Big Jake

Big Jake is a 1971 American Technicolor Western film starring John Wayne, Richard Boone and Maureen O'Hara. The picture was the final film for George Sherman in a directing career of more than 30 years, and Maureen O'Hara's last film with John Wayne and her last before her twenty-year retirement. The supporting cast features Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Glenn Corbett, Jim Davis, John Agar, Harry Carey Jr. and Hank Worden. Plot In 1909, near the Mexico-United States border, Martha McCandles runs a massive ranch with the help of her sons Jeff, Michael, and James. The Fain Gang (The Fain Brothers, the Devries Brothers, John Goodfellow, Kid Duffy, Breed O'Brien, Pop Dawson, and Trooper) attacks the ranch, slaying many members of the staff. Jeff kills the Devries brothers but is badly wounded; his son, Jacob "Little Jake", is kidnapped before the gang flees to Mexico, leaving behind a ransom note for $1 million. Martha places the ransom in a strongbox, and delegates from both the United States Army and the Texas Rangers offer to take the box for her. Martha decides instead to send for her estranged husband Jacob "Big Jake" McCandles, who is generally thought to be dead but is really wandering the west as a gunfighter. Jake arrives with his black Rough Collie mix, simply named "Dog", and they confer in secret about what to do with the box.