A COVENANT WITH DEATH (1967)

In a small border town in the 1920s, town drunk Bryan Talbot (Earl Holliman) is accused of killing his adulterous wife. At the crime scene, their bedroom, she was found dead with Talbot collapsed, drunk and incoherent. Talbot insists he's not guilty, though the narrative being passed around town is that Talbot's wife had syphilis (which she'd gotten from him) rendering her unable to have children, which made her become promiscuous. The whole town knew about her behavior (though if they all thought she had syphilis, why would they procure her services?) and Talbot's guilt seems like a logical conclusion. Indeed, Talbot is found guilty and Judge Hockstatder sentences him to hang. In the meantime, we have gotten to know the recently appointed judge Ben Lewis (George Maharis, pictured), a young man of Mexican/Welsh descent who has a teasing but loving relationship with his Mexican mother and who, because he can pass for Anglo, has to put up with any number of snide comments about Mexican villagers. Just after the verdict, the older judge takes off for a vacation and Lewis has to preside over Talbot's hanging. As the hangman slips the noose around Talbot's neck, Talbot becomes hysterical and shoves the hangman off the scaffold to his death. While another hangman is sent for, a neighbor of Talbot's, driven crazy with guilt, writes a confession to the murder and then kills himself. A quandary falls into young judge Lewis's lap: though Talbot is now no longer guilty of the murder of his wife, should Talbot be put to death for the accidental murder of the hangman?

This is an odd film to judge. As a feature film, it's bland and toothless with mostly lackluster performances, but in look and feel, it comes off more like a TV movie or pilot, and judged that way, it's fairly interesting. Time is spent fleshing out the characters of Ben Lewis and his mother (Katy Jurado), and their place in the village. Ben is torn between dating two women, one Swedish and one Mexican, but little is done with that except as fodder for the mother-son conflicts, most of which are portrayed as not terribly serious. The villagers themselves seem to feel vaguely uneasy about Ben's presence, but again nothing is done with this—I think it's presented as a conflict that can be fixed when Ben eventually makes a pronouncement about the ultimate fate of Talbot. That ending, as reviewer Michael E. Grost has pointed out, comes off more as a gimmick than a thoughtful engagement with the moral issue, though maybe that' would be asking too much of a 60s studio movie. For all those reasons, this comes off more as a pilot for a TV show that would center on the young judge's circumstances and relationships. Viewers don't seem to think too much of George Maharis, but I think he's fine here. True, he's a bit reserved, but that seems to be reflecting the character, who is just coming into his own in the small town. (Also, I cut him a lot of slack because he's nice eye candy.) Holliman is a bit one-note as the accused killer, Gene Hackman and Whit Bissell have small and thankless roles. Katy Jurado gives the movie's best performance as Ben's mother. Part of me really wishes this had been a pilot, because I'd have watched a show with George Maharis as a small-town judge. [TCM]