reward.

Done proper it's money.

Done what ain't proper and it's you.

You and what's comin' now.

Coin, not paper.

I'll see her, I'll know what to do.

Let's go, Slick.

Excusin' me, Mr. Starcourt,

but I figure you owe me a killin'.

Oh, we'll kill him, Monte, all right.

What kind of businessmen would we be,

lettin' $200 go down the craw of some sundown shadow

who's just as dead as the buffalo he smells of.

What are you doin' up there?

Roof needed fixin'.

The roof needs fixin' in a dozen places,

how come you picked, the spot right over my head?

Just lucky I guess.

Well, close up that hole and go patch somewhere else!

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, I forgot to say good mornin'.

Get out of here!

Mike, you got any beeswax?

It's in the hutch where we got the dishes.

Thanks.

What's the matter,

haven't you ever seen a woman in a dress before?

I guess I just forgot how good it looks.

Don't go gettin' any ideas that this is for you.

Oh, of course not.

Of course not.

A woman has to have change every once in a while, you know.

Let me see it.

It's nothin'.

Well, why don' you just go sit down

and finish whatever it was you were doin'.

Whatever you say.

Thanks.

Where will you go?

Oh, I don't know, someplace.

Find work, I guess.

Must be lonesome, not knowin' who you are,

where you come from, why you was shot at.

Guess you think on it.

Yeah.

I've been thinkin' on it, all right.

Oh, I'm such a fool.

Most of us are.

You got particulars?

I couldn't sleep last night.

Yeah, I heard ya tossin'.

Did ya?

Would have occurred to some to come find out why.

Occurred to me.

I'd have shot you deader than a banker's pulse.

I don't think so.

Why not?

The gun that's right there.

Appears to me the idea did a lot more than just occur to you.

You took it all the way around the mulberry bush.

Well, if the gun was out here...

Yeah?

Well, what stopped you?

Maybe I'm a married man with a bunch of kids.

You're not.

- You sure? - I'm sure.

How?

You got a disconcertin' way of lookin' at a woman.

Like you're measuring her.

That sol?

Mmhmm, married man with kids

gets that beaten out of him sooner than later.

You're a range bull, mister, there's no ring in your nose.

You said you couldn't sleep.

I was thinkin'.

Thoughts keep you awake?

Does when it concerns my way of life.

Meanin' what?

You're almost well now.

Yeah.

That means you either gotta go, or...

make up your mind about stayin'.

You mean I got a choice?

Guess so.

That's what all the thinkin' was about.

You don't know who you are or where you're from

and maybe you never will.

I don't think you're married, so that solves one problem.

But you sure are somethin'.

Got a a way about ya, tells me whatever you did,

you did with authority.

I like that.

I like you too.

I've tried not to, but.

That a proposal?

You can go straight to hell.

Mike...

I'd like to stay.

Hello, the cabin!

Damn, this place is worse than Dodge City on a Saturday night.

What's the matter?

I don't know.

Comin' in peaceful.

You all right?

Yeah.

Well?

It's all right, Settler, take it easy.

I'll be made of milk

if that ain't a fine lookin' dog, ma'am.

He'll do.

What do you want?

Water for old Slick under me and vittles.

I got money, I've been out a spell,

but I'm well fashioned, ma'am.

"Ma'am..." sure, we're all well-fashioned.

And that's the well yonder.

And come in.

I do thank you, ma'am.

And you stay out here.

You takin' on men's ways.

Come in.

I surely do thank you, ma'am.

Sorry, ma'am, I didn't know you had company.

Ain't company, two's company.

This is Mr. Daniel, he's just passin' through.

How do?

Mr. Daniel.

We finished eatin' but there's some son of a gun stew.

Sit.

That's nice of you, ma'am.

Ma'am.

Call me Favorite.

Favorite?

That's a name though, ma'am.

Kind of come this way, it did.

Yeah, we had eight boys,

all of them scuffy, but tryin'.

Well, when I come along

they water witched over my momma's tummy,

sizin' they was.

Well they just knowed I was gonna be a girl,

so they called me Favorite.

Name ain't ma'am, it's Mike.

Mike Yardner.

Mike, ma'am?

Oh sure, Mike, yeah, ma'am.

Things sure do come out left hands, don't they?

Got to agree with that.

Ma'am, it's the best.

Frogs in it what does it.

If'n it'll make you hop, I'm all for it.

Never thought I'd be takin' bait under a roof tonight.

No, sir, not after that pass up yonder

with the wind howling like lost souls huntin' for graves.

You come down that pass, did ya, Dan?

No.

Oh, no business of mine, none at all.

Gotta tell you the truth though, Miss Mike.

I was told I'd best tread easy if I was to come by here.

You was a widow woman I was told.

With a trigger temper and a rifle to prove it.

They told ya right, I don't take to strangers.

Dan here got hisself stove up somehow or other.

Settler and me found him out on the prairie,

closer to judgment than being prayed over

and waitin' for the shovel.

I'll be made of milk, if that ain't a caution.

How'd that happen?

Somebody took a shot at me.

Creased my skull, I don't remember anything.

Yeah, I heared of such things happening.

Times I wish I couldn't remember nothin'.

Yes sir, there've been times.

Well, you appear to be doin' all right now, though.

Thanks to my nurse and that son of a gun stew there.

Well, be gettin' late, I'll be out in the barn.

Me and old Slick's been together so long,

every time I snore, he answers.

See ya first light.

Oh, and ma'am, like the man said, son of gun stew,

that is pure sugar to a body used to lemons.

First light.

Well, Mike, I never did figure out, am I goin' or stayin'?

Well, you can't go now, not at this hour.

We'll talk again in the mornin'.

Oh, Mike...

figure you're gonna need that?

No, we're a lot closer

to understandin' one another than we were.

I just don't want you to get dizzy

goin' around the mulberry bush

and lose your sense of direction.

Goodnight, sleep well.

Oh.

Hell!

It is truly difficult for a lady

to get some sleep around here.

Mornin'.

Mornin'.

How come you're always up before I am?

I kind of wondered about that myself.

And?

Figured you're bone lazy.

I'll take this coffee out to Fortunate

and then I'll fix us some breakfast.

All right, fine.

Yes, sir, Slick, ain't it a puffin' the way the wind comes

to you with thoughts as clear as brook ice.

I was wrong.

I was wrong.

Well, we'll just go a-visitin', we will.

Visitin' where?

Starts the heart, Favorite.

Where ya goin'? You just got here.

Best set a while.

Thank you, Mike, ma'am.

I ain't no drifter, though.

I come certain as a front side.

I come to kill you, ma'am.

- Kill me? - Starcourt.

He wants this valley, short grass and long.

Paid me 100 eagles, full-feathered,

a hundred more in a bank in town.

I done bent low in recent times, but not this low.

Man could pound dreams to iron with a woman like you.

Dillon's come on to luck after all.

Dillon?

I seen the way you looked at him.

It do become a woman to look like that.

You'll have a good life.

What he don't know won't chew on him.

You said Dillon, you know him?

Know him?

I was near wearin' him for three days.

Made of steel twice, that one.

Had to shoot him.

You?

I shot a man in Dodge, was meant for a bullet.

This man in yonder, that's Matt Dillon, Marshal of Dodge City.

He's put in his time.

Now you take to the sunlight, the both of ya.

Be ridin', Miss Mike.

Where you goin'?

Goin' back to Starcourt.

Gonna take him back his eagles.

I'm gonna tell when they saw the roost they took to moltin'.

Don't never call it Favorite.

Isn't that Favorite ridin' out?

Uh huh.

Kind of a short hello, wasn't it?

Had to see Starcourt.

Who's Starcourt?

Big rancher, next valley.

Wants this land.

Sent Favorite to kill me.

What?

Think he found shame to it.

Anyway, he's returnin' the money Starcourt gave him.

He goes back there, they'll kill him.

Matt.

Don't do it.

Matt?

You called me Matt?

You're Matt Dillon, Marshall, Dodge City.

That's why you felt strange when I mentioned Dodge City,

you were on the verge of rememberin'.

How did Fortunate know?

He was the man who shot ya.

You were trailin' him for killin' a man in Dodge.

Evans Vincent.

What?

That's the gambler he shot.

You remember, then.

Yeah.

Everything?

Everything.

Mike, I'm sorry.

I got a badge, responsibility...

Twenty years of my life.

Twenty years and you never got married?

She must have been some kind of woman.

- Mike. - Well, I said it.

I never should have picked you up, never.

Well go on, go save Fortunate or arrest him

or do whatever you have to do with him.

I'll come back, we'll talk about it.

Will you get out of here?

Mr. Starcourt, that man, Dean.

Well, what about him?

His horse just came in but he wasn't on it.

Well get out there and bring him in.

You short bellied... Farnsworth, Starper, go get him.

What for?

Thought I'd better let you know where I was.

Shame to have you boys runnin' all over the country.

Stand easy.

You, junior boy, pour a drink.

Go to hell.

Been there.

Pour a drink!

All right now, back away, easy.

You best put that hand up on the bar.

Put it up there, you want to keep it.

I didn't double on you, money pockets.

Just found some folks worth the worth.

The whole worth, money pockets.

That makes them as different from you and me

as the north end from the south end.

'Sides, you was aimin' on killin' me anyway, wasn't ya?

Still am.

She's still in my way, Dean.

Now you are too.

Five to one, Dean.

Unless you're lightning for dodging,

you're gonna wind up with more lead in you

than a Boston bar.

I ain't sayin' you won't kill me.

I'm sayin' I don't care.

Done my livin', money pockets.

I done it all.

You ain't licked your lip come the first bullet,

I'm gonna put a hole in you low.

You're gonna shout out loud.

And a long time prayin'.

Even longer dyin'.

All right, now.

I'm gonna ride out of here.

There's gonna be two instead of one at that woman's ranch.

And they deserve heaven for supper.

Come I to hear that you put any rocks in the way of that,

you can start lookin' for me anytime the moon's covered.

Now I'm ridin' out of here.

The only where you're ridin' is to a hill

with a hole in it.

Hold it!

All right you men, drop your guns.

Move back.

Evans Vincent?

Yeah.

I figured you had to surface sooner or later.

Always played the odds too long.

You take me back, that it?

That's right.

Rope or jail?

I don't know.

Well, wouldn't mind a rope.

The way they dodahday around, it's bound to be jail.

I couldn't stand to that.

Don't do it.

Don't lose your lights, you don't learn.

Trouble is, reckon I waited just a, maybe a hair too long.

Yeah, one of 'em got lucky.

Oh, I'll be made of milk.

Ain't she a woman clean.

Stand to her, Dillon.

Things build with the likes of her.

I'll, I'll be made of milk, milk.

You all right?

Yeah, I'm all right.

I want you to know something, Dan.

It ain't easy to find two good men

and lose 'em both.

Mike!

Mike!