|
Outlaws Buck Breeson Rides Again
Marshal Will Foreman brings a disheveled
prisoner into the office. "I want him booked for disorderly conduct, assault
and battery, inciting to riot and resisting arrest," he tells Deputy Chalk.
Chalk seems distracted and Will has to tell him twice to book the man. But
Chalk already knows the man's name. He is Buck Breeson, Chalk's father. The next morning, Buck explains that he talked his way out of a five-year prison term in Mexico, and thought he would visit. Father and son haven't seen each other in eight years. He shakes his head over his son's profession of lawman - where is the future? Buck Breeson's son ought to have imagination. Here Chalk is in a city full of "easy marks." And he is protecting them instead of "working them up." Surely Chalk picks up some money on the side - getting protection money from the saloons and stages. "Nothing," says Chalk, with dignity. Will tells Buck that the charges for all the damage he caused in the saloon will be dropped if he'll pay the $20 in damages. "I don't know if my boy has that much," says Buck. But the dutiful son ends up paying, if Buck promises to get out of town. In that case, Buck needs some money to travel on. Chalk calls him "Mr. Breeson" and sends him on his way. Will remarks that the old man is kind of likeable. Chalk agrees. But what he remembers most is his mother having to work hard to make ends meet and his father showing up every five or six months promising that this time he would stay. Chalk says his father will never change. Before he leaves, Buck notices an "International
Finance" office. Here he plays innocent while the business owners, Fenn and Murtry, tells him how he can increase his money through investments. They offer
him a special, introductory offer made only to a handful of special citizens.
Buck goes back to Chalk. He just can't leave town now that he's realized how much his son means to him. He'll find something to do while he tries to make up for his neglect of the past. The two salesmen walk by the window of Connie's where father and son are eating and Buck waves, saying they are some dry-goods salesmen he met on the way in. "Don't embarrass me, Son - nod to 'em," says Buck. And Chalk does so. "As long as I have your confidence, that's all the start I need," Buck says with heartfelt sincerity and his son buys it. Back in the International Finance office, business
is booming. Will comes in to check that their license is valid.
"I told you the Marshal was a sharp one," Buck reassures them. He is just checking them out to see how the grift is run. And the Marshal has now "raised his price." They aren't happy, but they hand the money over to Buck, who says that the Marshal may make future visits just for the sake of appearance. Will has some hard questions to ask his deputy.
Chalk finds his father in the saloon in the happy company of several women. Buck invites his son to join them. "I've been to three saloons where you've already been, paid and left," Chalk says, appearing cheerful. He asks his formerly broke father how he got the money for this so quickly. Buck has a ready lie. Then Chalk's facade is over. He knocks the offered drink from Buck's hand. "You took bribes in my name from a pair of swindlers," and "you're a rotten, cold-hearted liar and thief" are just some of the statements the bitter Chalk hurls at the man. In the Marshal's office, Chalk paces in front of
his father while he rants to Will about what Buck's been doing. "He's got this
honesty thing pretty bad," Buck says to Will. Chalk won't listen to apologies -
he's going to see Buck in jail. Buck knows better - to do that, he'll have to
get the swindlers to prefer charges. Will tells the man to leave town. He
explains to him that what hurts Chalk is the harm done to innocent people. Buck
is unbelieving - all those people should have known better.. "Better luck next
time," is his opinion.
Fenn and Murtry know that something is up but
they don't know what. They work feverishly to discover what Buck is talking
about, reading up on all the tax and loan laws, Indian treaties, measuring the
office - anything to figure out what Buck knows. They finally decide to skip
town, but Chalk is surprisingly manning the train station ticket office and Will
is operating the livery stable. He shows them a hangman's noose. "I like to tie
knots. It's kind of a hobby of mine." Scared out of their wits, they race to
find Buck. Buck says the only way he can help them is to take all their ill-gotten gains. He says it's the only way he can satisfy the Marshal - "There are times when he gets this awful blood-lust on him. That's why they call him the Hanging Marshal." The money is handed over in all haste and the two rush away. Buck hands the money over to Will and leaves for
his hotel. But when Will remembers that the express train is due in eight
minutes, he decides to count the money right away. It is $860 short.
"I think I'm owed something for helping out," says Buck. He
says he'll fight his son for it. They exchange punches through the town, Buck
using trickery and Chalk his brawn. Finally they are both
too exhausted to continue.
Alone, Buck takes a closer look at the card deck, turning over ace after ace. "Why, the boy has qualities I never suspected," Buck says happily.
|
Buck Breeson: Lloyd Nolan
Now Buck steps out of the character he has been playing. He calls the two
salesmen "country-style grifters" and tells them they are going about their game
all wrong. "I bet Eddie "The Gambit" Dolan trained you." Doing some quick
figuring based on the size of the population and how many people will bite, he
even knows when they had planned to skip town. Buck laughs when they tell him
they heard the marshal of the town in not bribable. The deputy marshal is is
son! Money has to be laid on them delicately. The two men now want Buck to
join in their game.
He is given an
oversized wink, which confuses him. When Will continues to question their
practices they want to know if the deputy didn't speak to him. Isn't
everything...satisfactory? Of course Will is suspicious as well as confused, and
he says he'll be back. The two salesmen want to know what's going on, and go off
in search of Buck. 
He
is confused that Chalk would work independently of him regarding the stock
operation. "What the devil are you talking about?" asks the deputy. Will says
the two men implied that everything had been fixed and cleared by the deputy -
that he's in on the swindle. If Chalk's idea was to gain their confidence it's
not going to work - the salesmen are too cagey. Chalk jumps up, grabs his guns,
and rushes from the office. 
But when Chalk still won't look at him he relents and
offers to help bring in the swindlers, even though it "goes against nature. Buck Breeson's son - mushy-headed, fool of a boy yapping about law and order and
these jack-asses who were born to be cheated in the first place...He'll retire
on a pension that wouldn't feed a goat." 
In the stock office, Buck introduces Will, Chalk,
Slim, Judy and Buck to the grifters, who rush to get all the other customers
out. Buck informs the pair that he is now working for the Marsal. He pays back
the money he was given. They refuse it. He then tells them he wants to use to
purchase some stock. The next bizarre thing he does is measure the office.
He asks if they know the office is located on the ground that was included in a
settlement made by a Major in the army in an Indian dispute? The grifters are
totally confused. And then Buck and his party leave. 
Chalk takes
off after his father.
Chalk offers to cut cards for it - he has a deck with
him. When Chalk wins with three aces, Buck hands over the money like a good
sport. "You'll always be my dad," Chalk tells him.