Original subtitles

(slow dramatic music)

- [Narrator] San Francisco, 1852.

Hordes of immigrants

had turn the placid California village of Yerba Buena

into a brawling city.

The original Mexican inhabitants were helpless

against the invasion of Anglos,

were ruthlessly pushed aside.

(dramatic music)

They were blamed for crimes they never committed.

Out of their humiliation and despair

grew the legend of Joaquin Murrieta.

- For the last time I ask you, won't you change your mind?

- And for the last time, senor, the answer is no.

- But Juan, what's the matter with you?

I am in love with Maria, she's in love with me,

and I want to marry her.

- My sister will not marry a gringo.

I would kill her first.

(knocking at door) Come in.

- I thought I told you to stay away from here.

- You have no right to intrude in my personal life, Carter.

- Jordan, if you wanna make a fool of yourself,

that's all right with me,

but I won't have a partner in my business

who is married to a Mexican.

If you marry her, you'll have to get out of the bank.

- I won't forget your sister, Perez, I'll be back.

- That would be unfortunate for both you and my sister.

Buenos noches, senor.

Good night to you, senor.

(dramatic music)

- Who is it, Schaab?

- Pete Jordan, the banker.

And look at this.

- Joaquin Murrieta?

I heard he was in this neighborhood.

♪ California, California ♪

♪ There's gold in them ♪ - "The Californians."

♪ In California ♪

♪ I've come to live where life is best ♪

♪ In the golden West ♪

♪ I'm gonna strike it rich ♪

♪ In California ♪

♪ California ♪

(eerie music)

- Oh, Marshal Wayne.

What are you doing out on such a night?

- Mr. Carter, your partner Pete Jordan is dead.

- He's what?

When?

How'd it happen?

- Knifed.

- Well do you have any idea who did it?

- It could've been Murrieta.

- I told him to stay away from that Mexican woman.

- Mexican woman?

- Maria Perez.

The man's asking for trouble fooling around

with Mexican women with a local bandit like Murrieta around.

- You think Murrieta killed him because of this Perez woman?

- That's the way it figures to me.

- Somebody said you were looking for Jordan

earlier this evening.

- That's right.

I thought he might've been playing cards at the El Dorado.

I couldn't find him so I came right home.

- What time was that?

- Well I came directly here from the El Dorado.

I'd say about 8:00, 8:30.

- And you haven't been out of the house since then?

- That's right.

Marshal, what is this?

Why you're acting as though you suspect me of the murder.

- We have to cover all possibilities.

I understand that you and your partner had a falling out.

- Well that's right, it was a business difference.

He was losing much too much money at your club,

and seeing that Perez woman.

Sometimes monkeyshines like that

reflect on both members of a partnership.

- Well, that's all.

Goodnight, Mr. Carter.

- Goodnight.

- You said you haven't been out of the house

since you got home from the El Dorado club?

- That's right.

- What time was that?

- Well I said 8:00 or 8:30, didn't I?

- Yes, you did.

These clothes are wet.

It didn't start to rain until after nine, Mr. Carter,

are you sure you're telling the truth?

- Marshal, if you want to ask me anymore questions

you'd better arrest me first.

- I may do just that.

Later.

Goodnight, Mr. Carter.

(dramatic orchestral music)

What do you know about the Perez girl?

- Nice girl with a mean-tempered brother,

cut a man in a fight a while back.

- Knife fight? - Yeah.

You figure Juan had something to do with this?

- Might have if he's a knife man.

Did he object to Jordan seeing his sister?

- I don't know for certain.

Offhand, I'd say yes.

Most Mexicans are awful touchy about their womenfolk.

- What were Jordan's relations with the girl?

- The way I heard, he wanted to marry her.

Doggone it, Matt, you're making

an awful lot of trouble over this.

We know who killed Jordan,

it was right there on the wall over his body.

Murrieta.

- Maybe. - Maybe nothing.

Everybody knows Murrieta hates Yankees,

especially them that chases after Mexican girls.

Why, they say he'd ride a thousand miles

to kill a man for that.

- So every time a prospector

gets his head blown off in Sacramento,

while a speculator is getting his throat cut in San Jose,

Murrieta gets blamed for both crimes.

- Matt, from what you told me before,

you leaned pretty heavy on Mr. Carter tonight.

He's a mighty big man around San Francisco.

- Well he lied to me about being out tonight.

Maybe he lied about a few other things.

I'm gonna keep leaning on him.

Let's have Juan and Maria Perez in here tomorrow,

hear what they might know about this.

Morning, Schaab. - Morning, Matt.

You wanted Maria Perez. (Matt grunts)

- Nice of you to come down.

Maria, Juan.

Schaab suppose you take Maria inside?

Juan, I'd like you to come over here and sit down please.

Juan, you could be in for a lot of trouble

on this Jordan killing.

I wanna help you, but I can't help you

unless you tell me the truth about Senor Jordan.

When did you see him last?

Was he with your sister last night?

Juan, you're not helping anything by refusing to talk.

Did you see Jordan last night?

Ever seen this before?

- Yes it is mine, I lost it.

- When?

- I don't know. - You're lying.

- Where did you find it?

- In Jordan's back.

Do you still say you don't know when you lost this knife?

- What good would it do me to tell you?

You wouldn't believe me anyway.

- Schaab, bring Maria in.

Sit down, Maria.

Maria, how did you feel about Pete Jordan?

- I loved him.

- Did he love you?

- He wanted to marry me.

- So you'd like to see his murderer captured, wouldn't you?

You are worried about your brother, aren't you?

Why did Jordan go to see Juan last night?

- How did you know what?

- Then he did go see him.

Why?

- He wanted Juan's permission for us to marry.

- What did Juan do?

- He refused.

- And they fought?

Didn't they? - No, no!

- Maria, this is Juan's knife.

He admits it.

This is the weapon that was used to kill Jordan.

Do you still say that they didn't fight last night?

Schaab, bring Juan in.

(speaking in foreign language)

- Senor Wayne.

This is what happened.

Jordan came to the house last night,

it was the usual talk about wanting to marry Maria.

Then Carter came, they had bad words between them

and then they left almost together.

And then I went to my room,

and when I came back my knife was gone.

Either one of them could have taken it, senor.

That's all I know.

- Is there anybody who can testify

that you spent the rest of the night at your house?

- [Juan] No, sir.

- What about your sister?

- She has been staying with our aunt

ever since we fought about Jordan.

- Juan, I'm gonna lock you up.

- Senor!

- It's for your own protection.

- Then I am a dead man.

They will take me before the courts,

no one will believe me.

- That's not true. - What Yankee would believe

the word of a Mexican against some gringo?

They will hang me, senor!

- Take him back, Schaab.

- Maria.

Murrieta!

- Maria, I'm doing it for his own good.

- You lie, gringo!

You're going to kill him.

But you will not!

There is one even stronger than you.

- If you're thinking about Murrieta, forget it.

You haven't got a chance.

- We shall see, senor.

- Want Carter brought in?

- No.

- You think Juan was lying?

- I think Carter was lying,

but we haven't got enough evidence to bring him in.

- You got Juan's statement.

- Juan was right, do you think any jury

would convict Carter with a Mexican's testimony?

Not a chance.

- Well then why hold him?

- Jail is the safest place for him

until we get the evidence we need.

- What kind of evidence?

- Carter's motives for murder.

I'm gonna put Carter under observation.

I'm gonna find out everything about him.

How he thinks, the things he's said to people, everything.

We'll keep the pressure on him till he makes a mistake.

And believe me, Schaab, a man with Carter's conscience

has to make mistakes.

During the next couple of days,

I learned a lot about Carter.

One thing stood out: there was no love lost

between him and Jordan.

Carter and he had quarreled over the girl.

Carter felt that if Jordan married her,

their banking business would go to pieces.

- He was more than a partner, he was my friend.

Oh, we had our differences.

But he was still my friend, my best friend.

And now he's dead.

Knifed in the back in a fight

over a worthless Mexican woman.

(crowd murmuring)

I know what he'd do if it was me that was dead that way.

He wouldn't wait for any trial,

he'd take that Perez out and hang him!

(men whispering)

But I guess we aren't all men as Jordan was a man.

I guess we haven't got the guts

to teach these people a lesson.

- Matt, Mayor Geary's here and wants to talk to you.

- Be right out.

Good morning, colonel.

- Matt, the raising of the devil woke me uptown.

The people want to know why

you haven't brought Perez to trial.

- Not enough evidence, for one thing.

- Well the prosecutor says there's enough for an indictment.

- You tell the prosecutor that I'm handling the police work.

When I'm ready, I'll turn Jordan's killer over to him.

- You're asking for trouble, Matt.

Mob trouble.

The people are stirred up about Jordan's murder.

- I bought nothing but trouble when I put this on.

When I can't handle trouble, I'll take it off.

- I say there isn't a man among us

who doesn't risk his life

every time he goes into that Mexican quarter.

I say the only thing that can keep us safe

is to show these people we mean business.

I say there's only one way to show them!

And that's with a short shrift

and a long drop at the end of a rope.

(crowd murmuring) If you're with me, come on!

- Matt, Carter's got a mob stirred up.

They're coming after Juan.

- We better get Juan out of here.

Go get a team and a rig,

bring them around the rear of the jail, hurry it up.

I want every man on the force

down on the Mexican quarter with shotguns.

If that mob tries to break up the quarter,

tell them to shoot and shoot straight.

- Where are you taking him?

- Sacramento Jail, he'll be safe there.

Giddy up!

(tense music)

(gunshot bangs)

(dramatic music)

(guns firing rapidly)

(speaking foreign language)

- He will not kill you this time,

but do not look for me, senor, or you will die.

Viva Murrieta!

(dramatic music)

- This is the most preposterous thing

that I've ever heard of,

to take a dangerous criminal out of a cell

then lose him to a mob of Mexican cutthroats.

- All right, I made a mistake

I shouldn't have come back here alive, maybe.

But I didn't make any mistake when I took Perez

away from Carter's lynch mob. - You were warned

that Murrieta was in the neighborhood

right here in San Francisco.

- Every peace officer in California

has been warned that he was in their neighborhood.

- What do you mean by that?

- That either Murrieta's riding around the country

on his own private bolt of chain lightning,

or there are at least a dozen of him.

Look at this.

Murrieta reported in Sacramento,

a day later on the Tuolumne.

Day after that, Stockton.

Three days later, Pueblo de Los Angeles.

Six days to be reported in places hundreds of miles apart.

- Are you trying to tell me

there's no such a person as Murrieta?

- No, I'm just saying if we all run and hide under the bed

every time some fool report that he's seen Murrieta,

we'd better get outta this country

and move back to east of the Mississippi.

No, Murrieta may be real enough,

too many of his people believe in him to prove otherwise.

I sure would like to see what he looks like just once.

- A lot of Americans have seen Murrieta once.

Then they were dead.

Now what are you gonna do about Perez?

- Go after him and bring him in.

Would you do me a favor? - Anything, of course.

- See if you can find Carter,

I think he's over at that saloon.

I want him to know that I'm going after Perez.

- All right, Matt.

Say what you please about Matt Wayne, gentlemen,

perhaps he's a little foolish in this Perez affair.

But no one can question his courage.

Now he's going out after him,

and I'm wiling to lay a little wager

that he'll bring him back.

- Dead or alive?

- Alive.

- Better dead.

- You'd like that, wouldn't you, Carter?

Perez didn't kill Jordan.

I know who killed him.

I have evidence of his motives, his need to kill Jordan.

All I need is one clinching bit of testimony

that the killer was with Jordan the night of his murder.

That's why I'm gonna bring in Perez alive.

If the jury will accept a Mexican's testimony,

they'll hang a killer.

(dramatic music)

A gambler's hunch is like a woman's intuition.

Sometimes it's false.

But my only lead to Juan Perez was through his sister.

Somehow along the grapevine telegraph

word would come to her of her brother,

and she would go to him.

I would be along too.

far enough behind so she wouldn't know I was there,

too close to lose her.

(gun firing)

(speaking in foreign language)

- You are late getting here.

- I had to be sure I was not followed.

(man shouts) - You weren't sure enough.

How many men did you bring with you

that you come in here so bravely, senor?

- I'm alone. - You lie.

- Fire a shot.

(gunshot bangs)

- You are a fool, senor, you will die for this.

- If that's the way the cards fall,

that's the way it has to be.

- Don't count on gratitude, I owe you nothing.

I paid you for what I owed you back there before.

But because you are brave, senor,

I will let you die quickly.

Any other gringo would know much pain first.

- If you'd gun down an unarmed man

you might as well play the complete coward.

Shoot me in the back!

- No, no Juan.

Senor, please.

If we let you go will you go in peace?

- Be quite, Maria! - No.

Answer, senor.

- I came to take Juan back with me

and I'm not leaving without him.

And if you kill me,

you'll be killing a lot of your own people.

- What do you mean?

- Every rabble-rouser in San Francisco

is out on the streets screaming for Mexican scalps.

I've got every man on the force down there

to try and protect your friends and your family.

But how long can 30 police men, half of them recruits,

hold out against a mob like that?

- You expect me to risk my neck to save my people?

You expect a lot, senor.

- I'm asking you to go back and testify against Carter.

- This is a trick!

You think I killed Jordan

because you found my knife in his body.

- Oh, forget about me.

I'm thinking about the jury.

I have evidence that Carter had a strong motive,

but you've got to tell them that he stole your knife

the night that Jordan was killed.

- How can I believe a gringo?

You are all liars.

- You know, in your way your people are as bad as mine.

You won't believe an American

even when he's speaking the truth.

And an American won't believe a Mexican

when he's speaking the truth.

But one of us better start believing the other pretty soon.

- He's right, Juan.

- How can I know you are right?

- Because you know you're not guilty, don't you?

- You believe this?

- Yes.

Let's get started.

(dramatic music)

(energetic music)

(gunshot bangs)

(gunshot bangs)

- I had to shoot him, senor.

- It was him or me, thanks.

- Who shot me?

- Murrieta.

- How bad is it?

- You're going to die.

A man like you, with all you had: reputation, wealth.

Why would a man like you commit murder?

Don't you want to get it off your conscience?

Begin at the beginning.

- Jordan was ruining me.

Gambling, losing company money.

I pleaded with him but he just laughed at me.

He was gonna marry a Mexican girl,

that would've been the final blow.

We'd have lost all our business.

People don't wanna deal with men who marry Mexicans.

So I had to kill him.

- With Juan Perez's knife?

- I had to.

- Sign it.

- Will you pray for me, marshal?

- I'm taking you in for murder.

- Murder?

You said I was gonna die.

- You are, at the end of a rope.

(dramatic music)

(lively music)

- Senor Wayne, why are you not enjoying yourself?

- Well, a peace officer is never off-duty.

I thought Murrieta might be among these people.

- I'm sure that he is.

Murrieta is everywhere.

- And nowhere.

- You know, don't you, about Murrieta?

How did you find out?

- That Murrieta was a myth?

It had to be that way.

He was reported too many places at the same time.

No one man could travel that fast,

it had to be lots of men.

- But they were men who used the name of Murrieta,

because it was feared.

Now that you know the secret,

I suppose you will tell and the legend of Murrieta will die.

- I won't say anything.

As long as people are poor and deprived of their rights

they need a champion to avenge their wrongs.

Gives them strength to live,

the strength to go on fighting for their rights.

I won't destroy that legend, Maria.

Murrieta will live as long as your people need him.

I hope that won't be too long.

(triumphant music)

By clatter of hooves in the night,

a rider whose face is never seen,

racing across the face of the land

to avenge the wrongs of his people.

♪ California ♪

♪ Oh I've traveled here, I've traveled there ♪

♪ I guess I've been most everywhere ♪

♪ But I like where I am today ♪

♪ And here is where I'll stay ♪

♪ Now one thing I just can't endure ♪

♪ Is being broke and being poor ♪

♪ So I come west to take the cure ♪

♪ And here is where I'll stay ♪

♪ I've come to California, California ♪

♪ There's gold in them there hills in California ♪

♪ I've come to live where life is best ♪

♪ In the golden West ♪

♪ I'm gonna strike it rich in California ♪

♪ California, California ♪

♪ California, California ♪

♪ There's gold in them there hills ♪

♪ In California ♪

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