In this film, Sam Peckinpah dropped the violence he became known for with The Wild Bunch but remained with the theme of the closing frontier in this gentle comedy-drama. Cable Hogue Jason Robards is a weary prospector robbed and left to die out in the Arizona desert by two ruffians, but he discovers water at the spot. He lives, digs a well, and sells water to passersby, including a demented preacher (David Warner). Throughout the episodic story, Hogue turns his location into a profitable concern and a beautiful prostitute (Stella Stevens) from the nearest town joins him, adding a relationship to his life. Eventually the two men who dry-gulched him return and he gets his revenge. When, in 1908, visitors stop in a horseless carriage, he is run over and killed in a rather quiet, anti-climactic scene. This film has a leisurely pace, but the script and performances keep it moving as a romantic tribute to pioneer spirit. It is one of the better westerns about the closing frontier that appeared in the late '60s and early '70s, along with Peckinpah's own The Wild Bunch, George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Monte Walsh, the directorial debut of cinematographer William A. Fraker.
![Checkmate: The Complete Series [14 Discs]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0011301637857_p0_v3_s90x140.jpg "Checkmate: The Complete Series [14 Discs]")
