Taggart (film)

1964 film by R. G. Springsteen

December 24, 1964 (1964-12-24) (New York City)
February 1, 1965 (1965-02-01) (United States)

Running time

85 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Taggart is a 1964 American Western film directed by R. G. Springsteen and starring Tony Young and Dan Duryea. It was the film debut of David Carradine.

Plot

Just arriving at their newly bought land, Kent Taggart's family has their cattle stampeded and they are murdered by Ben Blazer and his son. Blazer is seriously wounded. Later in a fair gunfight Kent kills Blazer's son. With his last breath, Blazer sends three gunfighters to find and kill Kent: Vince August, Cal Dodge, and Jay Jason, who is a particularly talkative and vicious killer.

In his escape, Taggart heads towards territory that has fallen into Apache hands, followed by the gunfighters. In a semi-abandoned town, Taggart helps a lady in trouble at a saloon, getting in return the help of her and the bartender. Caught by the gunfighters, he manages to kill Cal and flee.

Later, he finds a couple who are fighting with Apaches. Taggart joins them, and also the gunfighters do. Vince is wounded, and Jay disarms Taggart. The couple helps him to escape.

With no horse or gun, Taggart hides in a rocky hill, where he gets caught by an old man, Adam Stark, and his daughter Miriam. They take him to their dwelling, where there is another young woman, Adam's wife Consuela.

They treat him as a dangerous prisoner, but later that night, Consuela visits him and makes unequivocal advances, promising Taggart riches and happiness if he takes her away from that place. They are surprised by Miriam, who stops the offering and the women have an angry exchange, but as has happened before, Miriam won't tell her father what his wife is doing.

The next day, when Taggart is escaping, he saves Stark's life from an Apache attack. Stark changes his mind about him, and shows Taggart the reason why they haven't left: a gold mine in the property. Stark fills a couple of bags with gold rocks and prepares to leave, before the next Apache attack.

Meanwhile, Jay has killed Vince because he had become a hindrance, so he arrives alone at the Stark place. Taggart explains he is a hired killer, and Jay explains he is pursuing a murderer. The Starks favor Taggart over Jay.

Later that night, Consuela visits Jay and makes unequivocal advances, promising him riches and happiness if he takes her away from that place. Jay is happy to oblige. Another Apache attack happens and Stark results wounded. Jay and Consuela escape with the gold; the Starks head to a fort, with Taggart ahead as a scout.

Jay and Consuela meet a cavalry supply convoy and join them for protection. While they are traveling in one of the Cavalry wagons, Consuela tells Jay she has changed her mind and wants to leave him. Jay attacks her, leaves her for dead, gets the gold, horses and manages to escape moments before the Apache surround and destroy the Cavalry convoy.

Jay arrives at the fort and asks for new horses to keep running. The officer in command asks whether he has seen the reinforcements they are expecting, Jay says he hasn't seen anything but the destroyed convoy. The officer orders Jay to stay and fight. Taggart passes by the rests of the convoy, reunites with the Starks, and later they arrive at the same fort.

And so, Taggart, the Starks and the soldiers must defend themselves from a fierce Apache attack while hoping for reinforcements and Jay is trying to escape with the gold before Taggart sees him.