The Movie Opens with a Long Bible Quote and Ends with an Actual Picture of the "Good Book" as the Opening Quote Concludes.
A gang of bandits have just stolen a shipment of guns and ammo. The posse is close behind. The pursuing lawmen chase the brothers in a classic B-Western horse chase. The posse, including Deputy Kane Guthrie (Tom Hubbard), eventually shoot Luke, the brother of a gunslinger, Cheney Holland (Don Megowan).
Instead of running for cover like the rest of the gang, Holland stays behind with his dying brother, and they are abandoned by the rest of their gang. Holland loves his mortally wounded brother and s soon apprehended by former friend, Marshal Matt Gordon (Jim Davis, of "Dallas" fame), while trying to save his now deceased brother.
Marshall Gordon has some sympathy for Holland. After all, they grew up together and he realizes the man isn't all bad.
They bury Holland's kid brother but the townsfolk don’t cotton to it at all. The local parson won’t officiate and the townsmen spit as the hearse passes. At the funeral for his brother, his girlfriend, Sherry (Allison Hayes) slips Holland a .45 , and outlaw Cheney Holland makes his escape, rides off with Sherry, and seeks to avenge his younger brother.
After a few chase sequences and some metaphors involving rattlesnakes Holland tracks down his previous gang of criminals led by burly bad guy Isaac Stancil (Gerald Milton), who are responsible for murdering Holland's younger brother.
There’s also a political sub-plot as the mayor, who is now running for governor, the smarmy McKenzie (John Holland) has equally two-faced Deputy Guthrie in his pocket, clearly a future replacement for Jim, and the electioneers arrive in the bawdy house to canvass for votes, as improbable as it is, and are there just in time for the climactic siege.
Although Holland is pursued by the stubborn Marshal Gordon, Holland eventually catches up with Stancil and after a fierce gunfight, kills the gang leader.
Meanwhile, Gordon apprehends Sherry and uses her to lure Holland to him, but the outlaw insists on a showdown. The two meet in a dramatic showdown, and obviously there’s a final showdown between Jim and Don, in which Marshal Gordon drowns Holland by holding his face down in a pool of pig slop.
A 1958 American Black & White western B-Movie (a/k/a " Lust to Kill", "A Time to Kill", and "Border Lust") directed by Walter Grauman, produced by Patrick Betz and A.R. Milton, written by Tom Hubbard and Samuel Roeca, cinematography by Glen MacWilliams, starring Jim Davis, Don Megowan, Allison Hayes, Gerald Milton, Tom Hubbard, Claire Carleton, John Holland, Rickie Sorensen, James Maloney, Robert Williams, Fred Sherman, Tony Turner, and Sandra Giles.
The picture was shot on the director’s California ranch.
Don Megowan at an early stage in his career. Despite his imposing physical presence, Megowan was clearly not the seasoned actor that he would become years later when playing outlaws and thugs. A TV Western regular, he Megowan appeared in 60 episodes of 27 different series.
In the late 1950s, Jim Davis, who had been pretty popular on the small screen as railroad detective Matt Clark in Stories of the Century 1954 - 55, did a whole series of low-budget black & white feature Westerns, never quite making it big. He did four in 1958 alone. Jim Davis (1909 - 1981) was born Marlin Davis. An American actor, best known for his roles in television Westerns. In his later career, he became famous as Jock Ewing in the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, a role he continued until he was too ill from multiple myeloma to perform. Born in Edgerton in Platte County in northwestern Missouri, Davis attended high school in Dearborn, and the Baptist-affiliated William Jewell College in Liberty. At WJC, he played tight end on the football team and graduated with a degree in political science. He served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II. His first major screen role was opposite Bette Davis in the melodrama "Winter Meeting" (1948). From 1958-1960, he starred as Wes Cameron opposite Lang Jeffries in the role of Skip Johnson in the syndicated adventure series Rescue 8.
Director Oliver Drake was involved in one capacity or another in an astonishing 153 big-screen oaters, first directing a Lane Chandler picture in the early 1930s, helming a series with Dave O’Brien in the early 40s, then moving on to Jimmy Wakely and Sunset Carson oaters at different Poverty Row outfits.
A nostalgic trip down memory lane of B-Movies directed by the man who later made "The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals" (1969). An interesting study in actors like Megowan and Davis, at their best in supporting roles, in leading roles here. Ahead of its time, with a morally complex antihero and situation at its core. This offbeat, low budget dark violent six-shooter revenge oater is worth a watch for cult movie fans as a precursor of more interesting films to come in the following decade. Proceed with caution.