Warren Oates Movies

This Sam Peckinpah-directed feature outing was intended as the cinematic swan song for both Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea; while McCrea would unexpectedly emerge from retirement, this 1961 western serves as an excellent valedictory for both men. The time is the early 1900s, when the Old West was slowly and stubbornly giving way to the new. McCrea plays Steve Judd, an ex-lawman living on the fringes of poverty but maintaining his dignity and honesty. Hired to escort a gold shipment from the wide-open mining town of Coarse Gold, he engages his old pal Gil Westrum (Scott) to help him. But Gil hasn't Steve's integrity, and he and his young saddle pal Heck Longtree (Ronald Starr) hope to talk Steve into helping them steal the gold. En route to Coarse Gold, the three riders spend the night at the farm of a religious fanatic (R.G. Armstrong), whose daughter Elsa (Mariette Hartley in her film debut), chafing at her father's loud piety, is planning to elope with her boyfriend Billy (James Drury). The next day, Elsa insists on joining up with the group so she can marry Billy at Coarse Gold, leading to numerous complications and, of course, a final shoot-out that allows Steve and Gil to reconcile their differences and pave the way for the film's elegiac finale. Released at the tail end of the western genre, and virtually thrown away by MGM, Ride the High Country feels like an elegy for the western itself -- and Peckinpah himself would go on to revise western conventions with such later efforts as The Wild Bunch (1969) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

While on maneuvers near the site of Custer's Last Stand, a modern-day Army tank crew encounters evidence that they have travelled back in time. This evidence is largely gleaned from the crew's knowledge of the events leading up to the Custer debacle. The climax is inevitable -- but fascinating nonethless. The cast of this Twilight Zone episode includes such series-TV stalwarts as Ron Foster, Randy Boone, Warren Oates, Robert Bray, and Greg Morris. Written by Rod Serling, "The 7th Is Made up of Phantoms" initially aired on December 6, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Trapped behind enemy lines, Lt. Hanley (Rick Jason) and a wounded GI named Stark (Warren Oates) take refuge in a deserted pillbox. Before long, a thunderstorm aries, and the two men are joined by three others--all German soldiers. Thus are mortal enemies thrown together by circumstance, forced to rely upon one another for their mutual survival. But when the storm blows over, who will have "won" this battle of wits and wills? This is the first Combat! episode directed by series star Vic Morrow (Sgt. Saunders). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In Bayou country, Kimble (David Janssen) hitches a ride with Hanes McClure (Warren Oates), an obnoxious braggart who happens to be wanted by the authorities of a variety of crimes. Local police captain Charles Shafter (Philip Abbott) is grateful when Kimble subsequently helps him capture McClure, but he still is duty-bound to hold Kimble until Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse) arrives. Complicating matters is a mixed-up kid named Tad Thompson (Dee Pollock), who idolizes Hanes and helps him bust out of jail. Though willing to take advantage of the jailbreak himself, Kimble realizes that he must prevent Tad from following in McClure's crooked footsteps. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In Volume 25 of a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, a scientist on a remote world mutates into a vicious killer following a strange rainstorm. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

The first Lost in Space episode comprised entirely of "new" footage, with no stock shots from the original pilot film, is also the first to feature a guest star--in this case Warren Oates, cast as cowboy-turned-astronaut Jim Hapgood. Like the Robinson family, Hapgood has been stranded in space, all because he'd overshot a scheduled landing on Saturn fifteen years earlier. However, Hapgood's space vessel is still functioning, which is more than can be said for the Jupiter 2. Treacherous Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) does his "best" to get into Hapgood's good graces, the better to be taken back to Earth--without the Robinsons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Sam Peckinpah's 1965 feature Major Dundee was recut and rescored for re-release theatrically in 2005, 40 years after its original release. The "Extended Version," as it is known officially, tells essentially the same story as the original but with clearer motivations for the characters (which often seemed vague or obscure in the 1965 edition) and much greater effectiveness. Major Amos Charles Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a West Point graduate who somehow -- it's not clear -- exceeded his orders while serving in the Battle of Gettysburg and, as punishment, has been taken out of combat and put in charge of a Union prison in New Mexico. He then gets word that marauding Apaches under Sierra Charriba (Michael Pate) have raided an American settlement, slaughtering the troops who were pursuing them and kidnapping three young boys, whom they've taken to their lair south of the Rio Grande (and if this sounds a lot like the plot of John Ford's Rio Grande, it's because they used the same story as inspiration). Dundee assumes responsibility for capturing or destroying the raiders and rescuing the captives, but because he has far too few men, he's forced to recruit prisoners, including his one-time friend, Confederate Captain Benjamin Tyreen (Richard Harris), and other "gentlemen of the South," to fill out his ranks. Tyreen and his men despise Dundee, but agree to serve on this mission in exchange for the chance for possible pardon of commutation of sentence (Tyreen and some of his men are facing the rope, for killing a guard in an escape attempt).

The mission takes them deep into Mexico, where they free the children but now find themselves being stalked by the very Apaches that they were hunting, as well as having to fight off the French troops stationed there. And as they quickly see, the French troops, though white and supposedly "civilized" like themselves, treat the native Mexicans in ways that make the Apaches look almost saintly. In the end, this ragtag group of soldiers, malcontents, deserters, traitors, and criminals finds a larger cause in their quest -- bigger even than their own survival -- as they discover something uniquely fine and honorable in being an American, and in American ideals. It takes the sacrifice and deaths of many to get to that point, but the movie -- in this version -- gets us there convincingly, if in decidedly grim and bittersweet fashion. Though based on fiction and shot under incredibly (indeed, legendarily) chaotic conditions, the movie ultimately proves to be a rousingly disturbing examination of what it means to be an American, and the meaning of American ideals. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi