Love was like sweet apple wine
Each time his warm lips touched mine
And I would smile every time he looked at me
I will remember the time
Love was like sweet apple wine
But who can smile now that my love is left me?
Evening, Marshal.
Evening, Dan.
- What you doing in there? - It's a little cooler in here.
- It's a hot one, eh? - Yeah.
I thought you'd be all tucked in by now.
- I just happened to be passing by. - I see.
So you thought you'd stop and check to see if I'd...
dozed off and forgot to make my late rounds, eh?
No sir.
- How the new boots? - Oh, they fine, I sure thank you for them.
- Not too tight? - Oh no, I like them just fine.
- Want to know something, Dan? - What?
That you're a bad liar.
If you want to succeed in this world, you got to learn to be a good liar.
- You get on to bed now. - Good night, Marshal.
Maybe you better go on home now lover.
Go on home before old Marshal Patch down there, finishes up his late rounds...
and realizes you've been on a four day drunk and left your wife hungry...
for a little extra pleasure.
You don't have to count it, it's all there.
Take it.
I can't charge you for crying on my sheets.
- Had too much to drink. - Of course you did, lover.
- Take the money. - For what?
If a pipe fitter can't lay pipe, he ought to try another business.
Get out of here, Luke...
before I tell the whole town what a lousy plumber you are.
Son of a bitch, I'll kill you, Patch.
Frank?
- Are you scared? - Yeah, I'm scared.
Now, come on down, don't make me shoot.
You're scared of killing me, ain't you? Come get me, Frank.
Come blow my head off like you...
did all the rest of the squirming pigs that got in your way.
One more killing, they'll run you out of town.
I ain't keeping you from anything important, am I, Frank?
Like maybe you crawling under my sheets with my wife.
I ain't keeping you from anything like that now, am I, Frank?
You having trouble, Marshal?
Poor harmless Luke.
- Is Doc Adams at your place? - Amen. What you said?
- Is Doc Adams at your place? - Yes sir, Doc is over there, right, yeah.
Look out here, look out.
Now folks, the Marshal is just doing his duty.
He's protecting us all against dangerous drunks.
Why don't you and your town council do something about...
getting rid of that dreadful marshal?
We may just do that.
Hey, Doc.
- Sorry to wake you, Laurie. - That's alright, Frank, what's the matter?
- I got to talk to you. - Come on in.
Good to see you, Frank.
Gets very lonesome when he's off on one of his long drunks.
Yeah, I know.
- I'll make some coffee. - I can't stay, Laurie.
What is it, Frank? What's the matter?
Luke is been shot.
- Shot? - He still alive.
- Where is he? - At the Alamo.
Alright.
I'm sorry.
How is he, Doc?
It's going to be hotter than hell.
Frank? Is he dead?
Not yet.
- Hey, what you doing? - Kissing you.
- For God's sake, Hilda. - Don't use the Lord's name in vain, Daniel.
- You got to be crazy. - Hilda.
Yes Mother?
It's after six o'clock child, what's keeping you?
I'm in bed with Dan Joslin, Mother.
Stop that silly talk and get down here, I need you.
Yes, Mother.
You're going to get me thrown out of here.
Mother couldn't run the boarding house without you, Dan.
But she did already warn me.
Dan Joslin is an orphan child, Hilda, and there's no telling what he might...
try to do to you now that you're of puberty age.
I wish you'd stop talking like that.
- Why? - Why?
Oh boy, your head is on loose.
Oh, quit, Frank, quit now.
I don't know what you want me to do to prove to you you being bull-headed.
Whatever it is, I'll do it.
I want you to go away with me, Frank.
You don't have to marry me. You don't even have to love me.
- I'm too scared to worry about my pride now. - I'm tired, Claire.
Then listen, Frank, please...
I think you been here too long.
Pa says the Marshal didn't really have to kill him.
Your pa ought to learn how to keep his big mouth shut.
I'm sorry, Mr.Oxley, I didn't mean it like I said it.
I see.
Marshal never kill anybody unless he had to, you know that, Mr.Oxley.
I heard they're going to bring in the county sheriff...
Will...
You boys better start your paper routes, and you son, you just forget what you heard.
Yes sir.
Father, Mona, Doc.
- Alright then. - Paper, Mr.Brandt?
Ready? 1, 2, 3.
That's it.
Get it back for you as soon as I can.
Thank you, Vinny. Roy, get me that headboard.
Needless to say Mrs. Mills, we all share your grief.
What's the price of your cheapest funeral?
Fifty dollars is our cheapest.
Of course, that includes everything: coffin, small spray of flowers...
- and burial, a marker. - Here's ten dollars.
I can give you the rest as soon as I find work.
- No insurance? - No, there's nothing.
Mrs. Mills...
I know this is a painful time for you...
but I think you ought to stop in at the mayor's office and make out a...
formal complaint against the Marshal.
- Why? - There has been talk, Mrs. Mills.
What talk, Mr.Brandt?
That the marshal didn't have to kill your husband.
There's that mayor over there drumming up a...
meeting with all them rich and proper jackasses.
Hollering and shouting around.
Quoting some stupid law or bylaw that, then they'll...
go stomping down the jailhouse take a look at God Almighty.
They take one good look back at him and they all wet their britches and go on home.
At least they're trying to do something instead of running off at the mouth.
Ah, shoot. You believe all that hogwash about why they want to get rid of him?
Like because he didn't have to kill Luke Mills?
Or them other 12 stinking cruds he put in the dirt since he come here?
Or that he's too quick to use his gun. or that he's past his time?
They got to get a little progress around here? No...
- They want rid of Patch because Patch knows. - What's he know?
Oh, I guess he knows as much as the Good Lord about this town.
He knows every woman that ever bedded down with some other woman's husband.
He knows every whore that ever made all them miserable married little ribbon clerks happy.
Feel like men, while their wives is off putting up preserves with the lady day.
He knows every dirty rotten low down thing about everybody in this town.
That include you, Lester?
He knows you're a miserable drunk who'd sell his old lady for two shots of that whiskey.
You got a garbage mouth, Lester.
Yeah, well, you got a big, long, overdue bar bill in there, Chris Hogg.
And you need that whiskey bottle.
Just like a baby needs his mama's milk to suck on.
So you be careful what you say to old Lester, you hear?
- Hey. - What?
There he is.
Well, speaking of the Lord.
Hey Mr. Patch. Mr. Patch? Marshal?
Excuse me, Marshal, sir, but I thought you'd like to know
why you was up there with Miss Quintana, sleeping, Luke Mills passed on.
Come in.
Is there anything I can do?
Little Annie Laurie, called me that.
I used to get down on my knees at night and pray that he would change.
He could be strong and...
frightened by the whole, ugly world. I couldn't understand.
- I had to shoot, Laurie. - Otherwise you would've taken him alive.
I know that.
Do you want some coffee?
Yeah, thanks.
- You going to be alright? - I'll manage.
- Laurie, look at me. - No.
Look at me, look at me.
I tried my damnedest not to kill him.
- Does it matter? - It matters that you believe me.
Isn't it more important that they believe you?
I don't care what they believe.
At the saloon last night when he lay there all night dying, I heard a lot of talk, Frank.
They were talking about...
all the times in the past that you've disarmed men.
Drunken men, without using a gun.
Now...
they may want to believe strange things, Frank.
Like that you've been carrying a hate for Luke for some 16 years.
You know that's not true.
Maybe...
I made a sad mistake 16 years ago, but...
I lived with that mistake. I even learned to accept it.
Now I accept that he's dead.
I accept that I'm not going to hear his pretty lies anymore.
Pretty lies about how he's going to...
find a big pot of gold...
and buy me an emerald crown for my beautiful head.
Laurie, you ought to try to get some sleep.
That's what everyone said to me.
All night long they kept saying that. Why don't you get some sleep, Laurie?
Said it's only right and proper that I should give Luke a good Christian funeral.
Fill him with formaldehyde and plaster down his hair so good...
Christian folk can come and look at him on display like in a wax museum.
Don't, Laurie, don't talk like that.
I'm sorry, Frank, you did what you had to.
And I hate you for it. Oh, God, how I hate you.
We don't have any law in this jerk-water town, he's the law.
He passes sentence on practically everything and everyone.
The people should be the law...
and will be the law when they have the verge to get rid of Frank Patch.
You see gentlemen...
what we're really deciding here is whether we move forward or backward.
We either keep up with the times or we lose out.
You know what it took to get the railroad to come through here.
And the day we got it, we were all riding high, just waiting for new...
business and industry to come pouring in.
But suppose you're an eastern investor, just, just stepping off the train...
you've come to look us over.
Come here a minute, I want to show you something.
That's our town marshal, Bo Patch.
Probably slept in those clothes, always did.
Look at him...
reminds you of the cover on a dime novel, rooting tooting cowboy with guns blazing.
Can you see that man in this picture?
This is a new town, he's all used up.
Well, Andrew?
Well, I, I don't want any trouble.
But if you want my honest opinion...
By all means, Andrew, we want your honest opinion.
I, I'm sorry but I'm afraid he's too proud and stubborn to quit.
Well, what would you suggest we do, Andrew?
I'm afraid I don't know.
However...
I'll go along with anything you, you gentlemen agree on.
In the 20 years I've known you, Andrew, I can't remember you completing a sentence...
without saying, I'm sorry or I'm afraid.
No sense in getting mad, Mr. Rosenbloom.
Not mad, just sad. Very sad.
Sign the paper, Chester, and let's get on with it.
Marshal?
- Do you know anything about sex? - Some, I guess.
- Hilda? - Yeah.
She's driving me right out of my stupid mind, I mean out.
I know it's hard to understand but...
well, it's hard to think straight with all that softness and heat...
- in her face and everything. - I know, I know that.
- You know something, Marshal? - What's that?
I wish I was a kid again.
Yeah, don't burn out your pipe, son.
I haven't done anything to her, you know that.
- You haven't? - No.
Oh, it's good.
Not that I wouldn't like to, though, you understand?
Oh sure, I understand that alright.
But how do you stay easy? I mean, how's a man supposed to stay easy?
Well, you ever try sticking your neck under a pump...
and letting the cold water run down your back?
- No, does it help? - Never helped me.
Well now, looks like we're going to have company.
Not now, Paul, fix it later.
Hello, Frank, Danny boy, Doc said we find you here and sure enough, this is where you are.
Let's get on with it, Chester.
Hey, catch anything?
Hey, looks like you fellas have done alright.
By golly, I haven't been fishing in so long.
I'd sure like to drop in a line right alongside yours now.
That what you come out here for, Chester? To fish?
No, no, I'm afraid we're here on official business.
Yours is a tough job.
I would've thought you would've had your bellyful of killing by now, that right?
- You get used to it. - You mean it doesn't bother you?
- That's not what I said. - Comes easy to you though.
Andy, if you're trying to say it's in my nature?
Well, isn't it?
If it wasn't, I wouldn't be here alive and kicking now, would I?
While Luke is laid out on a cold slab.
That's the advantage in being a professional.
Well...
as I see it...
if I wasn't good at my job, you wouldn't have hired me in the first place.
And the day I'm not good at it, you want to be rid of me.
- That rightly so? - That's well said, Frank, well said.
Well now, I'll take the bull by the horns.
The honest truth is that we don't want a man that good anymore.
With someone like you around, incidents like last night are...
bound to happen, we want to leave all that behind us.
- We want to join the 20th century. - I see.
And as soon as you join up, you're all going to change, is that it?
Eh?
Now, that's something I'd sure like to see.
Think I'll just stick around to watch.
Give him the paper, Chester. and get on with it.
Chester, this morning I got a check from your office for 75 dollars, my monthly wages.
Same wages I got 20 years ago, when you begged me to take this job.
We had the sole right to hire you, Frank...
which means that we've got the sole right to fire you as well, that's technically legal.
I think you're forgetting something technically...-
Not so far as I...
You promised me the job for as long as I wanted it.
I still want it.
Andrew here, being a scholarly man, doesn't seem to think our promise is the point.
Right, Andrew?
A promise is one thing...
but I'm afraid it won't hold up in a court of law.
If you folks want to take this to a court of law, best you get started.
Damn you, you can't do that to me.
Why don't you make a move Andy? I got my back turned.
Pa, get up.
- When that county sheriff get in? - The afternoon train.
I want Patch out, tonight.
Oh, that's an interesting idea, but how do we do it?
If you can't force his resignation, get him out any way you can.
But you saw him, what more do you want me to do?
Jack, I think 6 cases of the Kentucky bourbon and maybe 4 boxes of cigars.
That ought to do it.
- Yes, Miss Claire. - Come on in, Doc.
- Morning, Claire. - What will be, Doc?
None, Jack, this is professional call, business.
What business?
Well, I got an order from the town council here, Miss Claire.
I've come over to give them all a medical inspection.
If I find any disease, supposed to close you down.
Then you go right on upstairs and inspect, Doc.
Just make sure you don't give them anything they haven't got.
You can't just run off, son.
That wouldn't be fair to me now, would it?
Well?
Answer me.
I've always loved and respected you, Pa.
I'm not ashamed of that, but out there I almost got sick to my stomach.
- There's more to this than can be explained. - Try, Pa.
Try to explain to me, how Frank Patch can push my father around.
Explain to me, how he can make all of you crawl...
on your hands and knees whenever he wants to.
God knows, I've never been strong son, I've tried but somehow...
You can't leave me, you hear?
Pa, I just can't face those people out there. Just can't.
Will, I love you very much.
And I give you my word you'll never...
have to feel ashamed of me again.
- I made it for you special. - Thanks.
Excuse me I, I got to go.
- Marshal? - Howdy, Dan.
I just saw Mr. Oxley heading into the Alamo.
- Oh, what's so unusual about that? - Well, he had a rifle.
So?
The only time I seen him with that rifle is when he and will go deer hunting.
Yeah. Well, it could be he's going to get it fixed.
Then again, could be he's going deer hunting.
- Seems awful hot to go deer hunting. - Yeah, it's true.
Well, don't you worry about it.
Alright.
- Dan? - Yeah?
Thanks.
- I can't understand, Marshal. - You don't understand what?
They said they're going to bring in the county sheriff to take you, why?
Well, I never pay too much attention to what they say, Dan.
About the only exercise they ever get is moving their jaws.
- Be careful. - Yeah.
Marshal? Down by the river, why did you hit him?
Down by the river, why did you hit him?
I got a bad habit of losing my temper, Dan.
- You didn't answer my question. - That's right, I didn't.
Thank you, Doc.
Thank you baby doll, thank you baby doll.
- How much, Doc? - Eh?
You know, your medical examination, what's your fee?
On the house, Miss Claire, on the house.
- Come here. - Hey Jake...
Mr. Oxley, he's out gunning for the marshal.
- Frank... - No, don't worry.
Children, come on, come on.
This ought to be kind of interesting.
Andy.
Now, don't be a damn fool, come on out of there.
Andy? Andy...
Damn it, Andy, I wouldn't have talked.
Go on home, Dan.
There's nothing you can do.
Don't you touch him.
Leave me alone with him.
Pa.
- Sure glad to have you here, Lou. - How are you sheriff?
- Hi, Lou. - Hello, Sheriff.
Lou, you've got to help us. We always knew you would.
- We have faith int... - You've got to handle this.
I mean, it's more than a town problem, it's a county problem now.
If a man commits a crime in this county, it's your problem as well as ours.
It isn't that we can't handle it ourselves, it's just that we all feel it...
should be handled by a law enforcer who can reason with him.
I need a drink.
If a citizen swears out a complaint, you've got to act on it.
- Well, may I serve you, Your Honor, sir? - Beer.
I said, if a citizen swears out a complaint, you've got to act on it.
Oh I'm sorry Mr. Trinidad, I don't believe we got any of that wetback whiskey around here.
This American stuff is pretty good if you'd like to try any.
- Oh, we need your help badly, Lou. - Pardon me for butting in, Your Honor, sir.
But if you gentlemen have got important matters to discuss...
why I suggest that you do so in the privacy of my office.
I mean, it don't seem hardly proper that the town's most prominent citizens...
the sheriff of the county and all, holding an...
important meeting in an upholstered outhouse like this.
Come on.
Hi, Chester.
Alright, you got me here to file a complaint. Now, what's the charge?
Murder, the murder of Luke Mills.
All we want to do is arrest him and hold him for trial.
And move in a small uniform police force while he's waiting trial, is that it?
Something like that, yes.
Sign it, go down and give it to him.
We'd all appreciate it if you went down there by yourself.
- He might have more respect for the law. - You folks are still afraid of him.
Why is that Chester? Conscience, maybe?
What the hell do you mean?
Frank Patch is your conscience and you fellas are afraid.
We want him out right now.
And if you're not capable of it, we'll have to do it by the only means left to us.
Say, I want to beg you gents pardon for breaking in this way, but I figured this boy
...had a right to be here. He's got something important to tell you all.
- What is it, son? - Go on, tell him.
I'm going to kill him, Mayor.
I'm going to kill him all by myself.
Now, listen to reason son, we all know how you feel but...
Nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands.
Is that the kind of advice you're going to give me?
- Well, is it? - See, the town don't want no vigilante law.
Unless all legal and peaceful means fail.
Now, you know that, your dead daddy taught you about law and justice, didn't he?
I mean I think we ought to let these honorable gentlemen decide, eh?
And in my opinion, I think you have a right to kill him.
And no jury would convict you if they knew what the people of this town know.
Will, your father was a fine man. Nothing you can do will bring him back.
I want that man dead.
Marshal?
Hello, Dan.
Awful seeing a man kill himself.
One minute, he's there, alive...
then he's dead.
Blood and the smell of powder smoke.
It's all over and done with.
It's awful.
Why did he want to kill you?
- Hello, Frank. - Hello, Lou.
I got a complaint.
I'm going to have to arrest you.
You know it wasn't murder.
You want to lock me up knowing it won't stick but by the time I get out...
there'll be somebody else on the job, is that it?
- I can understand your feelings, Frank. - That's a hell of a lot more than I do.
Are you going to listen to somebody once in your life?
I'm listening.
What the hell do you want to do? Sign your own death warrant?
You did me some favors, Frank, I figure I owe you something for it.
For making those red-blooded Americans out there accept me as your deputy.
Ten years ago they said they'd rather leave town than take orders from a grease-ball.
Five years ago, you stepped aside, you let me run for county sheriff unopposed.
- You owe me nothing. - I figure I do, Frank.
But I'm going to ask you one more favor.
I'm asking you to resign before they kill you.
- Get the hell out of here, Lou. - Resign, Frank.
- Get out. - Resign, you goddamn idiot.
- You ungrateful gre... - Grease-ball, Frank.
Don't listen to me, I'm County Sheriff...
because you shoved me down the people's throat.
In my town, they take what I want to give them.
Remember, Frank?
Even somebody you thought was second class just like they did?
I got a good life, Frank, I want my kids to have the same.
The point is, you can't do any shoving anymore.
Frank, they don't want you now, they'd like to shove me down your throat now.
Marshal?
Feel better, Frank?
- Don't hit me again. - Get back to them, Lou.
They got to stay in line son.
Sure, they got to eat dirt too, if you tell them to.
Oh, Dan.
Dan, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Fear is the only goddamn thing they understand.
God Almighty, what's happening?
Patch is going to be hard to bring down alone, and I mean awful hard.
You heard what they said. They'll back me, the whole town council.
Oh boy, I wouldn't put no stock in what them ribbon clerks have to say.
Now listen, this thing is going to take some cool headed thought.
Now, you ain't cool headed, he ain't, you know.
You can't be cool headed and coming back...
after seeing your daddy laying there with the whole top of his head blowed off.
I'm really sorry about that, Will.
You've got something to say, you just come out and say it.
What's your stake in this anyway?
- How come you're so interested? - Oh, what's so funny about that?
I mean about me being on your side?
Boy, I've got plenty of reasons of my own for wanting to be rid of him.
Hell, I got about 20 years' worth of reasons. If I thought you needed convincing...
I don't need convincing or anything else from you.
- I can take care of this all by myself. - Relax, will you?
When I get this thing figured out, then I'm going to make you a proposition...
- and not one minute before. - There's only one solution.
- What are you suggesting? - We kill him.
I believe it's obvious that I've no place here.
How will you kill him gentlemen? Burn him at the stake?
Butcher him like a bull?
Throw him in a sack and drown him?
Why don't you go someplace and thank your Messiah...
we don't send you back to your holy land.
- Shut up, Ivan. - No.
I've taken all the insults I'm going to take from this peddler.
Dammit, let's stop this name calling.
We're the town council, we've got to deal with this situation.
I have no choice but to go along.
Civilization is a wonderful thing, ain't it Doc?
If they ever get it started, it might work.
Amen.
I'm taking the 6:10 out of town, Frank.
Come with me.
Please, Frank.
I can't, Lou.
Goodbye, Frank.
Goodbye, Lou.
Come in.
I want to marry you.
- Well? - What for?
What's so strange about that? People do it all the time.
Sit down, Frank.
After all these years, why you just asking me today?
I don't know.
- Maybe I figure my time is up. - Don't ever talk like that.
I begged you to quit, but that's wrong.
Your time is not up.
There's a hell of a lot of them out there hoping it is.
You did mean it, didn't you?
- Mean what? - About marrying me.
Yes.
- When, Frank? - Right now.
- Can a bride have an hour to get ready? - Take you that long?
Well, alright.
- But hurry up. - And, Frank?
- Yeah? - What about the minister?
- He might want to be in on this. - Yeah, sure.
- Frank? - Eh?
- Witnesses? - Witnesses, fine.
Never mind, I'll take care of it.
You're good girl.
OK, Maude.
We are gathered here in the sight of God...
to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony.
Frank Patch, do you take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife...
to have and to hold in sickness and in health...
to love her, to honor her, and keep her from this day forward...
- until death do you part? - I do.
Claire Quintana...
do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband...
to have and to hold in sickness and in health...
to love him, honor him and obey him from this day forward...
- until death do you part? - I do.
The ring, please?
Repeat after me.
- With this ring... - With this ring...
- I thee wed. - I thee wed.
I now pronounce you man and wife.
- He what? - He is over to parsonage.
He's making it all holy and legal.
Well, now...
- You got that loaded? - Yeah.
You can give him a real fine wedding present, boy.
Get out of the way. Give me that rifle.
Come on, boy. No, never mind that, you've had enough of that.
Come on get up. Come on, come on.
Now listen, it's best you go out the back way, see?
- We'll join you in few minutes. - Let go.
Alright boy. Here, you take the rifle.
Come on.
Yeah, go ahead, boy, go ahead.
Sure is too bad we ain't got time to attend services for poor Luke Mills.
- Yeah. - God rest his soul.
God go with you, son.
Thank you.
- Good bye. - Thank you very much.
- Frank, God bless you both. - Thank you.
Frank, I can't go to the rosary, I don't like funerals.
- Especially on a wedding day. - Alright, we'll see after.
Now, you take good care of him.
- Dan? - Yes sir?
Go on inside, both of you.
- But, Marshall, is it something wrong? - Go on. Go on in.
Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, amen.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator...
of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.
No.
Was crucified, died and was buried, he descended into hell...
The kid didn't wait.
- Why my father kill himself, Marshal? - I don't know, son.
Tell me...
Tell me.
A long time ago a man was killed, shot in the back.
- And my father did it? - Nobody knew for sure who did it.
You knew.
Why didn't you hang him?
There was nothing to be gained by hanging.
The dead man had a child, a son...
your father agreed to raise him as his own.
Like they say, Marshal...
you run things your own way.
When there's nobody else around, somebody has to, Will.
Right or wrong, somebody...
Stay here.
Give me some shells.
I told you to stay up there, come on.
Dan, get off the street, in the office.
Get him.
Arch, give me the gun.
God bless him.
- I'm getting out of here. - No, you ain't, Phil.
I said I'm getting out of here.
Get out of the way.
- Frank, where you going? - To the rosary.
- No, please, don't go. - I have to.
- Please. - I have to.
Please, Frank...
God have mercy on me.
Love was like sweet apple wine...
Each time his warm lips touched mine.
And I would smile every time, he looked at me.
I will remember the time...
Love was like sweet apple wine
But who can smile now that my love is left me