After serving three years in prison for a bank robbery, Joe Dasco is released and reunited with his son. Together they both go looking for work in the Texas oil fields. Not being able to hold a steady honest job, Joe Dasco along with a few men that he befriends along the way attempt to kidnap an oil baron's son. The kidnapping fails and Joe Dasco is shot and killed. His son Joey is then left alone but inherits what his father fought and died for.
Acting
Bing Russell's weathered desperation — fatherhood as performance.
Direction
Landis squeezes existential dread from cheap Texas locations.
Director
James Landis
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during the early '60s Texas oil boom collapse, capturing real economic desperation of the era. The locations weren't dressed — they were documentary.
Bing Russell, father of Kurt Russell, rarely carried films; this remains one of his few leading roles. The desperation feels autobiographical — a working actor's whole career in one performance.
US
