Original subtitles

Oh, come on, Jack.

You'd better leave some room. We're riding into Dodge tonight.

Come on, Tom.

Whoa, boy.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Saloon trash.

I didn't catch that, mister.

Pa, the man's been drinking.

Hey, Pa.

Ain't that the Wesley girl from back home?

Iris?

Jeff, Jeff Lyle, the farm west of Tulsa,

down the road from that old place your ma had.

Well, you sure growed some, Jeffery.

Reckon you did too.

You remember my pa?

Mr. Lyle.

I heard about your ma passing away. I'm sorry.

Thank you, Jeffery.

Where'd you disappear to last night, honey?

Can't you see I'm talking to this here fella?

Except you're talking to me.

Mister, whiskey don't excuse bad manners.

You gonna teach me manners, farm boy?

You're hurting my ribs.

Sounds almost like you don't take to it.

You'll be waking up with more than a whiskey head,

if you don't let that girl go.

OK, farm boy, you did the calling.

I'll make allowance for you having too much to drink.

Farm boy, I'm gonna teach you a lesson.

A man doesn't open his mouth unless he's got a hand to back it up.

Now, I hear they got a good doc in Dodge, so you're ahead.

Pull it all the way out. Point it down.

Now throw it across the road.

You go against a man, you kill him.

His whiskey been doing the talking, Pa.

Nice meeting you again, Iris.

Pleasure seeing you and your pa again, Jeffery.

That's what I get for talking and not watching his hand.

What are you trying to say, he had the edge of drawing first?

Exactly the way it happened. My gun didn't clear leather.

Oh, sure it didn't.

Do I hear you calling me a liar?

Now, look, Jack, I don't call no man a liar, you know that.

It's one I owe you, farm boy.

Miss Kitty.

Looks promising to be the best uprage we ever had, Miss Kitty.

And you've been through a few of 'em.

I'll say I have. That I have.

All right, gentlemen, just step right in this door here, right in there.

Say, Newly, keep an eye on things while I got get some breakfast, will you?

- Yes, sir. - Soon as they sober up, let 'em out.

We're gonna need all the space we got there tonight.

OK, Marshal, you bet.

Grant?

By golly, I thought that was you.

Been a long time since I've seen you, Sheriff.

Been a long time since anybody called me sheriff, Matt.

Don't believe you know my boy, Jeff. Matt Dillon, Jeff.

Jeff, how do you do?

Heard a lot about you from the marshal down there in Abilene.

Tells me you turned down a deputy job there.

Just got time to move on, Marshal.

How about you two join me for breakfast?

Sounds fine. We was thinking on the same thing.

Good.

By the sound of it, you boys have been seeing a lot of the country, then.

Well, I'd guess you'd call it restless fever, Matt.

For a while we decided to settle down in Abilene,

Jeff working for the marshal.

Then we got the fever again, decided to check in on the excitement here.

Well, I'm glad you did.

You know, Jeff, with this celebration going on

and Festus out of town for a day or two, I could use a night deputy.

Would you like to pick up some extra money?

I don't think so. We won't be here that long.

Well, we'll be here a week or so.

Deputy pay'd give you some pocket money.

- All right. - Good.

Then why don't you stop by when you get settled?

- All right. - Excuse me.

- Brought in one for you. - Doc. Oh, thank you.

Doc, this is Grant Lyle and his son Jeff here.

- Doctor Adams. - How do, sir?

- Sit down, Doc. - Thanks.

Well, looks like the rumors are all true.

This fella Hoxy is being paroled next week.

He has to report to me on his way through Dodge.

Hey, Grant, seems to me you ought to remember this fella Hoxy.

Wasn't it down in your territory

he was causing all that ruckus a few years back?

I never met him.

Jeff, I guess you and me better go get us a hotel room

- while there's one to be got. - That's a good idea, you know.

They're gonna be selling space in the stable

the way things are going around here.

- Dr. Adams. - Oh, Mr. Lyle.

Be my pleasure to buy you a drink later, Matt.

- Take you up on it. - Nice meeting you.

Jeff.

Telegram wasn't about Hoxy and you know it.

I also know you found out about Hoxy's parole three days ago.

That's right, Doc. I just wanted to get Grant's reaction to the name Hoxy.

See, I've always believed that it was Hoxy that crippled Grant's hands.

Well, I thought he never did know who did it.

Well, Grant killed two of Hoxy's brothers when they busted up that rustling ring.

And between that time and the time that Hoxy was captured a few days later,

Grant's hands were crippled.

Oh.

You figure, then, he's here to even things up, huh?

I'll tell you one thing,

he's brought his boy along to be a real fast gun.

Well, from what I hear of Hoxy, he better be fast.

What are you gonna do about it?

Well, at least with the boy as a deputy, I can keep an eye on him.

No!

All he said was you'd had enough to drink, cowboy.

The way he said it.

Well, if he didn't say it right, then how about some coffee to square it up?

- Chunky yahoo! - Wait there. Hold on. Hold on here.

She's got better advice than I got.

You don't get ahold of yourself, you'll be sobering up in a jail bunk.

Night warm enough for a cold beer on the house?

Maybe later, Miss Russell, thank you.

- You're Jeff Lyle, aren't you? - Yes, ma'am.

Me and my pa came in this morning.

Matt was telling me about it.

You planning on making Dodge your home?

We're not making any plans right now.

Well, good night.

Night.

You get your hands off of me!

- Come on, honey, relax. - Let go!

- Don't fight with me. Enjoy yourself. - Let go!

Hey, mister. You hear the lady telling you to get?

Just the little gal looked lonesome, Marshal.

Like maybe she wouldn't mind a fella talking a spell.

Get out of here.

I was just looking at the town, minding my own business.

How come every time I see you,

some fella's leaning over you like he figures you're real friendly?

Well, it ain't my fault that I'm looking round for someplace

with maybe kitchen work.

- It's yours, Jeffery Lyle. - What do you mean?

You go sticking your nose in none of your business.

Lose me my job, that's what I'm saying.

You mean you were fired for what happened this morning?

Oh, that Jack Grover got in a mean fit and said it was all my doing,

and maybe him and his friends wouldn't come drinking there if I was around.

A whole dollar a day I've been making there

until you come along and spoil it for me.

You aren't losing much not working out at that roadside saloon any more.

Maybe you'd say different

if you didn't even have enough money for proper eating.

Look, I'm gonna have some supper. Would you like to eat with me?

I don't need nothing from somebody who thinks I'm forward with fellas.

I kind of remember now you had more pigtails than sense.

I got a good mind to arrest you for vagrancy.

Arrest me? I ain't doin' nothin'.

What's vagrancy?

Walking around hungry.

Come on.

Well, lookee there.

Come on, forget it, Jack. Let's get some partying done.

I'll get some partying done when I've settled with that farm boy.

I guess Ma was having a hard time making ends meet

and I just never knew it.

They even had to sell all that old furniture

to square things after she died.

Didn't you have anybody to live with?

Yeah. Went to stay with my Aunt Patience.

The mouths she had to feed,

it just didn't make me feel like I was really wanted.

So I figured I was old enough to earn my own way.

Never knew it was so hard, though, for a girl to find a town job.

Why don't you try working for Miss Russell at the Long Branch?

Oh, Jeffery. I ain't near fancy-looking enough for that place.

I guess you wouldn't win no prize.

But, then, I don't see you breaking any mirrors.

Thanking you proper for the compliment, Jeffery.

Look, I'll talk to Miss Russell tomorrow.

But tonight I'm taking you down to Ma Smalley's, get you a room.

I always remembered that about you, Jeffery.

- What's that? - Kindness about you.

Gentle, I guess, is the word.

Come on. I'm... supposed to be earning deputy pay on the street.

That's him.

Don't you recollect how fast he drawed, boy?

He was lucky, that's all.

Farm boy.

Draw.

What's happened here?

Well, I tried to stop him, Marshal.

He kept talking all day about getting even with the kid.

The deputy over there.

- Your friend drew first. - Well, I ain't denying it.

I just wish he'd listened to me, that's all.

He's dead, Matt.

Something personal between you two?

He never saw him before this morning, Marshal.

- Anybody else see this? - I did, Marshal.

This one here started the trouble.

All right. Some of you boys get over to Percy Crump's with him.

Let's go, son.

Son, he ain't worth thinking on.

I've known his kind more than half my life

and somebody'd have been burying him sooner or later.

It wasn't somebody, Pa. It was me.

Drink your drink. You'll feel better.

You know... I keep thinking, maybe I didn't have to kill him.

Maybe I could have just put a bullet in his shoulder, his gun hand.

You had no choice. None at all.

I could see the gun coming out of his holster like...

like something was holding it back.

Wasn't 30 feet from me. I... I'm cutting twigs at that distance.

A man drawing a gun ain't a twig.

I should have been able to put that bullet any place I wanted.

- But I put it in his heart. - A man draws on you and you kill him.

You don't stand there and think about it.

Pa, Pa, you weren't listening to me.

A man's dead who might have been alive right now

if I just hadn't pulled the trigger without thinking.

It is instinct, what I've been teaching you all these years.

You look square between a man's eyes or at a button on his shirt

and you put your bullet where you're looking.

Where you going?

I don't know. For a walk.

I'll leave if you want.

Some people want to pay their respects alone.

Oh, no, no, that's... It's all right.

He's a young 'un. Friend or relative?

No, he, uh...

He, um...

I killed him.

Oh. Yes, the young deputy. I heard.

Then it won't bother you none if I go ahead, then.

Coffee in the back if you want some.

- What? - Coffee. I just made a fresh pot.

I'll tell you one thing,

the day of a ten-dollar county funeral is up for sure.

The way the price of nails has gone up, you wouldn't believe.

I tell you, it's not something he won't get over.

It just struck me as kind of odd, with all the deputying he's done.

First time he's ever killed. Remember your first time?

Newly tells me he's one of the fastest guns he's ever seen.

- He's had a good teacher. - Yeah. Question is, why?

Grant, I want you to level with me.

It was Hoxy who crippled your hands, wasn't it?

And you've been waiting all these years, just bringing your boy along.

Don't do this to him, Grant.

Leave it alone, Matt.

Did it ever occur to you that Jeff could be arrested for murder

if he guns down Hoxy?

Jeff's never drawn his gun except in self-defense,

or in defense of the law.

- He never will. - I see.

So you're just gonna hound him,

starting here in Dodge, until he comes after you, huh?

No need to hound him.

All Hoxy needs to know is that there's a man waiting for him.

There's no jury who'll convict a man facing Hoxy in a showdown.

All right. But let me tell you something.

You'd better do some long, tall thinking

about the effect that this is gonna have on Jeff's life.

- I know my boy, Matt. - Do you?

Jeffery?

Nothing you could have helped, Jeffery.

It's something you don't think about... the way it is after.

Him just lying there.

So lonely and...

and looking so different.

What are you doing out this time of night, huh?

Thought maybe you'd like someone to talk to?

Well, I don't.

Uh...

You fixed up at Ma Smalley's?

It wasn't any trouble.

Come on, I'll walk you back.

Did the asking to Miss Kitty. She said I could work for her.

That's good.

Got kind of scared being without no money. So I did the asking myself.

You don't have to be scared. I got some money.

Oh, I don't wanna be no trouble to you, Jeffery.

You're nothing like that.

Sure is different being in town, not on a farm.

Kind of makes me feel like I don't belong no place.

Well, get used to it.

I miss the little things we used to do.

Remember the picnics we used to have most every Sunday?

Yeah, I remember.

We weren't eight years old when we used to sneak away,

you from your pa and me from my ma.

You used to say you had a secret cave you wanted to show me.

Yeah. A long time ago.

All you wanted to do was kiss me.

Uh...

I better be getting some sleep.

Tomorrow's Sunday.

Oh, I didn't mean about the kissing, Jeffery.

I just meant, well, I don't know nobody around here,

and maybe we could have a picnic.

Sure'd be nice.

You're sure kind of getting to be a forward girl. You know that?

I'm just lonesome, Jeffery.

Hey...

A picnic wouldn't hurt me none.

I bet Ma Smalley'd let me make up a picnic basket.

That's the one you'll be missing tomorrow.

Cold.

What did you expect?

Notice I had more sense than to go in wading.

Hey, you remember me and you used to go wading

down at the old Brine Mill run?

You even had skinnier legs in those days.

- Why, I didn't know you noticed. - You looked more like a sick cow.

Oh, yeah?

- Hey! - Teach you manners round a lady.

I'm gonna have you looking like a muskrat, missy.

No! Jeffery, my dress!

- Jeffery! - Come back!

Hey, hey, come back here.

My dress is all dirty.

Well, you should have thought about that beforehand.

We'd better be getting back.

Come in.

You busy, Miss Kitty?

No, come on in.

- What can I do for you? - Miss Kitty, I need some advice.

Well, I'll be happy to help if I can. Sit down.

It's about Jeffery.

Well, in less than a week's time, that's turned into quite a whirlwind courtship.

Yeah, I guess we've been together most every day now.

Miss Kitty, last night Jeffery told me something and...

well, if I was to tell you, it's gotta be between us.

All right.

Saturday's stage, a man named Hoxy's coming in.

Him and Jeffery's gonna wind up in a gunfight.

Well, this is something you ought to be talking to Matt Dillon about.

Jeffery says he knows it already.

Matt isn't gonna allow any gunfights in Dodge City if he can help it.

Miss Kitty, Jeffery's pa got his mind made up.

Jeffery's gonna kill Mr. Hoxy.

If it's not here, it's gonna be someplace else.

I see.

Jeffery's nothing but a farm boy, Miss Kitty.

It just ain't natural for him to be handling a gun.

I mean, when we were kids,

I used to sit and listen to him talking about farming

and all the different ways he'd try to raise crops.

What I'm trying to say, Miss Kitty, is it's not Jeffery but his pa

waiting for this Mr. Hoxy.

He's gonna get even for something that happened a long time ago.

With Jeffery holding the gun.

Oh, Miss Kitty, it's tearing me up inside thinking on it.

It's that serious, hmm?

It is with me, ma'am.

I reckon it'd be with Jeffery too if his mind wasn't on Mr. Hoxy.

Well, you might try a... old tried and true female trick.

Get Jeffery's mind on you instead of on Hoxy.

Oh, Miss Kitty, how would I do that?

You just say, "Jeffery, I think it'd be a good idea if we got married."

Jeffery, I think it'd be a good idea if you and I got married.

What?

- I'm proposing to you, Jeffery Lyle. - Well, that's what it sounded like.

Well, I'm partial to you. Figured you might be the same to me.

Well, I ain't disputing that I...

Look, Iris, a girl just doesn't come out and say something like that.

- I mean, a fella... - "Partial" ain't the word, Jeffery.

I reckon "love" is.

Now, look here...

Iris, you're a very unsettling woman.

Right away, Jeffery, before Mr. Hoxy gets here.

Jeffery, you know why you and your pa never talk about this Mr. Hoxy?

'Cause you couldn't talk for long before you'd be asking questions.

Like if your pa had the right to be doing this to you.

Like if something happened ten years ago is proper to be living for.

Iris, it's not something I can just forget about. It's...

Jeffery, it is something you can forget about.

I wish you'd understand that.

Well, I... I guess we can talk to him.

No, Jeffery, we don't talk, and we don't ask. We tell.

Iris, it's just not that easy.

Jeffery Lyle, if there's one thing I told myself,

it'd be a man someday I'd be marrying.

Well, I guess I just got mixed up on how much man you be.

Hey, Iris, wait.

You owe me. You owe me life. You owe me the way you feel and think.

You owe me more than you can repay in a lifetime.

And it ain't by telling me I got a bed to go to on a farm.

It's more then a bed, Mr. Lyle.

And you. What right have you got to interfere?

Pa.

Pa, we're being married tomorrow, and... we'd like it if you'd be there.

Well, I won't be there.

I don't need you, either of you.

I'm sorry you're not gonna be at the wedding, Pa.

But no matter, we're marrying.

Well, that says it all.

Keep her making them biscuits and gravy, now.

Don't let her get the upper hand, Jeff.

Oh, for heaven's sake.

Well, congratulations, Festus.

Sure do smell summersome.

Don't you know what it means, you catching that bouquet?

Well, of course I do.

- It means you wasn't fast enough. - No.

It means you're the next one to get married.

Oh, how could it mean that?

Because it's the custom, that's why.

Miss Kitty, you trying to tell me that I ain't got no way

- of getting out of getting married up? - Course not, and I'll explain it to you.

You see, by custom, one of the unmarried ladies,

like Kitty or these other young ladies here,

were supposed to have a chance to catch that bouquet,

and then they'd have a chance to catch a husband.

But then you went and spoiled it all by catching it.

Oh. Then I wasn't supposed to catch these here at all, huh?

Well, isn't that just marvelous, isn't that wonderful,

how that brain of his can put together certain facts

and come up with an answer like that?

It just proves conclusively what I've said all along,

that there is a certain thinking process going on inside of that brain of his,

no matter what anybody else is saying.

- And I hope you'll be very happy. - Oh, hush your mouth.

I can tell what side of the bed you got out of this mornin'.

I'm sorry, Miss Kitty.

It's all right, Festus.

You know, when you get right down to it,

you've probably done me a great big favor.

Can you make a fanning gun out of this?

We don't have too much of a call for them around here, but I suppose I...

I want the trigger to lock back, a heavier spring put in,

and I want it by morning.

All right, sir, I'll have it for you.

He wants the trigger to lock back, a heavier spring put in,

and he wants it by morning.

Save your breath.

I was hoping you'd be at the wedding.

Had something else to do.

Like this? What you've been doing for two days now?

Pa, you can spend two years with that gun

and it'd only be luck you hit anything with it.

A man does what he can.

How many times you told me it's the first bullet that counts,

that by the second or third you're buried?

I don't need no lecture from you.

Iris is hoping to see you come home with me.

I ain't swapping ten years of my life for a porch rocking chair.

They ain't even gonna let you do it.

Dodge'll be full of deputies when that stage comes in.

There won't be no deputies at the Stone Creek way station.

Hello, Doc.

Well, Grant's still at it out there. Practicing every day.

I thought that'd all be over when those two got married.

Yeah, so did I.

Wouldn't it be simple enough just to lock Grant up until after Hoxy's gone?

Well, that wouldn't solve anything, just put it off.

Well, Hoxy'll be here in the morning. What are you gonna do?

I don't know.

Something I never figured, him going out to meet the stage.

Jeffery, you know what I think? And I hope you're taking this right.

There ain't nothing real about your pa.

Something happened ten years ago. We was nothing more than babies.

Now we gotta pay for it. It just don't seem real.

Iris, he's gonna get himself killed.

I never counted on him having a fanning gun made.

Jeffery, I just don't think we should be thinking on it.

There's nothing stopping your pa from what he wants to be doing.

No.

Jeffery?

It may just be a simple choice.

Hoxy being buried or my pa.

But if it gotta be my pa, Iris, we wouldn't be forgetting it.

If it gotta be you?

Jeffery.

You come back to me.

Morning.

You... You meeting somebody on the stage?

Well, you're welcome to come in out of the sun, you want.

Fine out here.

Get him over here.

Get him over here.

Get him over here.

Right over here, Lyle, get them fingers spread.

One hand for each of my brothers.

I want you to remember those boys, Lyle.

Would seem right you never forget them.

Pa.

Pa?

I saw the stage dust from the ridge.

Be here in a few minutes.

Why'd you come here?

I couldn't leave you to die, Pa.

No matter what kind of gun hand Hoxy still has,

I got a chance to take him with me.

You're not facing Hoxy, Pa. I am.

You got a wife to think on now.

Ain't thinkin' on nothin' till we're finished here.

I got a fierce pride in you, Jeff.

I always did have.

Whoa.

Jeff. I didn't expect to see you here.

Come down to Hoxy or my father.

Hoxy?

Hoxy!

Yes?

Pa, it's over.

Don't you understand?

It's him.

You wearing a gun, Hoxy?

- What? - Are you wearing a gun?

He doesn't even know you. Can't you see that?

He knows! He's pretending.

Lousy scum.

Ten years I waited on you. Ten years.

It's plain we've met before. Must have been a long time back.

You don't remember me?

You don't remember these?

I've been sick a long time.

I just can't seem to recall.

You've gotta remember.

You've gotta remember!

Whatever it was, I'm sorry.

Hoxy!

He's got to remember.

He's got to remember.

Well, Mrs. Lyle, you're just pretty as a picture

with that new bonnet you've got on.

I'm afraid it's a terrible waste of money.

Maybe she ought to return it to Mr. Jonas, Pa.

You're just gonna have to fight me to get it, Jeffery Lyle.

Well, folks, how are things down on the farm?

You wouldn't believe the changes taking place out there, Matt.

Well, I haven't seen much of you in town lately.

I guess you've been too busy, huh?

No time for visiting, what with the new fields we're putting in.

Oh, I think there's time for visiting if you'd come for supper.

Sounds mighty good. You just say the word.

How about Sunday week?

Well, now, that's a deal. What I need's some good home cooking.

Well, just come hungry is all I can tell you.

Well, we sure will.

- So long. - See you.

They're a nice addition to this town.

They sure are, Doc.

- What we need... - Matthew, Doc.

Now, if you can figure out some way to get rid of this,

it'll be a great improvement to the whole community.

I'd no more than gotten my howdy said and he lights in on me.

Say, Festus...

I'll swear, Matthew, the older that old grump-head gets, the angrier he gets.

And not only that, but he's getting so shaky and rickety

that he's about to rickety away. He ought to be put out to pasture.

Festus, how would you like a beer?

- Oh, yeah, well, of course. - Right. Let's go.

You know, back home when a horse gets all rickety like old Doc,

well, I'd take him down to my cousin...