Big Jake (1971) John WayneRichard Boone, Maureen O'Hara. Full Western Movie
- last year
n 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, brutally slaying many members of the staff. Jeff kills the Devries brothers, but is badly wounded; his son, Jacob "Little Jake" McCandles, is kidnapped before the gang flees to Mexico, leaving behind a ransom note for $1 million ($30.6 million today).[3]
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 wanders the west as a gunfighter with his black Rough Collie mix, simply named "Dog". Jake arrives and they confer in secret about what to do with the box.
Michael McCandles, the youngest son, arrives on a motorcycle with news he has found the kidnappers. Martha decides to allow him and his older brother James to set off with the Rangers in REO Runabouts to try to overtake the kidnappers. Jake disapproves, and sets off with the box, a mule, packhorses, and his elderly Apache friend Sam Sharpnose, preferring to do things the old fashioned way.
The kidnappers ambush the Rangers, killing three of them and putting the cars out of commission. Jake allows his two sons to accompany him. Relations are strained between Jake and James after the former's long absence from home, but Michael is delighted to see his father again and impresses him with his skill as a sharpshooter. However, Jake is put off by Michael's more modern and genteel ways.
John Fain, pretending to be only a messenger boy, intercepts the group and warns them bandits are now after the box. He tells them the gang will kill Little Jake if Big Jake (who pretends to be a hired hand during the encounter) doesn't do things exactly the gang's way. He gives them further instructions on where the exchange will take place, in the town of Escondero.
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 wanders the west as a gunfighter with his black Rough Collie mix, simply named "Dog". Jake arrives and they confer in secret about what to do with the box.
Michael McCandles, the youngest son, arrives on a motorcycle with news he has found the kidnappers. Martha decides to allow him and his older brother James to set off with the Rangers in REO Runabouts to try to overtake the kidnappers. Jake disapproves, and sets off with the box, a mule, packhorses, and his elderly Apache friend Sam Sharpnose, preferring to do things the old fashioned way.
The kidnappers ambush the Rangers, killing three of them and putting the cars out of commission. Jake allows his two sons to accompany him. Relations are strained between Jake and James after the former's long absence from home, but Michael is delighted to see his father again and impresses him with his skill as a sharpshooter. However, Jake is put off by Michael's more modern and genteel ways.
John Fain, pretending to be only a messenger boy, intercepts the group and warns them bandits are now after the box. He tells them the gang will kill Little Jake if Big Jake (who pretends to be a hired hand during the encounter) doesn't do things exactly the gang's way. He gives them further instructions on where the exchange will take place, in the town of Escondero.