Ride Beyond Vengeance Reviews

A census taker (MacArthur) wanders into a bar in a small Texas town. There, the bartender (O'Connell) tells him a story which becomes the body of the film. Connors plays a man of the 1880s. He marries Hays but it soon becomes apparent this is not a marriage of love. Rather, Connors has married Hays in order to get at her sick aunt's money. Connors runs off from the town but returns 11 years later. He's met outside the town by Rennie, a banker, and his two henchmen, Bixby and Merrill. Despite the $17,000 Connors has earned from buffalo hunting, the trio think he's a rustler. In a particularly graphic scene, Connors is held down and sadistically branded with a "T." Connors passes out and wakes up in the care of Fix, the real rustler, who's in cahoots with Rennie. Connors' money has been taken and Hays is now engaged to Rennie. Connors vows revenge and heads off into an orgy of killings. The violence in this film is brutal and almost gleefully sadistic. It was made during the period when many ultra-violent Italian "Spaghetti" westerns were released in the US. The film has the look of a made-for-television film (it was produced by the same team that was making Connors' TV series "Branded"), which suggests that this may have originally been slated for the airwaves. More than likely, the violence-riddled scenes would have been rejected for network broadcast. With mediocre acting and a muddled story line, there's not much redeeming value in this piece. It isn't too surprising that it was produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, the same folks that brought us such insipid game shows as "Let's Make A Deal."