The Fugitive

"The Fugitive" centers on family honor, as a young Mexican (Michael Carr) kills an 'Americano' in self defense, then flees toward his native Mexico because he fears that he will not be tried fairly north of the border. His father is the powerful Don Ignacio Vasquez (John Carradine), who prefers killing the lawman Earp rather than face the disgrace of having his beloved son accused of murder. It's up to the young man's fiancée (Anna Navarro) to set the record straight, before the posse arrives for a timely lynching. The legendary John Carradine, so busy in TV Westerns, shines as the stern patriarch, affecting a Spanish accent while calmly offering Wyatt a shovel with which the marshal can dig his own grave. This was not the actor's first brush with Wyatt Earp, as he played the main villain opposite Randolph Scott in 1939's "Frontier Marshal," nor would it be his last opposite Hugh O'Brian, as each were featured guest stars in John Wayne's final film in 1976, "The Shootist." In 1964's "Cheyenne Autumn," John Ford's final Western, James Stewart's Wyatt Earp plays a comical game of cards with Carradine and Arthur Kennedy.