Original subtitles

♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

- Hyah! -♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

♪ Keep movin', movin', movin' ♪

♪ Though they're disapprovin' ♪

♪ Keep them dogies movin' ♪

♪ Rawhide ♪

♪ Don't try to understand them ♪

♪ Just rope and throw and brand 'em ♪

♪ Soon we'll be livin' high and wide ♪

♪ My heart's calculatin' ♪

♪ My true love will be waitin' ♪

♪ Be waiting at the end of my ride ♪

♪ Move 'em on, head 'em up, head 'em up, move 'em on ♪

♪ Move 'em on, head 'em up, Rawhide ♪

-(whip cracks) -♪ Cut 'em out, ride 'em in ♪

♪ Ride 'em in, let 'em out, cut 'em out, ride 'em in ♪

-♪ Rawhide...! ♪ -♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin' ♪

- Hyah! -♪ Rollin', rollin', rollin'. ♪

(whip cracks twice)

[HANNIBAL HUMMING]

He's a busy little fella, ain't he?

[HAMMER BANGING]

Ought to teach you a lesson, Jake.

Work as hard as he does, make something of yourself too.

All right, Mr. Wiley. Stand back if you please.

Oh, move this, change that, nail here, bend there.

You'd think this work of art was being made for John Wilkes Booth.

[GRUNTING]

- Is that all right? - A little to my left.

It should be dead center.

Ah, an inch either way can't make no difference.

Especially to a sandbag.

Hey, hey, perfect.

I hope to tell you,

I have to lift that once more, my back and me are gonna part company.

Would stand back, please? Just a...

That, Mr. Wiley, is the way a trap should work.

Don't see why the board prop wouldn't do.

Either way, a man gets hung just as fast.

Just as dead, Mr. Wiley, but not just as fast.

To a man with a noose around his neck,

a second could be a lifetime, and a minute can be an eternity.

Now, it is our job to make this execution just as professional,

just as quick, and just as merciful as possible.

Do I make myself clear?

As clear as it can get.

Then we understand each other.

Now, once I get the proper specifications,

we can make a few tests with a rope.

And, uh, make sure that you secure it directly over that trap.

And, uh, Mr. Wiley, use a ladder.

We don't want you to hurt yourself.

Hangman.

The bandage on your head.

My rifle put it there.

[GUN CLICKS]

Next time, bam! Belt buckle.

Ain't no bandage made gonna fix that.

Jake, what's the matter with you, your hearing gone off?

You heard what Pa said. No trouble.

Leastways, not here in town.

Not no trouble, Mark. Uh, no shooting trouble.

Mm-hm.

[GRUNTS]

Wishbone, I thought you'd gone back to the drive.

Huh, I go back without supplies

and those drovers will put me into the stew.

- Now, Hannibal-- - I know. I know.

I should have told you why I was coming here, but I didn't.

- I'm sorry. - No, it isn't that.

It's this fella, Jud Hammerklein,

and him killing the fella that shot his son.

Well, this town don't think he ought to hang.

They're not about to let you spring that trap.

That's the concern of the authorities, not mine.

Well, from where I stand,

there don't seem to be an awful lot of authority around here.

It's an occupational hazard, you might say.

- I'm used to it. - Well, I still think--

Don't you worry about my cloudy sky, Wishbone.

I was born under it.

But it's better, I think, if you leave just in case.

Sometimes innocent bystanders are mistaken for friends.

[HUMMING]

Sheriff, if, uh, you don't mind, I should like some particulars.

[SINGING] And ! know I've done wrong

It's your time. You start particularing away.

Uh, first, a confirmation.

The, uh, execution will take place at 3 p.m. tomorrow, correct?

Mm-hm.

And there will be a doctor in attendance?

I don't know. Dr. Meredith's out on that Ruiz spread.

You see, Mrs. Ruiz, she's going on her sixth.

Asa, seventh.

Seventh. You know her, she always brews up a storm

before she lets Cristobal pass out them cigars.

Now, the death certificate will require a signature.

I'll leave that up to you.

The vital statistics, now, if you will.

Well, let's see, I was born on a Mississippi flatboat.

My family was always taken to traveling.

That was in, let me see, 1820.

That'll make me exactly 50. That's on my next birthday.

I need three facts. No more, no less.

Oh, yeah, I forgot.

My age, my weight, and my height.

Sheriff, if you don't mind, I'd like this information from you.

Hangman, talk to me. What's the matter?

You afraid I'll haunt you or something?

Al right. I know your age.

That's nice. That makes us friends.

There's nothing nicer than being hung by a friend.

Your height?

I stand 6'2", I weigh 230.

Thank you.

TANNER: Mr. Hangman.

Something else you ain't got in that little brown book of yours.

The reason why.

He is here and I am here.

Those are the only reasons that I need to give.

A man that won't reason is a liar.

A man who can't reason is a fool.

And a man that's afraid to reason, I just don't think he's any man at all.

You want the reasons? Fine.

I need your age, to tell me how long it will be before your heart stops beating.

I need your height

in order to know the position of the noose above the cervical vertebrae.

And whether to use ten or 13 wraps in the knot.

I need your weight in order to know the length of the drop.

Too high, and your head will be separated from your shoulders.

And too short, and I run the risk of a long strangulation.

The worst possible type of execution. It's medieval and barbaric.

So gentleman, call me a fool, call me a liar, call me nothing at all,

the facts remain the same.

Asa, I could get to dislike that guy without any trouble at all.

[GRUNTING]

WILEY: This ought to do it. Two hundred pounds, at least.

No, that's not enough weight, Mr. Wiley.

Better add another 50 pounds to make sure.

I still can't see what difference a little sand is gonna make.

I said 50 pounds, Mr. Wiley.

WILEY: Yeah, 50 pounds.

This is the last of it, Mr. Wishbone.

- Well, I don't like it. - Why not?

The man said the flour is first rate,

there ain't nothing but sugar in the sugar.

Put the things in the wagon, Mushy, I wasn't talking about supplies.

Oh, yes, sir.

It's like a pack of hyenas, watching and waiting.

He don't stand a chance.

Soon as they get tired of waiting,

he's gonna be like a mouse in a box full of cats.

I don't care what he says, he don't stand a chance.

We gotta do something, Mr. Wishbone.

Even if he is a hangman, just ain't right.

Well, we can try. It won't do much good.

To stop a thing like this before it gets started takes an awful lot of law.

That's one thing Deadhorse don't seem to have a lot of.

Asa, why don't you give up checkers?

Third time in a row I've skinned you blind.

Jud, it's like a boil.

First you don't notice it, then it becomes a part of you.

Then the poison keeps creeping out.

I got an answer for that. Just cut it out.

You talked to that little hangman.

You can't buy him off and he ain't running scared.

Look, Asa, when you got a stake in something,

like land, cattle, money, you ain't scared.

You got people working for you like I have,

they do a job just for the sake of a few dollars.

- They run scared. - Maybe, maybe not.

But, Jud, you get to pushing too hard,

you're gonna find this right in the middle of it.

Whether I like it or not, this has gotta be right smack-dab in the middle.

Jud, killing a little card shark gambler that needed killing is one thing.

But killing a little twisted hangman that don't need a darn thing...

Asa, who said anything about killing?

It don't need saying.

Anybody with half a nose can smell it.

And the stink isn't 20 miles outside of town under a pile of rocks either.

It's right here, right outside your door, sheriff.

Nothing's happened and nothing is going to happen.

Then let's play a little game of supposing.

Supposing something does happen?

Supposing that overgrown, overfed mob out there does bust loose?

How are you gonna stop it?

- What do you expect me to do? - Deputize some men.

Put some rifles between Hannibal and that mob out there.

All right.

You get the men, I'll hang the badges on them.

HAMMERKLEIN: All right, all right.

Look, there's not a man in this state who'll shoot him,

and you can take my word for that.

You wanna help, take your little hangman back where you found him.

Not where we found him, that's where your boys left him buried alive.

All right, sheriff.

We'll try to get Hannibal out of this coffin he's making himself.

But then you're gonna have to finish the job for him.

Come on, Mushy, it's getting a little stuffy in here.

That boy is a smart aleck.

[HANNIBAL CHUCKLES]

Excellent, Mr. Wiley.

We now know that this frame will hold the specified weight.

A few more tests, there won't be any margin for error.

[HANNIBAL HUMMING]

- Well, he's still at it. - Busy, busy, busy.

I'm getting tired of watching him, awful tired.

How about you boys, you getting tired too?

[MEN MUMBLE]

Well, what you need is a little exercise.

It's just the thing before supper.

WISHBONE: Uh, just a minute now there.

Well, well. Surprise.

MARK: If it ain't our two little cow-driving friends.

[ALL LAUGH]

Well, I thought you were gonna pick up your supplies

and clippity-clop back to your cows.

We're just on our way.

Hannibal, why don't you come on with us?

That, uh, stormy sky of yours is getting a little worse.

As I said, Wishbone, I was born with it.

- You better go. - Hannibal.

A time for talking is over.

We got our own way to make him change his mind.

If you got anything to do with Mr. Hannibal,

you're gonna have to step over me.

[MEN LAUGHING]

Now, that is a thought.

[MOOING]

- Hey, Rowdy. - Hmm? Yeah.

- Your stew's a-burning. - Well, then stir it.

- Can't. I'm a scout. HEY SOOS: Señor Favor.

Yeah, señor, the supply wagon is coming in.

Hallelujah. Food.

There are riders with them, but I don't see Señor Wishbone or Señor Mushy.

This the Gil Favor outfit?

That's it.

That wagon belongs to it along with its riders.

- Where are they? - Tied up inside.

Well, that's just about far enough.

Was I you, I'd play tree and start taking root.

These boys don't miss.

- Now, you heard the boy. - What's it all about?

A friend of yours. Little fella with a bent neck.

Now, seems he got lost. We brought him back to you.

MARK: Shame. Looks like he fell down and got himself a little dirty.

One little man with a bent neck.

Here's some of his garbage.

We put him in a grave and you dug him up.

That was one mistake.

Now, another mistake was bringing him to Deadhorse.

And we don't count past two, Favor.

Now, you just keep going, don't look back.

And don't leave any garbage behind.

Get him down.

[WISHBONE GRUNTING]

What happened?

They jumped us, that's what happened.

Must have been 50 of them.

MUSHY: Where's Mr. Hannibal? - He's over in camp.

Poor little fella. He didn't even fight back.

Took it without a whimper too.

Mushy, get me coal oil,

- lard and rags, lots of it. - Yes, sir.

Hey Soos, will you get me another kettle of hot water, please?

- Si, señor. - Why'd they do it?

There's a man in Deadhorse supposed to get hung tomorrow.

It isn't come off if the fella that's supposed to spring the trap isn't there.

- Hannibal? - Hannibal H. Plew, hangman.

Professional hangman.

FAVOR: Hmm.

All right, all of you, clear out of here.

Come on, Mushy, bring that stuff.

Hey Soos, put in on the fire.

Hangman?

[HOWLING]

Sure those Hammerklein's mean what they say.

And sure they got the men to back it up.

That don't make any difference.

Me, I got a lump the side of my head the size of a six-egg skillet.

Mushy got bounced around like a ball on a string.

And Hannibal, here, you can see what they did to him.

Backed Mushy and me up, tied us down and made us watch him.

They said it'd make us be careful who we run with.

And they tied him up against his scaffold and rolled in the tar pot.

Every blessed one of them had a swipe at him with that tar.

And then they kept at it, hooping and hollering

like it was some kind of celebration or something.

It's over and done with, Wish. Forget it.

Forget it?

What do you want us to do, go into Deadhorse

and do Hannibal's job for him?

It's just like you said, Wish. His boys did the tarring.

It's their old man sitting in that cell.

And I don't know, maybe I'd do the same thing if it was my dad.

Stand up for your old man, sure.

Walk through a wall if you had to, but bushwhack a man

that can't defend himself and then dump boiling tar on him?

Oh, no.

Well, what is it? What do you want us to do about it?

We'll ride into town, Mr. Favor, and just bust that town over their heads.

You might as well get to busting right here and now.

Starting with me.

Well, if it isn't the red brick courthouse of Deadhorse,

the pride and joy of law and order.

What happened, sheriff, you lose your jurisdiction?

Oh, I'm gonna have to have some coffee to hold that down.

Hot and black.

Hey, you take off that badge, I'll give you some coffee.

- Pot and all. - Wish, pour the man some coffee.

TANNER: Thank you.

You might be Gil Favor?

I'm Asa Tanner, the high sheriff of Union County.

- How is he? - Oh, fine.

After being buried alive, he was parboiled, that's all.

A few burns, a few more bruises. He'll be all right.

Tried to bring the right medicine so I brought this.

Whiskey drummer said this would bring a mummy back to life.

You want some?

Mind if I do?

All right, I didn't like it.

What happened.

I didn't like it either.

Oh, I didn't know you noticed, being locked up in your office and all.

I noticed, and I also noticed 50 guns out there, give or take a few.

- I only carry one. - You should've stopped it, sheriff.

You shouldn't have let it happen.

If I'd have tried, some of those guns would have went off.

Yeah, maybe you, maybe the hangman, maybe you,

maybe me, maybe some old friends of mine,

we'd all be fertilizing daisies about now.

What for? A hanging that ain't gonna come off anyway?

A dozen round words said down in the red brick courthouse,

30 years away from a world that's just now learning how to read and write?

[INHALES]

I ain't saying that hangman's wrong, and I ain't saying Deadhorse is right.

All I'm saying, it ain't worth dying for. Uh-uh.

Not for me, maybe not for you.

You leave Deadhorse to me. I'll take care of them.

But I'm gonna do it my own way, and that's a promise.

When he comes around, buy him a drink on the house, will you?

So long.

All right, boys. That's it for tonight.

We got a lot of miles to chew come sunup.

Yeah, that ought to hold you.

If it doesn't, I don't know what will, Wishbone.

I'm not a man anymore. I'm a bandage.

Oh, you better stay that way too. Least till those burns heal.

Tar can be a lot worse than fire.

Yes, well, I'm obliged to you for the second time.

Whatever you do, don't go for three, Hannibal.

Wishbone's running out of medicine.

I'm afraid these aren't very much, señor,

but I couldn't find anything else close enough to your size.

To a man, Hey Soos, who has just taken off a tar overcoat,

sack cloth and ashes would seem to be the height of fashion.

All right, herd's getting impatient, let's get rolling.

Come on.

Ah, well, well.

Outside of the bandages, you look like you're getting back to normal.

Yes, I'm afraid I've turned your cattle drive into a rolling hospital.

That's all part of the service.

Besides, it gives Wishbone a chance to experiment.

Uh, Mushy's fixed up a bed for you in the supply wagon.

You ought to be able to get used to it after a day or two.

Well, thank you, Mr. Favor,

but I'll have to turn down your hospitality once more.

See, I'm going back to Deadhorse.

- Going where? - Back, Mr. Favor.

I want to, uh, finish my job.

Finish your job?

It's a job that I, uh...

That won't be finished until after 3:00 this afternoon.

Well, gentleman, it's not as bad as that.

It's just the bandages that make it look as bad as it is.

- I'll just manage it fine. - You'll manage fine.

Hannibal, if you think you're going back in there to commit suicide,

you got hit harder in the head than I thought you did.

Yeah, why, Hannibal?

I mean, uh, what's to hanging a man you never even met,

taking a chance on getting yourself killed just for nothing?

Nothing?

Rowdy,

to a young man once named Hannibal,

the town of Deadhorse would have been just that, nothing.

A quaint name on a frontier map,

a strange and violent little world in which the light was gray

because the black and white of right and wrong

and crime and punishment not only didn't matter,

it didn't exist.

And that young Hannibal was a doctor.

A very young doctor with a very young wife

in a very small practice in a very small town.

This young wife was to bring forth their firstborn child,

but nature decreed otherwise.

There were complications,

and learned old Dr. McReary,

he, with the carbolic and iodoform odor of experience in his whiskers,

he preached caution.

But young Dr. Hannibal, eleven months,

eleven long months out of medical school, disagreed,

and he decided to take nature into his own hands.

He performed a Caesarian operation, gentlemen,

not with knowledge, but with guesswork.

And the, uh, young wife died.

And so also did his son.

And they called him a wife killer and a butcher.

And they took him out behind a warehouse

and they put a rope around his neck and they pushed him off of platform.

And the law officers came to take him down,

but not until he had dangled at the end of that rope forever.

If only he could have died,

but he didn't.

His neck was broken.

A doctor who is no longer a doctor and a man who was no longer a man

wrote a strange new chapter in medical history.

After that, there was nothing left for him,

neither life nor even death, but only the scaffold.

See, it was on the scaffold that his existence was suspended,

and therefore, the scaffold was all that he knew and all that he knows.

You take that away from him and there's nothing.

And that, gentleman,

is why I have to keep the appointment in Deadhorse.

Perhaps you were right, Hey Soos.

Perhaps Henrietta really is a pale horse.

And perhaps the name of him who sits on her back really is death.

Until we meet again, gentleman.

Don't say it. Don't even think it.

- Look, boss-- - I know where you found him.

It doesn't make any difference.

What he is, what's waiting for him in Deadhorse, that is his business.

If he wants to get himself killed, that is his business, not ours.

- Ah, Mr. Favor-- - I know how he looked last night

and I heard what the lawman said, but that's the way he wants it,

and we got a herd to move, so let's get moving.

Mr. Favor, we can't let--

We can, Mushy, and we will. Now, use your head, will you?

We're cattlemen, not avenging angels.

We don't know anything about what happened in that town.

What do you want us to do anyways,

go in there and spring Hannibal's trap ourselves?

- Señor Favor-- - I know, Hey Soos, I know, I know.

Rowdy, turn the herd in, put four men on circle.

The rest of you saddle up fresh horses.

I'm afraid it's gonna be a long ride into Deadhorse and back.

[CHATTERING]

[HAMMER CLANGING]

[MURMURING]

Mr. Wiley, if you must dismantle the scaffold,

the least you can do is start with the frame.

Get off. Get off.

Well, it could be worse.

Platform's still intact here.

- Mister-- - Twelve twenty.

A little less than, uh, three hours.

It's not much time, but we can make it.

- Make it? - Rebuild the scaffold, of course.

Three o'clock is the time set for the hanging,

and 3:00 the hanging will take place.

Let's get started here.

I told you. It's him, he's come back.

Crazy fool.

- You stay put, Jud, you hear? - I hear.

Belt buckle. I promised him that.

Hangman!

Twice you got told and twice it didn't take.

- The third time is a charm. TANNER: Jake!

I hate to use this on you, boy,

but you better put that six shooter back where you got it from.

Well, that ain't gonna stop this, sheriff.

Neither is that badge.

It's going on the books as a fair try.

I told you I didn't want no shooting, and I mean that.

[HOOFBEATS APPROACHING]

Like you said, Asa, no shooting.

Mr. Favor, you shouldn't be here. None of you.

We're just out for a little ride, Hannibal.

Yeah, boys needed a change.

What happened, sunny boy? Did you lose your tar pot?

It was done, Favor.

Dead, gone and forgotten, and you're digging it up. Why?

To make sure it stays buried, to see that Hannibal walks away from this.

We'd also like to make sure that your way of settling this is the only way.

Of course, how it comes out, that'd be up to you.

Like I say, we're just out for a ride.

We don't count past two, Favor.

Remember, three times and you're dead.

Charlie, go get Mark and the rest of the boys. All of them.

- I mean right now. - I said it once and I'll say it again.

I ain't gonna let you turn this town into an old graveyard.

Neither one of you.

Well, just how are you gonna stop it, sheriff?

Afraid that'll be your problem.

Ours is Hannibal, but we're gonna be sticking around

until it's solved, both of them.

Mr. Wiley, back to work.

Come on, Jud.

Come on, Jud.

Two-thirty. We got ourselves a half hour to go.

Suppose Mark and the boys will be riding in pretty soon.

HAMMERKLEIN: Uh-huh.

My talking to them ain't gonna scare them off

any more than that scattergun scared those cowboys off.

Figures.

Jud,

this ain't Deadhorse against that little miserable hangman any more.

It ain't me and you and your kids against that noose out there.

This could mean the lives of some good men.

Some of them pretty dear and close to us.

Asa, you show me a way out of this, I'll listen your ears off.

There's always one.

Grab a hold of that six shooter and part my hair with it.

Get yourself a horse and ride him till he drops,

keep running till all this makes sense once again.

- Asa? TANNER: Huh?

You know I never run from nothing in my whole life.

All right.

There's always a first time.

Jud, this could be your life.

Sheriff, I thought you'd best know,

some riders are coming in, about 20 of them.

That'd be Mark.

And you, you'd be Jud Hammerklein.

Yeah, that's right. Trail boss, why don't you get out of here

- while you got two arms and two legs? - Oh, I'd be glad to,

but not without Hannibal.

And I'm afraid Hannibal ain't gonna leave

until he finishes what he come to do.

I'm afraid that's the way it stands.

Well, that puts us right back smack-dab where we started out.

No, not us, sheriff. Just Mr. Hammerklein.

Your boys won't back down.

And, Hannibal, well, he don't know how to.

So that puts it in your lap.

What you did, why you're in here, that don't much matter now.

Because if you don't all of a sudden make time stand still,

every gun in this town is gonna go off.

Right or wrong, it's gonna go off,

and 10-, 20-, maybe 30 men are gonna go down.

Your men, my men.

There's not much guarantee that anybody will come out of this.

And why? Who's right, who's wrong?

If you come up with an answer, I sure wish you'd let me know.

But you'd better do it fast.

Jud, this is all my doing.

The day you killed that little gambler,

I should have never held you for that trial.

No, sir.

I should have killed you myself, clean and easy.

And this is from a friend.

[HOOFBEATS APPROACHING]

Stand easy. We're not here to start trouble.

TANNER: Get down off there, ES. - Not done yet, Asa.

TANNER: You don't get on, you might be.

Come on.

Take a hold of the business end of this.

Took you long enough.

Well, I had to pick up some extra men.

Charlie said we might need them.

Let's go.

Asa, that Scaffold's coming down.

And the hangman and his friends are coming down with it.

Uh, their way or our way, it don't much matter.

Are you in it or are you out of it?

Boys, I sat this out all last night.

I'm tired of sitting and sweating.

You pull one of those triggers, I'm gonna pull too.

Oh, that's too bad, Asa. You were a pretty good sheriff too.

HAMMERKLEIN: Mark! Jake!

Come down here!

Just a minute, Pa, we got some business to attend to!

No!

Keep them loose, Charlie.

I'm gonna walk up there and I want you to walk with me.

You're gonna do what?

I'm gonna walk to him, and while I'm walking, I'm gonna talk.

You listen. Nothing else, just listen.

Now, look, remember when your mom died when the diphtheria hit?

There were no doctors there, no help. There were just four of us.

You got it first, then me, and then your Ma.

But she stayed on her feet.

Me, I couldn't help her,

because the fever burned me right down to the bone.

I couldn't help at all.

You remember she used to give us a mixture of coal oil and gunpowder

to swab our throats? I can still taste it.

Pa, there ain't time.

You listen to me right now. She beat diphtheria.

She beat it right into the ground.

Not for her, but for us. And after, there she died.

And I wanna tell you one thing, that's what she wanted.

This is what she gave us.

And I figure right now it's time that maybe I gave her something back.

You two boys. That's what I'm gonna give her.

Pa, if you think we're gonna stand here and watch you go up there--

Mark, give me your gun, now.

Yours too, Jake.

Jud, you can't go through with this.

[ALL CHATTERING]

HAMMERKLEIN: All right, all right.

This is the way it's gonna be. No guns, no shooting.

The judge says that's for me.

Maybe the tomorrow he was talking about is here.

And shooting off a lot of guns ain't gonna change anything

or chase it away.

That's the way I want it.

What I did, I'll pay for, not you.

Not you cowpunchers out there.

And not him.

That's the way I want it.

The first guy that starts to lift a gun, I'll kill him myself.

Now, look, I've done well, fellas.

Better than most.

You do half as well and I'll be proud of you.

Just remember that, will you?

I take it to be five minutes before the hour, is that right?

All right, let's get on with it. I don't wanna hold you up.

Jud, you want me to read a few words?

Eh, I never needed it before.

There's no reason why I should have it now.

If you wanna read it to yourself, I guess it'll serve the same purpose.

Uh, don't fight it.

A few seconds, I promise.

Hangman, don't worry. I won't haunt you.

You won't have to.

I manage that myself.

"I am the resurrection and the life,

he who believes in me, though he dies, shall live.

Whoever believeth in me shall never die."

All right, sheriff. You can cut him down now.

And I looked behold a pale horse,

and his name that sat on his back was Death.

Head them up.

Move them out.