Der Rächer von Montana

Way back in the day when he was Wild Bill Hickok or Red Ryder or any number of other western characters Bill Elliott always got in that tag line that became his catchphrase that he was a peaceable man before committing a whole lot of violence on some villains. By the next to last western film he did, this one for Allied Artists, there was no more pretensions or being a peaceable man.

This Elliott is out for the guy who shot his rancher brother in the back and signs point to Carleton Young who was the owner of the local Ponderosa at Bitter Creek and who moved in on the brother's spread. He's got a mean crew of gunslingers working for him including Claude Akins in one of his earliest films.

And if that isn't enough Elliott's showing an interest in Beverly Garland the prospective bride of Young. I think anyone who's seen even a handful of B westerns back in the days of the studio system knows exactly where this is going.

Allied Artists films aren't known for their production values. Bitter Creek is a lean and mean western in the latter days of Bill Elliott's career when he was specializing in lean and mean.