The Good Guys and the Bad Guys

Plot

Jim Flagg is the marshal in the town of Progress. He hears arch-rival John McKay is headed toward town so he warns Mayor Wilker and others in Progress about rumor of a robbery. Wilker doesn't appreciate Flagg causing a panic and relieves him of his badge.

Flagg sets out on his own and discovers McKay has joined up with a band of youthful outlaws. After being taken prisoner, Flagg escapes death thanks to McKay's intervention, but the two old enemies end up in a bloody fistfight.

Taken back to town, Flagg puts McKay in a boarding house run by Mary, a widow. When the outlaws arrive, intent on robbing a train, McKay sides with Flagg in defeating their plans.

Cast

Production

The movie was filmed on location in Chama, New Mexico, and other locations in New Mexico, Thousand Oaks, California, Silverton, Colorado, and the Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, California.

Reception

Howard Thompson of the New York Times said, "Whatever possessed these three actors (Mitchum, Kennedy and Balsam) to amble through such a dinky prairie oyster stumps us. And so does the uncertain tone of the picture, methodically directed by Burt Kennedy, which only toward the end asserts itself, clearly and lamely, as a good-natured spoof." Thompson, however, did praise Harry Stradling Jr.'s cinematography.