THE MISERY BREAKS

THE MISSOURI BREAKS (1976)
dir: Arthur Penn

THE MISERY BREAKS
MAD #188, January 1977
w: Stan Hart
a: Angelo Torres

Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson) is a rustler experiencing hard times. His gang and he are particularly upset by the hanging of a friend of theirs by Braxton (John McLiam), a land baron, who takes the law into his own hands. They decide to seek vengeance against Braxton by killing his foreman Pete Marker (Richard Bradford), hanging him from the same tree that Braxton and his men hanged their friend. Logan and his gang then buy a small farm close to Braxton's ranch with money they stole during a train robbery, and begin rustling his stock. First the gang, without Logan, rides across the Missouri River and north of the border into Canada to steal horses belonging to the police. The theft initially goes well, until the police catch up to the gang, forcing them to abandon the stolen horses and flee for their lives. In their absence, Logan plants crops and enters into a relationship with Braxton's aggressive, virginal daughter, Jane (Kathleen Lloyd).

Braxton is incensed with both his rustling problem and his daughter, and sends for Robert E. Lee Clayton (Marlon Brando), a notorious Irish-American "regulator", who for a price, will take care of rustlers personally. Quickly suspicious of Logan, who does not strike him as a farmer, Clayton dons a variety of disguises and begins to pick off Logan's gang, one by one.

Clayton shoots Si (John Ryan) as he is trying to have sex with a farmer's adulterous wife. He also shoots Cary (Frederic Forrest) after he enters an outhouse. Finally, Clayton arrives at the gang's hideout one night and sets fire to the house, forcing a burning Cal (Harry Dean Stanton) to run to the river and throw himself in to extinguish the flames. He asks Cal where Logan is, and Cal says he was in the house but refused to come out. Clayton then impales Cal through his right eye with a large throwing star. Logan arrives the next morning, and sadly buries Cal. A few nights later, Clayton is serenading his horse by campfire light. Once the campfire goes dark and Clayton falls asleep, Logan sneaks into his camp and slits his throat. Logan then comes after Braxton, who has been feigning a trance due to shock. But, at an opportune time, Braxton pulls a gun on Logan and attempts to kill him. Logan gets the upper hand and shoots Braxton in the chest, killing him.