Bad Sheriff

THE BROKEN LAND-1962-In the late 1870's Will Brocious (Jack Nicholson) is being held in jail because his father was an outlaw. Sheriff Cogan (Kent Taylor) is a hard nose operator (he's kind of like a character from a Jim Thompson novel) who's own deputy (Jody McCrea) questions his methods. A dumb guy named Billy (Gary Sneed) is thrown in with Will after being caught stealing a necklace he wanted to give to a local waitress Mavera (Diana Darrin). Dunson (Robert Sampson) is a grouchy guy who gets into a fight with Cogan (an obvious double). Mavera helps the trio escape before she leaves town (Cogan ran her out). Later the guys “rescue” her from a stagecoach and high tail it across the desert with the sheriff in hot pursuit. When his deputy rebels Cogan shoots him and goes after the quartet. He brings them back, killing Billy in the process. Later they expose the sheriff for the no good Union scumbag he is. 

Director John Bushelman was mainly an editor (such as CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON and several Burt Gordon movies ). 

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