The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones

I saw this movie the same night that ABC was broadcasting Clint Walker's the Bounty Man. They both have the same plot of a man taking outlaws in with bounty hunters on their trail. This is the superior effort because it tries for something different. After years of seeing the Cartwright boys on Bonanza and Barkley's on the Big Valley, risking their lives to help the law just because it was the right thing to do, it is refreshing to see Robert Horton's character refuse to take the responsibility of taking in Sal Mineo's Billy-The-Kid inspired character and Nehemiah Persoff's wife killer because it isn't his job. His refusal is realistic. Gary Merrill's dying sheriff basically shames him into taking the job by pointing out that if they just let Mineo's psychotic outlaw go he'll be free to kill again. The people Horton's Kiowa Jones character meet such as Diane Baker who is presented as unglamorous as possible are equally reluctant to help out. When Kiowa Jones is forced to kill, he is genuinely upset over the killing of fellow human beings. Highly unusual for the TV or the movies, where the hero kills and never seems to think twice about it. Across the Great Divide with Kirk Douglass and Hang'em High with Clint Eastwood trod the same territory as the Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones, but the Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones is a cooler title. Some folks might be put off by the standard locations such as Vasquez Rocks, yep those leaning rocks that Cheyenne, Maverick, Roy Rogers movie and every other western seemed to take place, but if you can get past that, you're in for a great movie. Highly recommended.

Robert Horton plays the title role in The Dangerous Days Of Kiowa Jones and in the film has his life changed with a chance encounter with a US Marshal and his prisoners.

It's just one of those days where Horton rides up on a ramshackle prairie house and finds Sal Mineo and Nehemiah Persoff shacked to the frames of a barn and a dead man of Mexican descent at their feet. He's died of a fever and Marshal Gary Merrill makes an appearance then and it's plain he's got that same fever. Before he dies Merrill deputizes Jones and essentially shames him into taking his prisoners for the duly appointed date with the hangman at Fort Smith.

Along the way the three of them pick up Diane Baker who is made up to be a plain jane school teacher which in real life she sure isn't. I'm not quite clear how Baker through in with them even after watching the film. What is clear is that she and Horton get some chemistry percolating.

Horton came along way too late to have been a cowboy hero. On Wagon Train he was one as scout Flint McCullough. But westerns were going out of style when Horton left Wagon Train. Ten years earlier he would have made a fine big screen cowboy hero.

Persoff and Mineo are an interesting contrast. Persoff is a fatalistic gypsy who believes in what the tarot cards are dealt for him. Mineo is a stone cold punk killer in a throwback to the kind of roles that made him a star in the late Fifties.

The Dangerous Days Of Kiowa Jones is an OK made for TV movie that western fans should be pleased with.

Sorrowfully the little gem didn't available on DVD yet, I'd watched this picture on TV in 1997, and my brother gave me a copy taped from TCM, bad image, a solid B-movie with a great storyline, the top billing Robert Horton is almost unknown, in other hand the supporting casting has many old acquaintances, Diane Baker, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff and Garry Merrill, a wandering Cowboy Kiowa Jones finds two outlaws arrested by a dying old Sherriff (Gary Merrill) who nominate him as his Deputy to take these Killers to be hanging at Fort Smith.

The older one Skoda a sort of mystic fortune-teller killed his wife in strange conditions, the young one Bobby Jack Wilkes already killed a dozen men, the shaky Cowboy denies such dangerous assignment, but was convinced by the weakness Sheriff, one day later the poor lawman died sleeping, now alone on the wilderness he has to accomplish his word gave to the late sheriff, however the news spreading fasting all around, many bounty hunters will be try taken the prisoners to get one thousand dollars reward.

Then appears Miss Rathmore (Diane Baker) a teacher who passing by and hears the shooting guns, she helps Skoda's broken leg, the chemistry between Kiowa and her is fully notorious, from now on she'll helps him to takes these convicts to be hanging, really engrossing little picture, it has all elements to became an enjoyable movie, hope someday it can be out on restored DVD!!

Resume:

First watch: 1997 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD-R / Rating: 7.5.

In the old west, ruggedly handsome cowboy Robert Horton (as Kiowa Jones) is roped into accompanying two prisoners to their hanging. He's not interested in the reward, but there are bounty hunters on the prairie gunning for cash. The two condemned men are sexy Sal Mineo (as Bobby Jack Wilkes), who has cold-heartedly murdered at over 20 people, and quiet wife-killing gypsy Nehemiah Persoff (as Skoda). Along the dangerous way, they encounter plain but pretty schoolteacher Diane Baker (as Amilia Rathmore). You can count on more danger, as well as a little bit of romance, considering Ms. Baker's arrival...

This early TV movie western was MGM and ABC's follow-up to Mr. Horton's prematurely canceled series "A Man Called Shenandoah" (1965-66). A second season of "Shenandoah" would have been preferable. Now in color, Horton's hair looks almost supernatural. Baker appears gray alongside him, apparently playing an older woman. The movie is mainly entertaining due to Mr. Mineo's cocky performance. It picks up whenever Mineo's "Bobby the Kid" threatens to kill or be killed.

***** The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones (12/25/66) Alex March ~ Robert Horton, Sal Mineo, Diane Baker, Nehemiah Persoff