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The Bravados is a 1958 American Cinemascope Western film (color by DeLuxe Color) directed by Henry King, starring Gregory Peck and Joan Collins. The CinemaScope film was based on a novel of the same name, written by Frank O'Rourke.
In town, Douglass meets Josefa Velarde, whom he met and fell in love with nearly five years previously in New Orleans. She has been looking after her late father's ranch and has never married. Douglass reveals that he is now a widower and has a daughter; Josefa later learns, from Rio Arriba's priest, the truth of how Douglass' wife died.
The designated executioner arrives and goes to check the men's height and weight in the jail. He is an imposter however and stabs the sheriff, who then manages to shoot and kill him. The four inmates escape though and take a young woman, called Emma, hostage. A posse rides in pursuit and Douglass joins them the following day, when they find a body which is that of the genuine executioner, who was ambushed before he reached town.
The outlaws realise that Douglass is the man they must deal with and Parral is assigned the job of ambushing him. He fails and Douglass kills him after showing him a photograph of his dead wife, despite him denying any knowledge of her. Douglass continues to trail the remaining three, confronting Taylor who he captures and ropes by his feet, hanging him upside-down from a tree.
The two remaining fugitives reach the house of John Butler, a prospector and Douglass' neighbor. Butler tells the men he needs to get to work outside and tries to escape. Zachary shoots and kills him, whilst Lujan goes to retrieve a sack of coins which Butler had taken with him. While Lujan is doing this, Zachary rapes Emma and, after seeing riders approaching, they both flee, leaving the girl behind. The riders turn out to be Josefa and one of her ranch-hands, who spot Douglass coming from another direction; whilst the main posse also arrives.
Douglass goes to his ranch to get fresh mounts, but finds that the fugitives have taken his last horses. In a town just across the Mexico border, Douglass finds Zachary in a bar. The outlaw claims not to know the woman in the picture Douglass shows him but Douglass draws his gun and shoots him dead. He then goes on to the home of the fourth man, Lujan, who has a family of his own. When shown the photo of Douglass's wife, Lujan also says he has never seen her before. Douglass points to Lujan's sack of coins and tells him that whoever killed his wife stole that from his ranch. Lujan explains that he took the bag from Butler, whereupon Douglass realizes that Butler was the murderer.
Now knowing that the four men whom he pursued had nothing to do with his wife's death, Douglass regrets having killed three of them. He returns to town and goes to the church to ask for forgiveness. The priest says that while he cannot condone Douglass' actions, he respects him for not making excuses for what he has done. Josefa arrives with Douglass' daughter and they exit the church together.
The film is notable for including a rare serious role for Joe DeRita who, around the time the film was released, became "Curly Joe" of The Three Stooges.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 5 critic reviews with an average rating of 8/10.
| Laurel Awards | Top Action Performance | Gregory Peck | |
| National Board of Review Awards | Best Supporting Actor | Albert Salmi (also for The Brothers Karamazov) |
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