- Ernie Parsons, having been found
guilty by a jury of your peers...
- I didn't see any jury.
- Well, they was around.
Anyway, what difference does it make?
You gunned down Wendy Jones, and he
was one of our most beloved and respected citizens.
- I heard he was the town drunk.
- Well, now that he's dead, he's one
of our most beloved and respected citizens.
- I don't care who he was.
I didn't kill him.
- You've got the right to hear a few words from a preacher.
Unfortunately, our preacher's out of town,
but luckily we got Farley Mallard here,
and he's a feed and grain salesman, and he owns a Bible.
- No, thanks.
- Now, what does that mean?
- I don't want any feed and grain salesmen praying over me.
I don't want anyone praying over me.
I don't believe in that stuff.
- You ready, Max?
- Hup.
You've got one more inalienable right
to speak a few last words.
And I mean a few.
We don't want one of them things where the captain takes off
with the Declaration of Independence.
Well, go on.
- Well, I'd just like to say that this
is the lousiest town that I've ever been in.
Well, I've met a better-Class folk
at a San Francisco opium parlor.
A drunken pool-Hall bum would be considered
too high-Toned for these parts.
And as for your system of justice, well...
- Now, that's enough.
Do you see what I mean?
He was just one breath away from the Declaration.
All right.
Max.
- Don't do it!
Don't do it!
Ed Moose just confessed.
He killed Wendy in a drunken barroom brawl
about a pregnant Indian squaw.
Ed claims Wendy was the father and that he
was acting as the avenging angel.
- Wendy was going to be the father of something?
- That's what Ed said.
- All right.
Untie him.
Give him his gun.
Now, that's the way out of town, son.
Take it, keep on going, and don't you never come back.
- You heard her.
I'm not guilty.
- Even so, we don't want no fast guns in this town.
Fast guns rate alongside with lepers
in this law-Abiding community.
- Can I ride back to town long enough to get some food?
- That's the way out, son.
Don't press your luck.
- Thanks.
Bye.
- I'm going with you.
- You don't have to.
I'll be back.
- When?
- Whatever you do, don't leave town.
Wait.
Never give up hope.
See you.
Hup!
Ya.
- Well, if I'd have known he was going to act like that,
I never would have lied for him.
- Lied?
- You would have never what?
- I don't care.
I thought he was cute.
There ain't a man around here I'd have as a gift.
And he took a bath every so often besides.
- After him!
[CALLS DIRECTING THE HORSE]
[SHOUTING]
[GUNFIRE]
- Easy, boy.
Phew.
Ya.
[SHOUTING]
- "Reverend Frank Fleming."
Well, pleased to know you, Frank.
"Dear Reverend, everybody in Castle Walk
is real excited about you coming here.
We ain't had a preacher here in over three years,
but our last one left in such a hurry,
he didn't even say goodbye.
He was a pious man, but he had a yellow streak down his back.
We're all looking forward to meeting
you for the first time."
We're all looking forward to meeting you for the first time?
Hmm.
"I don't know how long you'll be willing to stay,
but you'll be welcome every minute of it."
You're the preacher's horse?
[HORSE WHINNYING]
- Let's see what you got, pal.
Frank, if ever I catch the guy who did you in,
I'll take care of him for you.
In the meantime, I'm going to need
your clothes and your horse.
I got a posse after me for something I didn't do.
I'd say a prayer for you, Frank, but coming from me,
I'm afraid it's liable to do you more harm than good.
Ha!
[GUNFIRE]
- All right.
Pull up.
This is a holdup.
Why, it's a preacher, Percy!
- Ah, sorry about that there, Parson, but, ah,
we were a little too far off to catch that there collar.
- Is there anything we can do for you, Reverend?
- Either of you boys ever heard of a town called Castle Walk?
- Well, yeah.
It's in Arizona.
- Sure ain't much of a town, though.
- How far is it from here?
- Oh, about 150 miles.
- It's over yonder in that direction.
- How's your church attendance been lately, boys?
You boys see that branch over there?
- Ah, yes, sir.
[GUNFIRE]
- That was four for the Lord, boys.
He loves you, but he hates your profession.
- Yeah, I can see how he would.
- I want you boys to go and sin now more.
- Uh, we surely won't, Parson.
- Uh, as soon as we can afford not to.
Uh, Preacher.
You being so good with that gun and all,
how come you didn't just kill us as we was riding up here?
- Because you boys are children of the Lord,
just as much as I am.
- Children of the Lord, huh?
- Ya.
[ORGAN MUSIC]
- Sorry, Sadie.
Didn't have the time to dig it no deeper.
- Well, I guess we better just put him in the ground
and get it over with.
- All right.
- Without even a few words?
- Mr. Ross didn't say nothing about no words.
He said we could have a burying.
Mr. Ross didn't say nothing about no words.
- But Sam was a Christian man.
You can't just bury him like a wild dog.
Can't we stand up to Mr. Ross just this once?
- You're leaving here after the burial.
We've got to stay here and live with him.
All right.
Let's get going.
- Wait a minute.
- Is it one of Mr. Ross's men?
- Looks like a preacher.
- Well, what do we do now?
- Ah, I wrote him myself not to come.
- Thank God you're here, Reverend.
- I've had many receptions in my life, ma'am.
Yours is almost unique.
- We were going to have to bury my husband without any proper
words being said, but now that you're here...
- You're the Reverend Frank Fleming?
- That's right.
- I wrote you a letter telling you not to come.
- No, you wrote me a letter welcoming me to Castle Walk.
- I wrote you that letter.
- Yeah, but things changed.
First, Mr. Ross said it was all right
for us to have a preacher, and then Mr. Ross changed his mind.
- Gentlemen, what the hell is going on here?
- Reverend!
- Hell is a word that came straight from the Bible, folks.
And all I know is, we've got a heartbroken little widow here.
You did say you were the widow?
- And these are my children.
- That's a child?
- She's 18.
- Oh, she certainly is.
Well, first order of business as I
see it is to get this poor man put decently into the ground.
- Oh, thank you, Reverend.
- Oh, I... I don't know what Mr. Ross
is going to say about this.
- I haven't been here five minutes
and I'm already sick to death of Mr. Ross.
Come on.
Let's bow our heads.
- Don't you have a Bible, Reverend?
- Oh, I probably do in my saddlebag.
- Here You can borrow mine, Reverend.
- The deceased was probably a simple man,
so I'll just say a few, simple words of my own,
and not bother to dip in to the Bible today.
[ORGAN MUSIC]
- As you all know, it's ashes to ashes and dust
to dust, which may not sound like the best
deal in the world, but it's the only deal
you're ever going to get, so you might
as well learn to live with it.
I didn't know the late deceased, but some
of the works he left behind are might impressive.
Well, what did he die of?
- He was shot in the back.
- May the full wrath of the Lord fall
on people who shoot other people in the back.
It's a rotten, simple way to make a living.
Amen.
- Amen.
- Can't thank you enough, Reverend.
I'd like to say more, but Mr. Ross only gave us half an hour
to get out of town after the funeral.
- You're leaving town?
You taking her with you?
- Mr. Ross said we all had to go.
- Who is this Mr. Ross?
- He's a mean, miserable, murdering thief,
and he runs everybody in this part of the country.
There ain't a soul of us that had
a single, solitary happy day since he rode in here
and took over.
- He's going to hear every word that you said!
- Yeah, and he'll probably kill me.
But at least I got to say something that
should have been said before I die.
- Why is he running this woman out of town?
- My husband Sam was the only man in these parts
to stand up to Mr. Ross, so he had Sam killed.
He let us take one wagon load of our things.
We'd better get started.
- Ma'am, the only place you're going is back to your ranch.
I'm sure with the help of all these fine citizens
that we can make Mr. Ross see the error of his ways.
- Reverend, you don't understand the situation around here.
- Mr. Ross is a powerful, powerful man.
He's got money and influence.
- And he's got 20 top gunfighter working for him.
- Well, I'll tell you people what I really think of you.
I'm going to tell you something about gunfighters.
Now, Ross doesn't have 20 top gunfighters working for him
because there ain't 20 top gunfighters in the whole US
of A. Now, what Ross probably does have is
about 15 cowboys that wear guns for ornaments.
They do just fine at shooting up a saloon
or making some terrified dude dance a little jig.
But Ross has probably got about three men who
are pretty good at getting their guns out of their holsters,
but no good at hitting anything once they do.
Which leaves about two or three men
that might honestly be called "gunfighters."
Not top gunfighters.
More like second- or third-Raters.
So, you see, you folks have been letting yourselves be rousted
around by a bunch of two-Bit yahoos.
- How come you know so much about gun fighters, Reverend?
- The Lord's work takes one to many places in many climes.
Matthew 31.
- There ain't no Matthew 31.
- Well, there ought to be.
Widow, I want you and your family to get in the wagon.
I'm going to drive you home.
You're going to sit next to me.
- Oh, I don't know, Reverend.
- Ma'am, you don't look like the kind of woman that
would back away from a little fight.
Where's your faith?
- My faith is in good shape, Reverend.
And if you're willing to take the risk, so are we.
Get in the wagon, kids.
Us and the Reverend are going home.
- The lives of this family will be on your soul, Reverend.
- Oh, Reverend!
- Yeah.
- Couple of Ross's men are in town
and they're pretty liquored up.
- That was their first mistake.
You ride my horse, son.
- OK.
- Hey.
Let's go have some fun.
- Remember the children, Reverend.
- Those are just two of the cowboys, ma'am.
Hoo.
- And where do you people think you're going?
- Where's the place that Ross would least like us to go?
- I'd say her ranch.
- Well, that's exactly where we're going.
- Wait'll Mr. Ross hears about this.
- Mr. Ross is a skunk of doubtful parentage.
Mr. Ross is so low, he could walk
under a rattlesnake's belly wearing a high hat.
And that's what I think of Mr. Ross
without ever having met the man.
And that was indecisive, cowboy.
Could have very easily cost you your unimportant life.
[GUNFIRE]
- Those could have just as easily been
your years flying off your heads, boys.
- Well, that's a terrible way for a preacher to act.
[GUNFIRE]
- When the Lord wants someone to move, he wants them to move.
Ha!
- Reverend, my husband Sam would have
followed you to hell and back.
- Now, don't talk about hell to a sinner, ma'am.
- You, a sinner?
- Ma'am, we're all sinners.
Or about to be.
All right.
Just as soon as we stop, I want you to get the wagon unloaded.
I want to get this family settled in before dark.
You don't mind if I order your kids around a little,
do you, ma'am?
- Reverend, you can do anything you want to.
- Reverend?
Reverend?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Reverend, this hole in the back of your collar
looks like a bullet hole.
- Well, that'd be my guess, ma'am.
- Your guess?
How could a man be shot in the back and not know it?
- Well, I was carrying that coat over my arm
when the shooting took place.
[COUGHING]
- Well, tobacco's one of the Lord's works too, ma'am.
- I'll get my things and fix your coat.
- Do you think Mr. Ross and his men
are going to come down and get us tonight?
- No, not tonight, honey.
I'd imagine that Sunday in church
will be where he makes his first play.
- Aren't you scared at all?
- Oh, I'm scared all right, Sally.
But not the kind of scared that'd
make me knuckle under to the likes of that Ross.
- Thought of a text for your sermon tomorrow, Reverend?
- Tomorrow?
- Tomorrow's Sunday.
- I have lost all track of time the last few weeks.
What do you think I ought to preach about?
- I thought you said the sin of cowardice.
- Yeah, that's not bad, either.
- Thought you probably had some favorite passage from the Bible
to illustrate your point.
- Oh, I do.
Several of them, as a matter of fact.
But what's your favorite passage from the Bible that
would illustrate that point, ma'am?
- I think it would be Luke 12, when Christ says,
"Do you think I have come to give peace on earth?
I came to cast fire upon the earth,
and would it were already kindle."
- It says that in the Bible?
- Well, I told you.
Luke 12.
- Oh, Luke 12.
Yeah, that Luke, he really knew how to turn a phrase,
didn't he?
- Yeah.
I'll clean your clothes up for the services.
- Well, I'd appreciate that.
You don't happen to have a Bible around, do you?
I, um, seem to, ah, have misplaced my glasses.
Could you turn to that spot in Luke
that your mother was talking about?
- It's right here.
You don't wear glasses.
- You know something, you're right.
I don't know what got into me.
- Well, good night.
Good night.
- Night.
- Folks, ah, I'm going to read you from, ah,
Matthew, chapter 10 and verse 34.
Although Luke says pretty much the same thing in his 12.
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth.
I came not to send peace, but a sword."
Now, I don't know what that means to you,
but I know what it means to me.
It means that while God loves peace, when the occasion
arises, he's not reluctant to use the sword.
Matter of fact, when the occasion calls for it,
he might become downright irritated
if you don't use the sword, or the gun, or the rope.
Or whatever's handy.
Now, you folks have had a cross to bear here lately,
and his name is Ross.
Well, they say that people get the kind of lives they deserve,
and I guess they do.
But when men won't fight for their wives, women,
and children, and when their women won't make them fight
for what's right, then these people
don't deserve any kind of lives at all.
That's exactly what you've got.
[GUNFIRE]
[SCREAMING]
- Get his gun.
If you've never done it, don't think you could possibly
realize what an awful thing it is to kill a man.
I don't know who God must be mad at the most.
That man for wasting his life at the altar
of some tin-Horn dictator, me for having
to do this thing in his own house,
or you people for having quit before the fight even got
started.
I haven't got the heart for any more church today.
That's all.
- Mr. Ross and a couple of his men are outside.
Take care of yourself, son.
- Every second.
Bring that body outside.
- You've had a couple of fun days here, Preacher.
- Well, I tell you, Ross, you...
- The name is Mr. Ross.
- The name was Mr. Ross.
Now, you hear me good, Ross.
Either of those two men go for their guns,
I'm going to go for you first.
- I think I could take him, Mr. Ross.
- Don't think.
- Here's your chance, boys.
Either of you holding any grudges against him?
Draw on me, and I'll kill him for you.
- If we go together, we can get him.
- Before or after he killed me?
- He don't look all that fast to me.
- Shut up.
- Friend of yours, Ross?
- All right, Preacher.
You pulled yourself off a nice, little grandstand play
for the folks.
Now, I want you out of town.
- Who killed Sam Underwood?
You or one of your men?
I'm going to find out if I have to take the whole bunch of you
to pieces.
- Give me the word.
I'm sure I can beat him.
- No.
Go on back to the ranch.
I'll be there in a minute.
- You sure?
- Now.
- That's the way I like it.
Man to man.
Do I make the first play, or do you?
- I just changed my mind, Preacher.
I don't want you out of town.
I want you right here, where I can
get you any time I want you.
- Service is next Sunday at 10 o'clock,
and there's a four-Bit fine for being late.
[LAUGHTER]
- You wouldn't shoot me in the back, would you, Preacher?
- Like that.
- Any of you folks think your preacher doesn't deserve
a drink after the events of this morning, well,
we just don't believe in the same god, that's all.
- Some of you boys plant him, will you?
- Don't you feel a little strange,
having a drink with your preacher on a Sunday morning?
- No.
- How come?
- You know, about 10, 12 years ago,
I took a trip up to Cheyenne.
I come across this altercation between a 19-Year-Old kid
and one of the top gunslingers in that part
of the country at that time.
This kid, he didn't want no part of the fight,
but this gunny was drunk.
He kept at it, and finally the kid had to go for his gun
or get blasted right here in his tracks.
It was plum pitiful.
- How?
- This kid was the fastest thing I ever seen.
Caught that gunny flat-Footed.
Why, he was dead before God got the news.
I inquired around and found out this kid's name
was Ernie Parson.
Ernie, what are you doing here in Castle Walk
dressed up in that preacher's outfit?
- It's a wrong guess, Billy.
- You know, once you've seen a top man handle himself in a gun
fight, you never forget one little detail.
What are you wanted for, anyway?
- Doesn't matter.
I didn't do it.
They'll hang me just like I did if they catch me.
- Did you kill Frank Fleming?
- No, of course not.
Came across his body in the hills and he was already dead.
I was half starved, no place to go,
so I took his clothes and horse and came here.
All right.
I'll ride back to the ranch, tell the widow and the kids
goodbye, and... and I'll move on.
- Why leave?
You're the answer to our prayers, Ernie.
- No I'm not, Billy.
Don't let these clothes fool you.
- God moves in mysterious ways, boy.
- Not that mysterious.
Look, Billy.
What I'd like to know is, if I do stick around here,
how much help can I count on from these God-Fearing people?
- Almost none.
- Almost none?
- Ah, none.
- This is just God moving in his mysterious way
to get me killed.
God will smite the sinners of Castle Walk
just as surely as he smote the Philistines.
Smote.
For the time is at hand when you will
hear of wars and rumors of wars.
Be not afraid, for this must first take place.
Nations will rise against nations and kingdoms
against kingdoms.
Not a head out of your hair or a hair on your head will perish,
and I quote Luke, chapter 21, verse...
Luke chapter 21, verse 23.
"For there shall be great distress in the land,
wrath upon his people."
[CLAPPING]
- I brought you some lunch.
I didn't know preachers had to practice.
- Well, it's either that or watch the collections fall off.
- Huh?
- Oh, that's... that's a real bad joke
I stole from the Methodists.
- Oh.
- Does your mother know you came out here alone?
- I don't know.
Why?
- Well, ah, you're a very attractive young girl.
Almost too young, as a matter of fact.
- Most of the girls around here are
married by the time they're 13 or 14.
- 13, huh?
Well, I'll have to look into that.
- Why?
They're the lucky ones, even if they don't
get a trip to Phoenix out of it.
- Is that the price of marriage around here?
A trip to Phoenix?
- No, but it sure doesn't hurt.
Look, do I have to keep on calling you Reverend?
- Oh, no.
Call me Ernie.
- Ernie?
- My full name's Frank Ernest Fleming.
All my good friends, they call me Ernie.
- Is there anything in your faith against marriage?
- No.
Not in my faith.
Look, Sally, ah, sit down.
This conversation isn't going in exactly
the direction I had planned.
I mean, you know, marriage is just fine.
I was real glad that my parents believed in it.
But, ah... but there's other things, too.
You don't know what I'm talking about, do you?
- I know what you're talking about?
- Let's see.
- What's the matter?
- Oh, it's these clothes and this collar.
It's just... I'm not going to get anywhere dressed like this.
- I can't see that makes much difference.
- Well, you would if you were dressed like a nun.
It's just the wrong outfit for what I had in mind.
- Hey, Preacher!
I've got to talk to you.
Hi, Sal.
- Hi.
- It's real important.
You know a gunfighter named Jake McCoy?
- Yeah, I know of him.
- He's in town.
- My blessings on him.
- And he's working for Ross.
Is he really good?
- Yeah.
He's the best.
- You can take him, can't you?
- You sure he's working for Ross?
- Yeah, and he's looking for you.
Although he don't know who you really are.
- That doesn't matter.
Or does it?
Where's he at now?
- Well, he's at the Mint Saloon when I left town.
- You're going to have to ride back to the ranch alone.
- We didn't get very much accomplished today, did we?
- Can't you just feel the ice breaking all around us?
- Well, this is your last chance to ride on out of here.
Forget about the whole thing.
- I can't.
I don't know why, Billy, but I just can't.
- If it's him, we'll be honored with a table.
He's already spotted you.
- Hello, Jake.
- I was just about to go looking for you.
- Do you ever run into Ernie Parsons anymore?
- I've never run into Ernie Parsons.
Any time, any place, at all, ever.
- You have now.
- You?
You go into the church?
- Into hiding for the winter.
- Oh.
I always heard you were kind of smart.
- I never heard that about you.
Look, are we really going to have
to go through with this thing?
- I have $1,000 in my pocket and a girl waiting for me
at Boulder City says I got to go through with it.
- You all that sure you can beat me?
- You all that sure I can't?
- If there's anything I hate, it's a stupid, senseless fight.
Come on.
- Well, how do you want to do this?
- Billy?
When we get in position, flip a coin.
When it hits the ground, we go for our guns.
All right?
- All right.
- Jake?
One of us is going to die, and it's
not going to prove a thing.
- Sure it is, Ernie.
It's going to prove which one of us
is a fool to call himself a gunfighter.
- You boys ready?
[GUNFIRE]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
- Are you hit?
- You?
- Did you ever miss from this distance before?
- Never.
- Me neither.
- Want to try again?
- No.
No, I think somebody's trying to tell us something.
You put your gun away.
I'm going to get on my horse and get out of this place.
I beat you.
You know that, don't you?
- Oh, no you didn't.
And you know dang well you didn't, Jake.
You going to give Ross's $1,000 back?
- No.
I'm late for my date.
- You folks see those bullets hit?
- I don't think it hit anywhere, Reverend.
- That's just plain silly.
- A whole dollar.
- This is how those stupid legends get started.
Jake and I have an off day in a gunfight, miss each other.
Of course there could be 1,000 explanations.
But just because a bunch of rummies standing around
don't see where the bullets hit, all of a sudden you've
got the miracle of Castle Walk.
Now this whole miserable, little town's
going to think that God's on their side.
- Well, you got me convinced, son.
But somehow or other, I just don't hardly
believe that you convinced yourself.
Now, let me point out a couple of things to you.
- Like what?
- Well, for instance, you're back yonder in that town
and they're about to hang you.
And right at the last minute, in rides
this gal and saves your neck.
- She and I had been fooling around a little bit.
- All right.
Well, then, you're out there in the brush, a posse's
a- Chasing you, and then all of a sudden you come across
this here preacher's body, and find this letter that brings
you right here into this here town.
- It was supposed to lead him.
- Yeah, but you was the one that wound up here.
Right here, where you're needed more than
anybody's ever been needed before.
Now, does all this make you want to stop
and think just a little bit more?
- No.
I don't want to talk about it.
[HORSE GRUNTING]
- Hold it!
You should have listened to me when
I told you to get out of town.
- You shouldn't have backed down in front
of me the other morning, either.
Now this whole town's going to have the idea that you're just
a little less than the tin god you pretended to be.
- Just tell me one thing.
What really happened between you and Jake McCoy?
- I chased that bum out of town.
And he's not going to give you your $1,000 back, either.
He said to tell you that's the price he charges
for shaking hands with scum like you.
- Get on with it.
[INAUDIBLE], you drop that rope real slow.
Drop it.
- You ain't getting out of town fast enough, Preacher.
Haw!
- Ow!
- Get the point now, Preacher?
- You're in the bunkhouse of our ranch.
I thought it would scare the kids if they saw you like this.
- How'd you find me?
- When you didn't come home last night,
I set out to look for you.
- You strip me down?
- I'm a ranch girl with brothers.
Don't make a big thing out of it.
- You're something brand new in my life, Sally.
- Are you strong enough to get up and get
dressed and get out of here?
- Doesn't matter whether I am or not.
I've got to do it.
Turn your back, Sal.
I'm not as [INAUDIBLE] of my [INAUDIBLE] as you are.
- Will I ever see you again?
- Sure, why not?
I'm not going far.
- Well, you have to.
Oh, if they don't get your body, Mr. Ross
will never stop until they find you.
- Yeah.
And this is the first place he'll look.
I want you and the kids to go out and dig a grave.
Put some kind of a marker on it with my name.
Tell Ross you found my body and buried it in the hills.
- Can I turn around now?
- Sure.
Sally, I don't want anyone to know that I'm alive.
I want it to come as a horrible shock to Ross.
I'm going to start giving him trouble
in ways he never dreamed of.
I'm going to need plenty of food, water, and ammunition.
- I'll get you everything you need.
Where will you go?
- I'll hide up in the hills for a while.
- Well, Ernie, in this part of the country,
if a girl undresses a man, it's customary for the man
to make an honest woman out of her.
- Well, I'm sure that's true in every part of the country.
If I live through the next little while,
well, we'll have a serious talk about that.
- What's the matter?
- Oh, well, just look at the way I look.
- Well, it's always something, isn't it?
You don't like the way you're dressed.
You don't like the way you look.
[GUNFIRE]
[SHOUTING]
- You know, I got a hunch there's a bunch
of outlaws operating up in these hills.
Probably scaring old Chet and Harley half to death.
Blew up the well, too.
[GUNFIRE]
[HORSES WHINNYING]
[GUNFIRE]
[SHOUTING]
- What was that?
What was that?
[SHOUTING]
- I don't know, boss.
There must have been 15 or 16 of them.
- Or maybe there weren't nobody there at all.
- What do you mean?
- Drag our preacher through the cactus.
Them people don't have to stay dead unless they want to.
- Everybody in town keeps talking about the preacher's ghost
riding through the hills and shooting
at every one of Ross's men that sticks his head up.
I keep telling them, the whole goldarn idea of ghosts...
- Sally, didn't you tell Billy?
- You told me not to tell anyone.
- Billy, I'm sorry.
- It's sure good to see you alive, boy.
- Are you sure it's safe for you down here?
- Honey, it's been a long time since I've been safe anywhere.
Lately, it's been getting worse.
Isn't tomorrow Sunday?
- It sure is.
- Billy, I want you to ride into town
and tell everyone that we're having church
services tomorrow morning at 10:00.
- I'll do it right now.
- Sally told you our plans, ma'am?
- Yes.
- You have any objections?
- No.
- Ma'am, ah, has it occurred to you that, well, Sally's
liable to end up one of the youngest widows in these parts?
- Uh-Uh.
Mary Murt's only 14, and she's been a widow two years.
- Besides Mary Murt.
- No.
Grace Dorothy'd only been married a week and a half
when her husband fell down a mine shaft.
And you know how old she is.
- Sally, uh, could we take a walk outside?
Will you excuse us, ma'am?
Sally, um, the reason I brought you out here
is... well, one of the reasons... we're
going to be husband and wife, and you've got a right
to be in on the decisions that affect the both of us.
You understand?
Now, if I stay here and fight it out with Ross and his men,
chances are very good that I'll be killed.
But on the other hand, we could leave here tonight,
get married the very first town we come to, go
someplace we both like and settle down
and just have a wonderful life for ourselves.
It's all up to you, Sally.
You just say the word.
- Well, Mama always said never to throw yourself in between a man
and what he thinks he's got to do.
- Well, I won't kid you, Sally.
I'm a little disappointed in that answer.
- Oh...
- No, it's all right.
I got the strangest feeling that I've been pointed straight
toward this shootout ever since the day I was born,
and there wasn't a thing in the world I could do about it.
Billy says it's God moving in his mysterious way.
Me?
Well, I just don't know.
You very religious, Sally?
- Why do men have to talk and talk?
Can't you be quiet and get on with what
you're supposed to be doing?
- Yes, ma'am.
- Folks, I'm here today as your preacher
and as God's representative.
Now, as your preacher, I've stood up to your enemies
for you, and all it's gotten me so far is a lot of bruises
and a bunch of cactus spines.
Now, I understand that a lot of you thought I was dead,
and that my ghost was raging through the hills,
wreaking my vengeance on Ross and his men.
And I want to ask you something.
What were your feelings?
Were you scared that you might have
an angry ghost raging in your hills?
Or were you ashamed, because not a single one of you
came out to see if I was alive or if I
might not need some help?
Well, I'm warning you people.
While you're sitting around waiting for God and me
to do your work for you, God just
might have some plans of his own.
Maybe he's not as angry at Ross as he is at you.
[MURMURING]
- I'm not armed.
- Billy?
Go outside.
Take a look around.
- I came alone.
- Go on, Billy.
- I just thought it was time that all
this foolishness came to an end.
We got a new country to build here.
We ought to be getting on with it
instead of indulging in all this senseless killing.
I won't deny that you've hurt me since you've been here.
Several of my men have been killed or wounded.
Several more have run off because you
scared them half to death.
- I didn't know I was doing that well.
What do you want, Ross?
- A truce.
A chance to get on with our lives.
- Ross, if you were sitting on a stack of Bibles 10 feet high,
I'd bet money that you were lying and I'd win.
- Now, just a minute, Reverend.
If Mr. Ross is sincere... and I believe
he is... this may be just the moment we've been waiting for.
- Luther, how could you believe that?
I don't believe him for a minute.
- Now, Sadie...
- You are going to believe this man after all he's done to you?
- Well...
- Jehoshaphat, Reverend.
Anybody can make a mistake.
If Mr. Ross is man enough to come here...
- Please, please, please.
I didn't mean to create any dissension
amongst the preacher's flock.
Now, you've all heard what I have to say.
Think it over.
- Well, I think we ought to accept the proposition.
- Well, I think you're right.
[MURMURING]
- I have an announcement to make.
Miss Sally Underwood and I are going to be married tomorrow
morning at 11:00.
You're all invited.
The second the ceremony is over, my wife and I
will be leaving this godforsaken town for good.
The ceremony won't take place here at the church.
It'll be at the Mint Saloon.
You can say what you want about those people at the Mint,
but they know why they're there, and they do something about it.
[MURMURING]
[CLAPPING]
- Where's Sally?
- Oh, she's out back getting dressed.
Her mama's with her.
- We can't take all day with this thing.
- What's your rush, boy?
- I got one of my feelings, and I'm never wrong,
that I should get out of this place.
- Funny you'd say that.
- Huh?
- Oh, nothing.
Hey, yonder she comes now.
[GASPS]
- Oh.
- Oh, you're beautiful.
Come on, everybody.
- Don't you get the feeling that maybe something's missing here?
I mean, who's going to perform the ceremony?
You're the only preacher around here.
- Hell, I don't know of any law that
says I can't delegate my otherworldly powers.
You marry us, Billy.
- Yes, Billy.
Come on.
- I'm [INAUDIBLE] the legality of all this.
- Oh, never mind the legality.
It's the spirit that counts.
Now, I take Sally to be my wedded wife.
You go on from there.
- Well, dearly beloveds.
We're gathered here today to unite this couple in holy...
[POUNDING ON DOOR]
- Reverend, you were right.
Ross and his men have bypassed the town,
and they're circling around, and they're coming in that way.
- Oh, he's let us down again.
- Hold it down, hold it down.
How many men?
- I counted 14, including Ross.
- How long before they get here?
- Not more than five minutes.
- Well, five minutes is plenty of time.
Go on with what you were saying, Billy.
- I'll have to get ready for Ross.
Otherwise, I won't stand a chance.
Well, let's finish this thing later.
All right, folks.
This is it.
Now you see how much his word means.
Ross and his men are coming into town for just one reason...
To get me.
Because he knows if he kills me, there
won't be enough fight left in the rest of you
to hold off a bunch of sick, old ladies.
This thing works two ways.
Now, if I can get Ross first, then his men
won't have any reason to go on with the fight.
So all I'll need is some of you to keep his men pinned
down while I take care of Ross.
- But the women and the children...
- You don't even have to come out in the open.
You can shoot from the windows or from the roofs.
- You don't even have to hit anything.
Just shoot fast and make a lot of noise,
but keep his men pinned down.
- Can't believe it, Reverend.
I'm with you.
- Give Ma and me a couple of rifles.
Well, you said we didn't have to hit anything.
Just make a lot of noise.
- I just don't think I'd take a chance with you, dear.
Come on, Billy.
Give me the keys to the hardware store.
Barber shop.
I don't hate you people.
I guess you just can't help the way you are.
- Well, I ain't going to be that easy on you.
- Ernie, there's something else that you ought to know about.
I'd have told you sooner, but... well, I
didn't want to spoil the wedding.
- What?
- Well, that sheriff that wanted to hang you?
He's here in town.
- Where?
- Over at my place.
I told him I was the sheriff here.
It's one that I got off our last, late sheriff.
Anyhow, I told him if he'd wait there, well, I'd
round you up and bring you in to him.
- How'd he find me?
- Oh, him and that posse come across Frank Fleming's body.
One of them old boys knew Frank.
They figured that you'd switched clothes with him.
- Yeah.
Well, if he wants me, he's just going
to have to get in line behind Ross and those other 13 men.
You take the barber shop.
- Ernie?
When this thing's over with, though, you
got to get out of town.
That's all there is to it.
- Billy, what the hell makes you think
we're going to live through this thing?
- I want that preacher.
If he's not out here in two minutes,
I'm going to burn this town to the ground.
- Drop your guns, boys.
[GUNFIRE]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
[GUNFIRE]
[HORSE WHINNYING]
[GUNFIRE]
[SHOUTING AND GUNFIRE]
- We're with you, Preacher.
[HORSE WHINNYING]
[GUNFIRE]
- You all right?
- Barely.
[GUNFIRE]
- Listen all you Ross's men.
Ross is dead.
Anyone who keeps on fighting is going to have to stand trial.
- How do we know he's dead?
- Because I'm alive.
- All right.
You heard the man.
- The sheriff's going to be down here
to find out what this is all about.
- Yeah, I know.
Billy, get my horse and meet me out back, huh?
Go over to the Mint Saloon and tell
Sally to meet me back at the ranch.
We'll take off from there.
- Nope.
I ain't going to do it.
I'm a dang fool for going along with this thing as far
as I have, and I ain't going to go no further.
- What are you talking about?
- I ain't going to let you run away with that kid,
her not knowing who you are or what you are
or what kind of a life she's letting herself in for.
- Do you think if I told her everything,
she still wouldn't ride away with me?
- Well, of course she would, Ernie.
Because she's 18 and... And you're her first love.
- Well, that's good enough for me.
- Ernie, when that sheriff finds out you've left down,
do you suppose that he's just going to give up?
- I can take care of him.
- Yeah.
You can take care of him with one hand
while you take care of Sally with the other.
Then if something goes wrong, why, she can just stand around
with your baby in her and watch you hang.
- You think I could just ride off without telling her why?
- I'll tell her.
- Yeah?
Then what happens to her?
- Well, she'll be tore up for a while, but... but she's young.
She'll get over it in a month or two.
- Yeah, but I won't get over it in a month or two.
- I'll get your horse.
- I'll get it myself.
- Ernie?
This town owes you a whole lot.
But it don't owe you Sally.
- Can't make any promises.
- He's all right.
He's not hurt, and he'll be here any minute.
- Damn it, Billy.
You're right.
- My blessings on you, Reverend.
- Well thank you, Ernie.
- Do I know you?
- No, I don't think so.
- Then how come you know me?
- Because I know every preacher in this part of the country,
and you're not one of them.
And I've been hearing about a gunfighter named Ernie Parsons
and some interesting goings-On in a town called Castle walk.
- Well, don't believe everything you hear, Reverend.
- Oh, I don't.
That's why I'm on my way to Castle
Walk right now... to investigate these wonderful stories.
- Maybe you should get them a real preacher now.
- They seemed very happy with the one they had.
- They had a gunfighter, not a preacher.
- God moves in mysterious ways.
- You boys sure do ham away at that phrase, don't you?
Are you really going to Castle Walk?
- I sure am.
- When you get there, uh, would you give these to a girl named
Sally Underwood?
Tell her they're just from an unknown admirer that thinks
certain girls should have a trip to Phoenix,
even if they don't get married.
- All right.
Ernie, did you ever think that the things that happened to you
in Castle Walk might be your call to the kind of work
you've been destined to do?
- Reverend, um, I didn't solve the problems of Castle Walk
by praying them away.
I did it the way I always do.
With a gun.
Now, did you ever hear of a call coming that way?
- But you left it a better place than it was when you arrived.
- You're a nice guy, Reverend, but no, thanks.
- I'll be seeing you, Ernie.