TV-14 | 30min | Western, TV Series | Episode aired 10 June 1957
Sam Bass and his gang have a hideout in Texas so secluded that no lawman has ever located it. From this stronghold they strike repeatedly. Jim is ordered to infiltrate the gang so that he can learn where Bass's gang holes up between raids.
Director: Lewis R. Foster
Writers: Steve Fisher, Frank Gruber
Stars: Dale Robertson, Chuck Connors, Michael Landon
Sam Bass and his gang have a hideout in Texas so secluded that no lawman has ever located it. From this stronghold they strike repeatedly. Jim is ordered to infiltrate the gang so that he can learn where Bass's gang holes up between raids.
Director: Lewis R. Foster
Writers: Steve Fisher, Frank Gruber
Stars: Dale Robertson, Chuck Connors, Michael Landon
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Perhaps the happiest, most carefree outlaw who ever robbed a Wells Fargo strongbox was Sam Bass.
00:07To him, life was a huge joke. He lived it fast and hard, with a ready gun and a ready laugh.
00:15After a series of stagecoach stick-ups around Deadwood that got him only small change,
00:21Sam hit the jackpot at Big Springs, Nebraska,
00:24when he robbed the Union Pacific train and took $60,000 in gold coin.
00:30That was being shipped east by Wells Fargo.
00:35After that, Sam headed for his old stomping grounds down in Texas.
00:40He began a succession of train holdups here that were not only unprofitable,
00:45but got the Texas Rangers after him in a big way. The result was the greatest manhunt in history,
00:51with Sam outwitting the Rangers for more than a year.
00:56Wells Fargo joined the manhunt, and I was sent to Texas.
01:00My name's Jim Hardy, special investigator for the company.
01:04At Denton, I had a talk with Captain McNully of the Texas Rangers.
01:09So what about Sam Bass?
01:11Well, it's like I say, every time we get close to him, he heads right straight for that brush.
01:16And it's like a madhouse in there. You just go round and round in circles.
01:20You just can't tell where you're at. Ain't that right, boys?
01:23Yep, that's right.
01:24But that Sam Bass and his boys ain't no rubber trail in there.
01:29You know what they do? They laugh at you from in there.
01:32It's a fact. They laugh right out loud at you, and you know what that can do to a man.
01:37Make him pretty mad.
01:38And that ain't the worst, though. Every time he gives us the slip,
01:42he writes to all the newspapers and tells them about it, just to taunt us.
01:48He sounds like a downright menace. I suspect we'd better go after him.
01:52Well, we've been after him, but we come to the conclusion that the only way Sam Bass
01:57is ever going to get himself caught is for somebody on the inside to cooperate with us
02:02on the outside. You know, like one of his men wants immunity or to collect a reward or something.
02:07I've been thinking the same thing, Captain.
02:09And I got an idea, you know. From here on out...
02:27So
02:46put your hands up and don't make a sound.
02:50You're done for, mister. Rangers. Texas Rangers.
02:57Stop him! Stop him! He tried to rob me!
03:58It looks like we lost him. Well, he's got to come out sometime.
04:04Gotta do that? All right. Well, let's get back.
04:28What are you doing in here?
04:39Looking for a hole. What would you be doing with people shooting at you?
04:43Those are Rangers. Were they?
04:47Who told you to head this way? Nobody had to tell me. It was the
04:50closest place, and I headed for it myself. All right, you rode in here. Now you can ride
04:55right out again. No, thank you. Those people were shooting a little too close. I aim to stay right
05:01here. Well, I'm gonna count to three, and if you ain't... Hold on, Murphy. Why don't we let Mr. Bass
05:08decide what to do? Sam Bass? Don't act surprised. Everybody in Texas knows he's holed up in here.
05:16Well, I was holed up down in Mexico, and I didn't know it. A lot of people trying to put a rope
05:21around my neck. Figured it didn't appear with my breathing, so I let out. You talk fancy.
05:28Yeah, like Mr. Bass. You know, I think him and Mr. Bass are gonna get along real fine.
05:36Start moving. Take your horse.
05:51Hi,
06:11the horse.
06:23We picked up a package. He talks real fancy. You're Mr. Bass, I presume.
06:29For all the tall tales I've heard about you, I figure you had to be about eight feet high.
06:35And I see no reason to change my mind. I see what you mean. Go ahead.
06:41And make it good. Well, I wouldn't believe him if he read from a stack of Bibles.
06:46Who are you? My name's Harmon, Jim Harmon. I'm supposed to have heard of you. No, I've been away.
06:53Says he's been down in Mexico. Mexico's not a bad place. Why'd you come back? I ran out of money.
07:01I was trying to get some in Round Rock when the Rangers rolled in. You believe that, Sam? I'm just
07:07a farm boy from Indiana. I believe everybody. Until I find out otherwise. Well, I don't believe
07:15anybody. Especially him. Now, you listen to me. If you're looking for trouble, you just found it.
07:23And you can have it any way you want it. Just name it. Well, how about...
07:30Hey, we could use a little fun around here.
07:33Mr. Bass, let's not fight against one another. One another? He's not one of us.
07:38Hey, Murphy, why don't you take him on?
07:43I'd like to make a condition. I thought so. You'd like to use an axe?
07:50No. I've been riding for two days and two nights. I'm a little behind in my sleep.
07:56After I take him, it'd be all right if I took a nap.
07:59You'd take him, and you can have as long a nap as you want.
08:03That's all I wanted to know. But if you don't...
08:30That's enough. You can take your nap now.
08:46You can get up, Murphy.
08:47You want us to get you some supper? Yeah. Yeah, I could use a little grub.
09:00Anything special you'd like? Yeah, I think maybe I'd like some.
09:09To me, it isn't so funny. Everything's funny, Jim.
09:12Just depends on the way you look at it. Nighty-night.
09:17Nighty-night.
09:48Jackson, does this belong to you? Yeah, it's mine.
09:56Shouldn't leave it laying around loose like that.
10:02Might have rolled over on it in my sleep and killed myself.
10:05I reckon the boys are getting the mud careless. Catfish?
10:13Now, Seaborn Barnes, I want you to meet Jim Harmon. Claims he's a bankrupt outlaw.
10:17Only I don't believe it. Murphy's just nervous by nature.
10:21Maybe Murphy's just yellow by nature. Murphy, didn't you have enough yet?
10:35In this holdup business, it's the big ones you hit once in a while that keeps you going.
10:40I like the Union Pacific job in Nebraska.
10:43I understand you took Wells Fargo for $60,000. Is that right?
10:47Wasn't our job. It was us, all right.
10:51A man does good work, he's entitled to the credit. Still got some of that gold coin left.
10:55You talk too much, Sam. I like to talk.
10:58Well, maybe you're satisfied with him. I ain't. He could be a Wells Fargo man.
11:02Jim, are you a Wells Fargo man?
11:05Don't look like one. See, he says he ain't.
11:08You trust everybody, Sam. Well, why not? It's a short life.
11:12Live and let live. We get along all right.
11:15We've had it pretty good lately. The truth is, I don't think things could be any better.
11:20If you'd ask me, I'd say I've got the world by the tail for the downhill pull.
11:27That's just the way I want to travel. Could you use another man?
11:30No, four's enough.
11:35Four grown men is plenty. Now, don't start that again.
11:40I've tried to tell you a hundred times, Jackson. You're too young to be on the wrong side of the
11:45law. You've got your whole life in front of you, boy. You can live it good. Find yourself a pretty
11:52wife. Be respectable. Work at a job. Or you can live it in a cave and hide and hunt it.
12:00Oh, it's good enough for all us. We're older. We can even be happy this way.
12:06There's things we can laugh at and things we can remember from the dim past.
12:11But you don't have any past to remember. All I say to you, son, is live as an honest,
12:17law-abiding man for a couple of years. Then make your choice what you want to be,
12:21a bank robber or a bank president. Sounds like pretty good advice, Jackson.
12:27You're pretty anxious to take my place, ain't you?
12:30Maybe. Maybe I am.
12:32Let me put it this way, boy. If you turned out to be a farmer, a rancher, or even a sheriff,
12:43it'd make me feel like I'd done something good to make up for some of the bad.
12:51It'd make me proud, boy.
12:54Mr. Bass, you're the greatest man I've ever known.
12:56You stick around with us till the 25th. That's three days from now.
13:00What happens the 25th?
13:03There's a shipment of gold doing round rock on the 25th.
13:07We'll ride in tomorrow, do some shopping, and kind of look things over.
13:11You come along with us.
13:13Suits me.
13:26We'll pick up a couple of sacks of oats.
13:29That's the place I was trying to hold up when the rangers came in.
13:32I'd better not go in.
13:33All right, you wait here, Jim.
13:56Been looking all over town for you.
14:03Usually when I tell a man to wait somewhere, he stays put.
14:07What's that?
14:09Just a money draft.
14:11Thought you didn't have any money.
14:14I've got $7.25.
14:16I was sort of saving it for a grub steak, but I figured she needed it worse.
14:21Who is that?
14:23My mother.
14:25Let me see that.
14:27She lives pretty close to here, doesn't she?
14:37That's what I was doing in this part of Texas.
14:39I was going by to see her.
14:44All right, Jim.
14:45Go ahead and send it.
14:46Man ought to be good to his mother.
14:50If mine hadn't died when I was just a pup, I might be an honest man today.
14:55We'll wait outside.
15:05Send that to the ranger station at Denton, Texas.
15:11Hold it.
15:13Don't move.
15:15I know who you were when you bought that feed off me, Mr. Bass.
15:18You hung around here just long enough for me to get my gun.
15:21Now I knew why they call Seaborn Barn Sam's right bower.
15:26Whenever Sam and the gang went out of a place by one door, Seaborn left by another.
15:31The merchant didn't have a chance.
15:41I still say there was no need for it.
15:42I'm around to look after situations like that one.
15:44How am I supposed to know that?
15:46I only did what was natural.
15:48You satisfied, Mr. Bass?
15:50You satisfied now?
15:53Well, we appreciate it anyway.
15:57How do I get my gun back?
15:58Murphy, give him his gun.
16:04Start packing up, boy.
16:07You're taking him on?
16:09His solo days are over.
16:12He's a full-fledged member of the gang now.
16:19Anybody here by the name of Mrs. Pete Harmon?
16:22Well, let's come.
16:23Yeah, all it is is a Wells Fargo bank draft.
16:25That's all. Thanks, Gage.
16:27Who is Mrs. Pete Harmon?
16:28Just a sweet little old lady by the name of Captain McNelly.
16:31A sweet little old lady?
16:33Gage, don't I hear your telegraph key a-clicking?
16:37Oh, you do? Thanks.
16:42You got it figured out?
16:43Yeah.
16:44725.
16:4517th of March, 8th of May, June, July.
16:47That's this month.
16:49It's tomorrow.
16:50Tomorrow's the 25th.
16:5125th.
16:52Hey, that's the day that gold shipment is due at the bank in Round Rock.
16:58Now, send us a picture postcard, you hear?
17:01How'd I ever get it mailed to you out here?
17:03Name one of your kids after me, huh, Jackson?
17:07Maybe the second one.
17:10We've had good times, boy.
17:13Ain't likely I'll ever forget.
17:14But you must.
17:17That's the whole trick of it.
17:18Pretend you never were an outlaw.
17:21Learn to hate and despise fellas like us.
17:23No, I never could.
17:25You will in time.
17:27This is no life, the one we're living.
17:29It's just a joke and a bluff.
17:32Hiding out from humanity costs a man an awful price.
17:36You miss the way of things with people.
17:39Birthdays, Christmas time,
17:41and all kinds of little things you can only share with decent,
17:47law-abiding, God-fearing folk.
17:50Don't miss these things he's missing now, Jackson.
17:53No.
17:55Live them for me, boy.
17:57Live them for me well.
18:00I will, Mr. Bass.
18:17Goodbye, boy.
18:21Goodbye, sir.
18:34Kept calling me sir right up to the end.
19:47I'll cover you, Sam.
19:49No, Barnes will cover us like he always does.
19:55You lead the way, Homer.
20:16Oh, the boy.
20:47It was a bad day, all right.
20:53Fifteen seconds of eternity.
20:59Murphy, Barnes shot.
21:03Sam wounded.
21:05I saw Sam lift his pistol to fire, but he didn't.
21:10He'd never killed anybody.
21:12And he must have asked himself, why start now?
21:17He's heading for the cane break.
21:19I'll go after him.
21:20Oh, we go with you.
21:21No, I'll go alone.
21:22I'll win that bunch.
21:46Jim, glad you made it.
22:08Could get a mite lonely out here with nobody to talk to.
22:11I guess it could.
22:12Good.
22:14Seaborne Barnes.
22:17You're right, Bauer.
22:19He's wounded.
22:20Rangers have got him.
22:22Murphy, he's dead.
22:28Grieves me about the boy.
22:30Jackson?
22:32Tipped him off.
22:35Maybe he figured he had to start life with some reward money.
22:40Only thing is, Jim,
22:42I was good to him.
22:46Never thought he'd turn me in.
22:50The boy didn't turn you in, Sam.
22:52He's long gone.
22:54He's gonna be all right.
22:56He had to be the one that told him.
22:59No one else could have.
23:01What about me?
23:05You.
23:08I worked for Welch Fargo.
23:13Said you were an outlaw.
23:16I know.
23:19I believed you.
23:21You believed everybody.
23:24My biggest failing.
23:28I'm sorry it had to end this way.
23:30Somebody was bound to get me.
23:34It happened to be you.
23:39Makes me feel kind of good,
23:40but it wasn't a coyote like Murphy.
23:45I wish it could have been Murphy.
23:48The world's bobbing all around now.
23:53Jim, I've lost my downhill pull.
24:05I guess you have, Mr. Bass.
24:11He was dead.
24:13This was the end of Sam Bass.
24:16The end of the man and the beginning of a legend about him.
24:19The legend of the happy outlaw
24:21that will live as long as there is anybody anywhere
24:24who remembers the old west.
24:27In Sam Bass,
24:29I found an old adage that has lived down through the years.
24:33And in the very best of men,
24:34there's a little bad.
24:36And in the very worst of men,
24:38a little good.