Wounded, Billy the Kid staggers into the remote and mostly deserted Western town of Hell's Heart to recuperate -- but soon realizes that he's pinned down in a trap. The townspeople have been systematically stalked by a tribe of fearful supernatural entities, the Manitou, who now want Billy as their special trophy kill.
In this western, a gambler wins a big Mexican ranch and decides to herd all of the cattle upon it into Texas. The crook enlists the aide of a few Mexicans, but they don't realize he plans to cheat them. En route, the cattle drivers are ambushed by banditos. They survive, but during the course of the struggle, the cattle hands learn the truth and ensure that justice gets served.
Around the film hang fascinating questions about border politics, which I’ll touch on in an introduction before the screening. One of Eugene Buck’s motivations for making the film may have been his rough cross-examination during his kidnappers’ first trials, in October 1913, when defense attorneys cast him as a confused and unreliable witness against idealistic freedom fighters. On film he could reproduce the pursuit, the shootouts, his kidnapping, and his friend’s murder just as he had testified. Reenacting the crime on film may have been the best revenge—and a way to honor the sacrifice of Deputy Ortiz, a twenty-year police veteran and, for the era, a rare Mexican American lawman.
This epic Western-melodrama was based on the popular novel by Harold Bell Wright. Two old prospectors, Thad Grove and Bob Hill find an infant in the cabin belonging to Sonora Jack, a notorious bandit. The girl, Marta, grows to womanhood.
Trained by his Quaker mother to be gentle, Cyril Henderson receives only laughter from the townspeople when he tries to act tough to impress Grace Nolan, who is allowing Art Jordan, the town bully, to occupy her time so as to pique Cyril. The murder of Andrew McBride, who holds the mortgage on the Henderson's property, is blamed on the elder Henderson, and Cyril unsuccessfully tries to take the blame.
When a nameless Outlaw is shot and left for dead, Father Zadok and the people of the Church on the corner of nowhere take him in, healing him in more ways than one...
Billy Donovan arrives looking for his sister's killer. When he hires on at the Halloran ranch where the mysterious Phantom has killed all the hands, it's not long before the Phantom shoots him.
The Finland of the future has gone mad. A bored young woman, Viola, gets a brilliant idea. She decides to fool the infamous Lone Rider and his sidekick Tonto. Viola makes a wanted poster of herself, and assumes the identity of a highwayman named Gonzales. Viola/Gonzales surrenders to a quirky bandit duo, who now believe they will be well rewarded for bringing this outlaw to authorities. As the pair is taking Gonzales to the gallows, they get lost in the desert. A day's journey turns into an adventure that tests the trio's physical resilience and mental maturity.
A cowboy escapes from jail with the help of his girlfriend, and goes after the men he believes are responsible for his brother being shot down by lawmen.