Outlaws
Rape of Red Sky
Beau Latimer: Gerald Mohr.
Gabe Cutter: Skip Homeier
Corbett: Jackie Coogan
Aimie: Patricia Barry
Hutch: Leo Gordon
Jack Roos: William Bryant
Dobey: Hal Hooper
Written and Directed by Douglas
Heyes
Will Foreman and Heck Martin find
two of the three men they are looking for in the bar. They are wanted in the
town of Red Sky for a bank robbery. During the robbery a stray bullet killed
a woman and the robbers ran down a little boy with their horses. Now the
whole town of Red Sky is out gunning for the guilty men. The suspects aren't
about to come peacefully and both are killed by the deputies. With his dying
breath, one of the outlaws tells Will that it was the third man,
Dobey that
killed the boy. Now Will is anxious to get the bodies
back to Red Sky. With the mood the townspeople are in, they are liable to grab the wrong men to hang.
Meanwhile, Dobey has stopped at the campsite of brothers Gabe and Rafe Cutter to trade for food. Suddenly the three of them are surrounded by men with the guns drawn. This gang of Red Sky vigilantes recognizes Dobey, who is shot trying to escape, and when the money is found with him think that the Cutter brothers are the other two bank robbers.
In Red Sky, with ropes around their necks, the grieving
mother of the dead boy can't say if she recognizes the young men, but when
she is shown the body of Dobey she sobs that he is the killer who ran
over her child. She decides that the Cutter brothers are the other two
robbers, Rafe is hung first while his brother watches in anguish.
But Will
arrives before they can execute Gabe. Will tells the mob that the actual two
robbers are already dead. Gabe gathers his dead brother to him and swears he
is going to destroy the town - wipe it off the map.
Gabe waits outside a prison to greet the just released Beau Latimer, who has served ten years for robbery. Gabe offers Beau a chance to make $10,000 and not get caught. Gabe says he can tell him how to go from door to door in a town, clean out every business in the town with nobody to stop him or get in his way. Gabe wants no cut of the bounty. He only wants it done exactly his way. And Beau wants to hear more.
The team is put together. The first man Beau enlists is Hutch - a former cavalry officer that Beau served under. Beau is looking for a man to question a prisoner with a certain "lack of delicacy," just what Hutch was court-martialed for. The next enlistee is Corbett, who says he hasn't been mixed up in anything bad since Beau when to prison. But Corbett needs money to get his wandering wife, Zelda, back from a younger man, and he's offered $20,000 "just for pounding a telegraph key." Jack Roos, the "other man," isn't about to let Zelda leave him. He blackmails Beau into letting him in on the deal.
Will and Heck stop in at Gabe's
farm to check up on him. He's hardly ever home, his pregnant wife tells
them. When he is home, he spends all his time scribbling. She shows them -
Will recognizes the drawings as a map of Red Sky.
Gabe's team arrives in Red Sky, masquerading as cavalry soldiers. With them is a Comanche prisoner. They tell the townspeople that they were ambushed by a Comanche war party, who killed seven of their men. The mayor of Red Sky demands to talk to the Captain. He watches Hutch as the "Captain," hits the Indian to get him to "confess" about the pretend war party. The mayor hears the Indian tell how two or three hundred braves are on their way to Red Sky to destroy everything. The mayor demands the soldiers get help for the town. Hutch declares the town is now under martial law. All the townspeople are going to he herded into the church, where they'll be safe. And they need to do this in ten minutes, leaving all their personal effects behind. The sheriff and deputies are to post themselves a mile out of town on the main road, and not to report back until they see Comanches. When the mayor leaves to carry out the orders, the Indian is revealed as a "friend" of Hutch's, who thinks he hits too hard.
At noon, with the streets deserted, Gabe rides into town and tells the gang, "now." Armed with axes, they break into every building and smash what they don't want to steal.
Will and Hutch are stopped on the road into Red Sky by the sheriff, who tells them about the martial law. But how did Will get through? "There ain't no Commanches back there," Will tells him.
Things are unraveling in the town. Jack Roos has raped a saloon girl, and when she escapes from him, she sees what they are up to. Jack shoots and kills her, and Corbett kills Jack. Hutch thinks they need to get out fast, but Gabe wants fires started. He says he'll stay and light them. Hutch knocks him unconscious and they load him in the wagon with the loot. But before they can get away, Will, Hutch and the sheriff of Red Sky ride in. The Indian and Corbett are wounded and captured. Hutch is killed. Now they just need to find Gabe and Beau.
Beau is in a saloon in Muskogee, surrounded by saloon girls and bottles. He's been there for three days and is feeling no pain. When he breaks up the saloon, the sheriff of the town puts him jail to sober up. He nicely has Beau's personal effects brought over from the hotel - and there is a bag filled with money.
Will talks to him
while he is behind bars. Beau tell him that Gabe, who has yet to be caught,
wouldn't take a share of the money. What's he guilty of, except planning it?
He hopes that Will can leave Gabe alone, and Will says he wishes he could.
He doesn't get to Gabe in time.
The young man has died.
But
there is a price on his head of $10,000, dead or alive, from the people in
Red Sky. Will picks up the body - he is going to make sure that the money
goes to Gabe's wife and unborn child.