Benny Carter

Buck and the Preacher -- Action-packed Western about a scout (Sidney Poitier) and a con man (Harry Belafonte) who team up toprotect the Exodusters: ex-slaves who traveled across the West after the Civil War. Directed by Poitier. Music by jazz great Benny Carter.

Golden Globe® nominee Sammy Davis Jr. headlines a star-studded cast including Louis Armstrong, Emmy® winner Ossie Davis, Academy Award® nominee Cicely Tyson, Mel Torme and Frank Sinatra Jr. in this powerful drama about a jazz musician who "has it all” – love, friendship and fame – but whose tormented past threatens to destroy him and his career.

Widely regarded at the time of its release as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid with a social conscience, Buck and the Preacher is an immensely satisfying Western which marked Sidney Poitier's directorial debut, as well as his first screen pairing with superstar Harry Belafonte. Poitier stars as Buck, an ex-Union Army Cavalry sergeant who becomes a scout for freed slaves heading to the Colorado frontier. Tagging along with him are his wife (Ruby Dee in a scene-stealing performance) and a Bible-thumping con artist known as the Preacher (Belafonte). Attacked by racist bounty hunters determined to return the former slaves to a life of sharecropping in Louisiana, Buck and his followers must summon all the courage they have in order to reach their destination and help settle the Wild West.

Action-packed Western about a scout (Sidney Poitier) and a con man (Harry Belafonte) who team up to protect the Exodusters: ex-slaves who traveled across the West after the Civil War. Directed by Poitier.