Shoot Out

Shoot Out is a 1971 American Western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Gregory Peck. The film is adapted from Will James's 1930 novel, The Lone Cowboy. The film was produced, directed, and written by the team that delivered the Oscar-winning film True Grit. This was the second-to-last of the 65 films directed by Hathaway. Plot Clay Lomax is released from prison after serving seven years for robbing a bank. He goes looking for his former crime partner, Sam Foley , who shot Lomax in the back as they ran from the bank and left him to be arrested. Learning of his release, Foley hires a trio of young thugs—Pepe, Skeeter and Bobby Jay Jones—to track Lomax's movements. Lomax locates an old friend, Trooper, a former U.S. Army cavalry soldier, now confined to a wheelchair, running a town saloon and offers him money for information about his ex-partner. The thugs catch up to Lomax at Trooper's saloon and hotel and force Alma, a prostitute/saloon girl working for the gruff but kindly old soldier, to spend the night with them. They wind up disturbing Lomax from his sleep with his old girlfriend Emma with the racket in the neighboring room, and have an altercation in the corridor. Later Lomax meets a train at the whistle stop to meet a former lady companion who was bringing a large sum of money that she had held for him all these years. But surprisingly, the conductor, Mr. Frenatore, brings out a 7-year-old girl, Decky Ortega, who had accompanied the woman on her train journey. The woman had died a few days before in a distant town leaving the girl an orphan. Lomax finally pulls the child off the train. The conductor hands him a wad of cash saying that if he hadn't retrieved and taken custody of the kid, the money would have gone towards her support when the conductor turned her over to a sheriff in the next large town on the line. Lomax tries to find someone to take care of Decky, but is unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the thugs mistreat and leave bruises on Alma, then vandalize the hotel/saloon as the old handicapped owner demands restitution. Led by Bobby Jay, they fatally shoot Trooper and rob the saloon, taking Lomax's money and Alma with them, before continuing to follow Lomax. Lomax returns, learning of Trooper's death and that he mentioned the location "Gun Hill" with his dying breath.