Deadly Companions [VHS] |  | Director: Sam Peckinpah
Actors: Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Steve Cochran, Chill Wills, Strother Martin
Studio: Artemis Entertainmen
Category: Video
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $4.54
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Seller: authenticrarevideos
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 84,376
Format: Color, NTSC
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6303402577
UPC: 732263043936
EAN: 9786303402574
ASIN: 6303402577
Theatrical Release Date: 1961
Release Date: February 3, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
With its small cast, character-driven story, and modest production values, Sam Peckinpah's first feature film seems very like another of his TV Western dramas--just one that happened to get shot in Panavision. The director's favorite TV actor, Brian Keith, plays a surly loner named Yellowleg who ventures into Indian country with a dance-hall girl (Maureen O'Hara), the corpse of her little boy, and a pair of marginally human specimens (Steve Cochran and Chill Wills) who more than justify the title. Everybody has, or seems to have, a guilty or shameful secret: Why does Yellowleg keep his hat on? Was Kit (O'Hara) a widow, or a whore? Action, menace, and ethical dialogues come and go pretty much according to TV rhythms, and the visuals and editing are conventional. But there's enough quirky character work and offbeat mood-making to hint at the singular filmmaker soon to arrive big-time. --Richard T. Jameson
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
 WOW January 12, 2009
T. Daigle (USA)
I have to really be in the mood to sit & watch a western unless it cantains John Wayne, but I really did like the story line and ENJOYED the movie more than I thought I would. I suppose being a fan of more than one star in this movie allowed me to truly enjoy the movie.I think this movie is better than a LOT of the garbage they try to have us pay to see now. Maureen O'Hara is as always...dedicated and pure in her portrayal. Brian Keith ...I have to admit he does serious well. Chill Wills GREAT.If you just want to relax and root for Justice, this has it. If you want to see a love story bloom, this has it.
Peckinpaugh's First Offering September 22, 2007
Warren Christian II (Glendale, Arizona)
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This, I am told , was his first Directorship
I only bought it as part of my complete collection.
 Deadly Companions June 17, 2005
Steven Hellerstedt
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
Brian Keith play ex-Union soldier referred to as Yellowleg and Maureen O'Hara plays a, er, performer at the Black Garter dance hall in Sam Peckinpah's feature film debut, THE DEADLY COMPANIONS. Keith plays a character with a score to settle with a nasty hombre from his past when he gives O'Hara a grudge of her own to gnaw on when he accidentally shoots and kills her son. Keith, with a brace of prairie thugs in tow (Steve Cochran and Chill Wills) attempts to make amends by escorting the headstrong O'Hara through hostile Apache country after which she'll bury her son.
THE DEADLY COMPANIONS has a lot going for it. Dramatic tension is maintained at a satisfyingly high level - the group is threatened from without by the marauding Apaches and, for a variety of reasons, from within by each other . Keith and O'Hara act and react well with each other. O'Hara always seemed to give her best performance opposite a strong male co-star, and the underrated Keith proves a good match. Chill Wills, who was seldom given much more to do then bray and act mulish plays a shaggy ex-Reb with some blood on the hands of the skeletons in his closet, and who, in the course of the movie, reminds us that he was a pretty accomplished character actor.
Although there are moments of explosive violence, Peckinpah doesn't dwell on them with the obsessively loving eye that would later become his trademark. There are other signs of an unbecoming and uncharacteristic delicacy at work. During Keith's and O'Hara's great emotional showdown scene O'Hara talks about the scars she carries from the men with dirty arms who, for money she let pinch her and kiss her. I don't know how many filters O'Hara's speech had to pass through before it reached the screen, but the final product sounds polite and phony. Okay, the bar is set higher because Peckinpah is the director, but still, the way DEADLY COMPANIONS tiptoes around O'Hara's real occupation is aggravating, especially so in light of the fact that Peckinpah devotes an early scene to a clutch of town hens gossiping maliciously about the unwed O'Hara and her five-year-old-son and how it just ain't fitting blah blah blah and land sakes I reckon even she don't know who the boy's father is blah blah blah. (Strother Martin Alert - The church service takes place in a bar that modestly quits serving drinks during the service. Strother Martin plays the town preacher, foreshadowing a similar bit role he'd play seven years later in Peckinpah's masterpiece, THE WILD BUNCH. Oddly enough, in both films Martin leads the congregation in a stirring rendition of Yes, We'll Gather at the River. Must have liked that one.)
For all of its dated delicacy, DEADLY COMPANIONS was interesting and more than a little enjoyable. Deeply undermining the enjoyment factor is the full screen, pan-and-scan presentation. Unless there was absolutely no wide-screen print fit to print, a truly shameful decision. Even so, a high recommendation for this one.
before the blood January 18, 2002
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
While Sam Peckinpah is best known for blood ballets such as The Wild Bunch, and Cross of Iron, it should be known that he was making movies before blood bags were used. Deadly Companions marked his feature debut and while it doesn't stand up to his best films(Wild Bunch, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia,and Ride the High Country) its a nice start to a long and brilliant career. The DVD lacks extras and is standard format, which should be noted that a lot of older films were shot with a TV standard 1:33:1 frame. But this movie has been all but extinct except for shotty old video tapes for over a decade.
The Masters First feature movie...and a comment on the format November 29, 2007
Roger O. Thornhill (Finland)
This is Peckinpah's first feature film,a western, and a quite enjoyable 1:st. I find it odd that there do not seem to be other dvd releases available in the US than a full screen pan-and-scan version, with not so good picture quality, plus ditto from Canada, with an even more terrible quality. This said, because I recently, 28oct07, bought an official Nordic/Scandinavian release by Futurefilm here in Finland, with a marvelous fine picture quality AND in wide-screen anamorphic format! And seen this way, this is truly lovely movie. So if this state of things is not corrected over in the US, it is truly a shame and a cultural scandal.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 19
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