Firecreek Reviews

FIRECREEK is a senior citizen version of HIGH NOON in that it features an aging Stewart as a sort of freelance sheriff who has to defend his small burg against a bunch of hoodlums who are returning from the range wars in Missouri. Fonda, Lockwood, Best, Woodward, and Elam arrive in the town of Firecreek and decide to stay there for some R & R while Fonda heals from a wound. Stewart, who lives outside of the village, leaves his pregnant wife, Scott, and comes into Firecreek to keep an eye on the freebooters. Fonda is resting at the boarding house run by Flippen and casting an eye on Flippen's daughter, Stevens. Meanwhile, his pals are making mincemeat out of the quiet town, breaking up the church services run by Begley, the local preacher. Stewart, a non-violent type like Cooper in HIGH NOON, attempts to talk some sense into the rowdies, but it's no use. Best tries to rape Luna, an Indian woman, and Porter, a dim-witted stable boy, kills the man. Stewart jails Porter, more for his own safety than for the crime. Stewart returns to his farm to be there for the birth of his child, and while he's away the other criminals force the townsfolk to go to a wake for Best and then cold-bloodedly lynch Porter. The killers sense that there is no one in the town who will stand up to them and they fully expect to take it over entirely. Stewart grabs for his Peacemaker and shoots Woodward, Elam, and Lockwood, but Fonda, in an unaccustomed villain's role, shoots Stewart badly enough to render him inoperative. Just as he's about to kill Stewart, Stevens puts a rifle bullet through him. There are only short bursts of action in between nearly endless talk in the Clements script. Despite a huge cast of very competent actors the film misses the mark. The producers had been involved in TV's long-running "Gunsmoke" series, which is probably the reason that this appears to be a TV film with movie names featured in it.