The Deadly Companions (1961)
A former Union soldier accidentally shoots and kills the young son of saloon singer Kit during a botched bank robbery. To atone, he escorts her and the boy's coffin across Apache country to bury the child beside his father, trailed the whole way by his treacherous fellow robbers.
Sam Peckinpah’s first feature, taken as a work-for-hire job on a script he was not allowed to alter and, by his account, recut without him. The Deadly Companions is minor early Peckinpah, but its themes of guilt, a grim escorted journey, and violent men thrown together run straight on to Ride the High Country; a defective copyright notice left it in the public domain.
Background
The Deadly Companions was Sam Peckinpah’s first feature film as director, though he took it on as a work-for-hire job on a script he was reportedly not permitted to alter, and by his own later account the film was recut without his involvement after he finished shooting. The story follows a former Union soldier who accidentally kills the young son of a saloon singer during a botched bank robbery, and who then escorts her and the boy’s coffin across dangerous Apache territory to bury the child beside his father, trailed the entire way by his own treacherous former accomplices.
What to watch for
Watch for the themes that run through it, guilt, a grim escorted journey, and violent men forced together against their will, which connect directly to Peckinpah’s much more fully realized and personal work in Ride the High Country, made shortly afterward. It is best approached as minor, compromised early Peckinpah rather than a fully representative work, useful mainly for seeing the beginnings of ideas he would develop with far more control and confidence in his subsequent films. A defective copyright notice left it in the public domain.
