Ostensibly the awkwardly titled The Bounty Killer appears initially designed as a fish out of water story. The often-cast noir villain Dan Duryea starts out playing against type as Willie Duggan, a milquetoast of a man who hails from the staid environs of Vermont. Willie shows up at a saloon in the wild west town of Silver Creek where he's promptly assaulted by the town bully who in turn is killed by outlaw Johnny Liam (Rod Cameron).
Willie is horrified by the violence, but his spirits are buttressed by the saloon hostess, Carole Ridgeway (Audrey Dalton), who implies that she was a kept woman (by the man who had bullied Willie and then was killed) and had fallen so far from grace that she agreed to work as a prostitute.
The fish out of water angle becomes apparent when Willie takes a job delivering miners' payroll for a transport company. Desperate for workers, Willie's boss agrees to give him a chance despite his appearance as a complete greenhorn.
Willie's sidekick is Captain Luther (Fuzzy Knight), a former seafarer who dreams of building a new wind propelled wagon that will take him on exciting adventures which he can now only dream of.
This is where the initial premise goes awry. Somehow the completely inexperienced and pacifist Willie inexplicably survives a payroll robbery in which he's ambushed by (if I recall correctly) three men. Now how does the bumbling Willie dispatch these men so easily? If this was a comedy, I could buy it but here there's no rational reason why Willie so successfully morphs into a crack gunslinger.
Based on Willie's success dispatching bad guys, he decides to earn a living as a bounty hunter. His first reward of $500 is for the man he killed during the payroll robbery. So, he gives most of the cash to Carole and instructs her to return to her father's home in Arizona Territory where she presumably can recover from working as a woman of ill repute.
I was expecting The Bounty Killer to show Willie's transformation from an ineffectual pacifist to a man who is able to retain his ethical character but at the same time handle those immoral people who embrace violence as a way of life. But as it turns out Willie goes in the opposite direction becoming the type of vengeful, violent man whom he initially abhors.
This occurs when Captain Luther is brutally slain by the bandit he's hunting, Mike Clayman (Buster Crabbe). Willie is almost killed by Clayman but ends up at the Ridgeway farm where quite coincidentally Carole nurses him back to health.
The rest of the story is an unpleasant tale in which Willie-embittered by Luther's death-goes on a shooting spree attempting to rid his community of all the criminals with a price on their head. Willie becomes an alcoholic and ends up wanted by the law himself after accidentally shooting a bartender in a confrontation with the town sheriff.
The final irony is that Willie is shot to death by a young man who recently takes up bounty hunting as a profession. Leave it to lovestruck Carole to run after the doomed Willie at film's end.
The Bounty Killer could have been a much more enjoyable story had it not taken such a dark, moralistic turn. Duryea, one of best character actors of his day, is unfortunately saddled here with a role that's for the most part decidedly unlikable. There are much better westerns out there for the inveterate filmgoer to enjoy.
Willie is horrified by the violence, but his spirits are buttressed by the saloon hostess, Carole Ridgeway (Audrey Dalton), who implies that she was a kept woman (by the man who had bullied Willie and then was killed) and had fallen so far from grace that she agreed to work as a prostitute.
The fish out of water angle becomes apparent when Willie takes a job delivering miners' payroll for a transport company. Desperate for workers, Willie's boss agrees to give him a chance despite his appearance as a complete greenhorn.
Willie's sidekick is Captain Luther (Fuzzy Knight), a former seafarer who dreams of building a new wind propelled wagon that will take him on exciting adventures which he can now only dream of.
This is where the initial premise goes awry. Somehow the completely inexperienced and pacifist Willie inexplicably survives a payroll robbery in which he's ambushed by (if I recall correctly) three men. Now how does the bumbling Willie dispatch these men so easily? If this was a comedy, I could buy it but here there's no rational reason why Willie so successfully morphs into a crack gunslinger.
Based on Willie's success dispatching bad guys, he decides to earn a living as a bounty hunter. His first reward of $500 is for the man he killed during the payroll robbery. So, he gives most of the cash to Carole and instructs her to return to her father's home in Arizona Territory where she presumably can recover from working as a woman of ill repute.
I was expecting The Bounty Killer to show Willie's transformation from an ineffectual pacifist to a man who is able to retain his ethical character but at the same time handle those immoral people who embrace violence as a way of life. But as it turns out Willie goes in the opposite direction becoming the type of vengeful, violent man whom he initially abhors.
This occurs when Captain Luther is brutally slain by the bandit he's hunting, Mike Clayman (Buster Crabbe). Willie is almost killed by Clayman but ends up at the Ridgeway farm where quite coincidentally Carole nurses him back to health.
The rest of the story is an unpleasant tale in which Willie-embittered by Luther's death-goes on a shooting spree attempting to rid his community of all the criminals with a price on their head. Willie becomes an alcoholic and ends up wanted by the law himself after accidentally shooting a bartender in a confrontation with the town sheriff.
The final irony is that Willie is shot to death by a young man who recently takes up bounty hunting as a profession. Leave it to lovestruck Carole to run after the doomed Willie at film's end.
The Bounty Killer could have been a much more enjoyable story had it not taken such a dark, moralistic turn. Duryea, one of best character actors of his day, is unfortunately saddled here with a role that's for the most part decidedly unlikable. There are much better westerns out there for the inveterate filmgoer to enjoy.