Conagher is a 1991 Turner Network Television

Turner Network Television

Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...

 western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 based on a Louis L’Amour novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 of the same name, starring Sam Elliott

Sam Elliott

Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...

 as Conn Conagher, an honest, hardworking cowboy

Cowboy

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the vaquero traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of...

 who learns that his fellow ranch

Ranch

A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...

 hands plan to steal the boss's cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

. Katharine Ross

Katharine Ross

Katharine Juliet Ross is an American film and stage actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, which won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and her role...

, Elliott’s wife since 1984, stars as Mrs. Evie Teale, who tries to raise a son (Cody Braun) and a daughter (Anndi McAfee) on an isolated homestead

Homestead (buildings)

A homestead is either a single building, or collection of buildings grouped together on a large agricultural holding, such as a ranch, station or a large agricultural operation of some other designation.-See also:* Farm house* Homestead Act...

 after her husband, Jacob Teale (Billy Green Bush), leaves on a business trip and never returns. Evie adjusts well to the wilderness: "You don't know what music is until you hear the wind in the cedars

Cedar wood

Cedar wood comes from several different trees that grow in different parts of the world, and may have different uses.* California incense-cedar, from Calocedrus decurrens, is the primary type of wood used for making pencils...

."

Plot

The film opens with the Teale family moving west on a wagon into Indian Territory. They reach their home, and plan to go on the cattle business. The father, Jacob, rides out to get the cattle, promising to return in a month. However, he is killed along the way when his horse falls over on himself, and he bleeds internally to death.

Meanwhile, a Stagecoach passes by the Teale farm; Evie Teale agrees to work for the Stagecoach by feeding customers who come by. One of the men on the Stagecoach warns Evie of a man named Conn Conagher, who he says is a fierce gunfighter. One day, Conagher does stop by for food, along with his partner Mahler. The Teale farm later comes under attack by Indians. The Stagecoach arrives by again in the middle of the gunfight, and the drivers and the passengers defend the farm. The Indians retreat in the morning.

Conagher, meanwhile, drifts out in the wilderness. He and Mahler meet an old rancher, Seaborn Tay, who hires both of them for work. Conagher proves to be a hardworking cowhand, but the ranch comes under threat by the Ladder Five gang, led by Smoke Parnell, who swear to kill Conagher. Mahler deserts the ranch after an argument with Conagher and joins the Ladder Five. Conagher saves the ranch and Tay's cattle twice from the Ladder Five, both in a series of quick gun battles. He also visits the Teale farm regularly, and he and Evie grow fond of each other and he becomes a father figure to Evie's children.

One day, when Conagher is out herding Tay's cattle, he is ambushed and shot by the Ladder Five gang. The wounded Conagher hides out during the day, and but at night returns and holds the Ladder Five, including Parnell, at gunpoint. Weak from his wound, Conagher eventually collapses and passes out, but not before he demands the Ladder Five to clear out of the land. Parnell knows now that he can finish off Conagher, as his gang swore to do, but instead orders his men to heal Conagher back to health. The next day, the Ladder Five gang clear's out of the land

Conagher wakes up in the morning, and heads into town, where he finds a drunken Mahler in the saloon. The two argue again, and Conagher challenges Mahler to a fist fight. Mahler easily starts to beat up Conagher; Conagher finally gains the upper hands and beats Mahler into submission. Evie arrives at that moment where she tells Conagher, "it's time for you to come home now." Conagher agrees and rides back with Evie to start a new life with her.

The film features Elliott’s friend Buck Taylor

Buck Taylor

Walter Clarence "Buck" Taylor, III is an American actor and water color artist best known for his role as gunsmith-turned-deputy Newly O'Brien in 113 episodes during the last eight seasons of CBS's Gunsmoke television series . In recent years, he has painted the portrait of his friend and Gunsmoke...

, formerly the gunsmith

Gunsmith

A gunsmith is a person who repairs, modifies, designs, or builds firearms. This occupation is different from an armorer. The armorer primarily maintains weapons and limited repairs involving parts replacement and possibly work involving accurization...

-turned-deputy on CBS

CBS

CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

’s long-running Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, as Tile Coker, a rider for the Ladder Five Ranch. Pepe Serna

Pepe Serna

Pepe Serna is an American film actor and artist.Serna's first break in movies came in 1970 on the Roger Corman directed film Student Nurses. Over the years Serna has appeared in over 100 films, most notably Car Wash and Scarface directed by Brian De Palma, where he played Montana's friend Angel...

, a native of Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi, Texas

Corpus Christi is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas. The county seat of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patricio counties. The MSA population in 2008 was 416,376. The population was 305,215 at the 2010 census making it the...

, played Casuse, another Ladder Five rider. Rugged James Gammon

James Gammon

James Richard Gammon was an American actor, known for playing grizzled "good ol' boy" types in numerous films and television series.-Early life:...

 plays Smoke Parnell, the owner of the Ladder Five, who is suspected of rustling. Buck Taylor’s father, character actor

Character actor

A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...

 Dub Taylor

Dub Taylor

Walter Clarence Taylor, Jr. , better known as Dub Taylor, was an American actor who worked extensively in Westerns, but also in comedy from the 1940s into the 1990s.-Early life:...

 (1907–1994), plays the station agent.

Ken Curtis

Ken Curtis

Ken Curtis was an American singer and actor best known for his role as Festus Haggen on the long-running CBS western television series Gunsmoke.-Early years:...

 (1916–1991) plays an elderly but prosperous rancher, Seaborn Tay, fearful of losing his assets to the rustlers. This was Curtis’ last acting part; he died just weeks after Conagher finished production. Curtis had also costarred with Buck Taylor as Deputy Festus Haggen

Festus Haggen

Festus Haggen was Marshal Matt Dillon's only official deputy on the CBS television series Gunsmoke. He came to Dodge City in an episode titled "Us Haggens" to avenge the death of his twin brother, Fergus. Played by Ken Curtis, he first appeared in 1962 and was showcased full-time from 1964 until 1975...

 on Gunsmoke. Tay (Curtis) tells Conagher (Elliott), “Well, I'm up into my 70s . . . got a bum ticker to boot. I was kind of hoping to just live out my days and not die out on some sandy slope with lead in my guts. If they get me out on that range, they'll kill me for sure. And then just take my cattle as they please... with nobody to stop 'em.”

Ellott was the executive producer of Conagher, John A Kuri was the film producer

Film producer

A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...

  and Reynaldo Villalobos was the director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

. The teleplay was developed by Jeffrey M. Meyer. Elliott was nominated for a Golden Globe award for his Conagher role but lost out to Beau Bridges

Beau Bridges

Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...

. The 94-minute picture was filmed about the Royal Gorge

Royal Gorge

The Royal Gorge is a canyon on the Arkansas River near Cañon City, Colorado. With a width of at its base and a few hundred feet at its top, and a depth of in places, the 10-mile-long canyon is a narrow, steep gorge through the granite of Fremont Peak...

 and Buckskin Joe

Buckskin Joe

Buckskin Joe is a Western-style theme park and railway west of Cañon City, Colorado, USA. It is located south of U.S. Route 50 along the road to the Royal Gorge Bridge. Features of the park include gun fights, 30 authentic buildings from the Colorado 19th century frontier, themed entertainment,...

 Frontier Town and Railway in Canon City

Cañon City, Colorado

The City of Cañon City is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Fremont County, State of Colorado. The United States Census Bureau estimated that the city population was 16,000 in 2005. Cañon City is noted for being the location of nine state and four ...

 in south central Colorado

Colorado

Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

.

Barry Corbin, who grew up in Lubbock

Lubbock, Texas

Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...

, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, won the "Buffalo Bill Cody Award" for quality family entertainment and the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city in the state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 31st among United States cities in population. The city's population, from the 2010 census, was 579,999, with a metro-area population of 1,252,987 . In 2010, the Oklahoma...

for his performance in Conagher.