Posse from Hell
In 1880 four escapees from death row, Crip (Vic Morrow), Leo (Lee Van Cleef), Chunk (Henry Wills) and Hash (Charles Horvath) ride into the town of Paradise and enter the Rosebud Saloon. Crip shoots the town marshal Isaac Webb (Ward Ramsey) and takes ten men as hostages, killing some to ensure the four are unmolested. The gang leaves town with $11,200 from the Bank of Paradise and a female hostage Helen Caldwell (Zohra Lampert) who entered the bar because her alcoholic Uncle Billy (Royal Dano) was one of the captives.
Prior to these events, Marshal Webb had sent for a friend and former gunfighter Banner Cole (Audie Murphy) to take his place in leading a posse to rescue Helen and bring the men to justice. Though not a criminal, Cole is a loner that Webb wishes to enter the community through his being deputised. Cole is enraged to discover that the townspeople have put Webb on a table next to the three dead bodies of those murdered by the four. The doctor (Forrest Lewis) said at first they thought Webb was dead himself, then realised he couldn't be moved so left him among the corpses.
Webb's last act is to deputise Cole telling him to do the right thing, not out of hate, but out of liking people as the townsfolk are good people who have had bad things done to them. Cole agrees only out of liking Webb. The laconic Cole makes his original plan for hunting down the four by himself clear by turning down the offer of Webb's handcuffs by saying "I won't be needing any." However, town elder Benson convinces Cole to follow Webb's wishes and organize a posse.
The men of the town gather but enthusiasm wanes when not as many able bodied men as expected volunteer to go up against the killers, some men leaving because the posse doesn't outnumber the killers by ten to one. Cole's frank assessment of the situation scares others off with Cole saying "If they're afraid of words they shouldn't go."
Cole's posse eventually consists of the aged former Army Captain Jeremiah Brown (Robert Keith), who wishes to lead the posse himself in the manner of his long ago Army days, Uncle Billy, Burt Hogan (Frank Overton), who wishes to revenge his brother Burl (Allan Lane) murdered by the four, Jock Wiley (Paul Carr), a young gunhand seeking the experience to establish his reputation as a gunfighter, Seymour Kern (John Saxon), a bank employee who has just arrived on a special assignment from the New York parent and is browbeaten into joining to look after the bank's missing money and avoid taunts of cowardice from the bank manager (Ray Teal), and Johnny Caddo (Rudolph Acosta), an Indian who merely thinks that joining is "the right thing to do."
Cole doesn't want any of the inexperienced and troublesome men to come with him but he has no choice. The posse discover Helen who has been left behind tied up near a rattlesnake that Cole is able to remove from Helen's vicinity. Helen has been raped and is unwilling to return to the town to face the shame of being vilified by the population. Cole orders the willing Uncle Billy to return her by force if necessary.
Captain Brown demonstrates his aged incompetence by disobeying Cole's orders and opening fire and nearly murdering four cowhands who he mistakes for the four killers. Cole has to wound Jeremiah to stop his shooting spree and orders him back to town with the cowhands who have been waylaid by the killers.
Cole's distrust of his own posse begins to subside when he is impressed by the determination of the inexperienced Seymour who has never ridden a horse or used a firearm before and the quiet Johnny Caddo's acceptance of the prejudicial treatment he gets from the posse. The posse tracks the four to a farmhouse and surrounds it until Hogan makes a noise starting a gunfight. Cole kills one of the outlaws. The boasting Wiley is unable to actually kill a man and is killed as he freezes, allowing the remaining three to escape. Hogan begins shooting the corpse of the outlaw that Cole himself killed telling himself and the posse that Hogan himself killed the man who killed his own brother. When the men note that all the witnesses agree that it was actually Hash who had murdered his brother, Hogan refuses to listen and leaves the posse to return to town.
Cole, Caddo, and Seymour continue tracking the party to the desert but realise that the outlaws have doubled back and are intending on returning to shoot up Paradise.
violence