Between jobs, three cowhands have the bad luck to pitch a night camp in the same valley as a cabin full of guys who just robbed a stagecoach and killed the guard. A posse arrives in the morning, forms up along the ridge, and assumes that everyone down below is guilty—fit for either shooting to bits or hanging from a tree, whichever comes first. Exactly half of Ride in the Whirlwind's 82 minutes are devoted to capturing the situation's matter-of-fact, absurdist horror. In the second half, the two surviving cowpokes (Jack Nicholson and Cameron Mitchell) seek refuge at a farmhouse, where they reluctantly threaten the farmer, accept breakfast from his wife, flirt with his daughter (Millie Perkins), play some checkers, and hope to remain undetected until nightfall.
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Between jobs, three cowhands have the bad luck to pitch a night camp in the same valley as a cabin full of guys who just robbed a stagecoach and killed the guard. A posse arrives in the morning, forms up along the ridge, and assumes that everyone down below is guilty—fit for either shooting to bits or hanging from a tree, whichever comes first. Exactly half of Ride in the Whirlwind's 82 minutes are devoted to capturing the situation's matter-of-fact, absurdist horror. In the second half, the two surviving cowpokes (Jack Nicholson and Cameron Mitchell) seek refuge at a farmhouse, where they reluctantly threaten the farmer, accept breakfast from his wife, flirt with his daughter (Millie Perkins), play some checkers, and hope to remain undetected until nightfall.
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