- 2 months ago
a vengeful former judge, Zephaniah Burton, kidnaps Mark McCain to force his father Lucas to watch his son hang. Burton blames Lucas for the death of his son, an outlaw who was executed for murder. Burton, having already killed the hangman and the presiding judge, wants to enact his own form of retribution against Lucas.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00The Rifleman
00:07Starring Chuck Connors
00:30The Rifleman
01:00The Rifleman
01:30Judgment is mine, for I am the true judge of all things.
02:00How do they feel, sir?
02:04Good, Pa.
02:05Just right.
02:07Well, I'm walking them a little.
02:08That's what boots are for, I'm walking.
02:09Well?
02:17Swell, Pa.
02:18Now, can I take them off?
02:21All right.
02:23Got everything on your list, Lou?
02:25You sure there's nothing else?
02:27Oh, that's about it, Heidi.
02:28Except for a bag of beans and a bag of flour.
02:31Beans and flour.
02:32Meat and potatoes.
02:34Is that all you and that boy of urine are going to eat?
02:37It's good solid food.
02:39And where's the greens?
02:41Greens?
02:42String beans.
02:44Collards.
02:45Turnip and beet greens.
02:46Now, don't you be telling me that your ma didn't feed them to you and use a sprout.
02:50She sure did.
02:51And I sure hated them.
02:53Of course you hated them.
02:54But you ate them.
02:56Hell, you wouldn't have grown up the big lump with your.
02:59Put them in the sack, Hattie.
03:00I'll take them.
03:01Now, wait up what I owe you.
03:02Luke, letter for you.
03:04I'll get it for you, Pa.
03:05All right.
03:11Pretty writing.
03:12Can I open it, Pa?
03:13Sure, son.
03:14Well, how much do I owe you, Hattie?
03:16Five dollars and fourteen cents, Luke.
03:19Ain't no letter.
03:21No?
03:23There's something torn from a newspaper about a hangman getting shot at towners.
03:28Some sort of saying.
03:30Saying?
03:31Yeah.
03:32Judgment is mine, for I am the true judge of all things.
03:37Judgment?
03:40Who's it from, Pa?
03:42What's it mean?
03:42Nothing, nothing at all.
03:44Just some kind of a joke.
03:45You go away from me and the buckboard.
03:46But, Pa, what?
03:47Go on, son.
03:50Kind of peculiar jokes.
03:52Sent a man a newspaper story about a hangman who got himself shot.
03:56How'd it happen?
03:58It's a private matter, Willard.
04:00Excuse me, Luke.
04:01I just didn't think there was anything so private about a newspaper clipping.
04:05Of course.
04:05I'm sorry.
04:08Exactly how far his town is from here, Willard?
04:10About 300 miles.
04:11Give or take 10 either way.
04:14A week's hard riding would bring a man there.
04:15I could bring him here.
04:18I could bring him here.
04:18I could bring him here.
04:45I could bring him here.
04:55I'm sorry.
05:06I could bring him here.
05:08Hold on.
05:10This is my judgment, for I am the only true judge.
05:40I am the only judge.
06:10I am the only judge.
06:40Is that the story on the murder of Judge Martin Harlow?
06:52Nobody's been prying.
06:53I got a notice on it from the sheriff up in Claypool, just in case the man who done it heads down this way.
06:59Did he tell you what he looked like?
07:00I figured you might be able to tell me that.
07:02I can't.
07:05But Henry Denton told me you got the same kind of a letter once before.
07:09Just like this.
07:11First the man who hung Eve from Burton, then the man who sentenced Eve from Burton.
07:17Now the man who caught Eve from Burton.
07:19You?
07:20Well, the day of judgment approaches, and I am the judge.
07:31He is.
07:33Judge Zephaniah Burton, Ephraim's father.
07:35Who's Ephraim?
07:36Well, he was hanging around Claypool when Mark and I were living there.
07:39Wild, loudmouthed kid, about 20 or so.
07:42Nobody paid much attention to him except when he was drunk.
07:44Then he was wild, excitable.
07:50Like the day he exploded.
07:52It's been over a year or more, and I could see it like it was yesterday.
07:55Sunday morning, church was over.
07:57Mark and I were leaving when Ephraim came down the street leading his horse.
08:01He was drunk as a hoot owl and cussing to beat all get out.
08:04The preacher and one of the deacons went over to shut him up.
08:07Next thing we knew, there was a gun in Ephraim's hand, and he started shooting.
08:12When he stopped, the deacon was dead, and two little girls were wounded.
08:16Ephraim got on his horse and rode out of town.
08:19I was on the posse that went after him.
08:21It wasn't hard to trail a half-loco drunk kid.
08:24We cornered him on a ledge in a box canyon.
08:27The only way to get at him without someone getting killed was with this.
08:31The sheriff said I wasn't to kill him, just wound him.
08:34I did.
08:37Shattered his leg.
08:39We brought him back to be tried, convicted, and hung.
08:41And he was hung legal? No lynching?
08:44That's the way folks wanted it.
08:46Why I got that letter.
08:48Only the hanging had to wait until after he was all healed.
08:51Mark and I left before that.
08:53Came here and settled.
08:55Well, after it was all over, Judge Harlow and I got letters both about the same.
08:59In that handwriting, signed by Judge Zephaniah Burton.
09:01And they raved about how no boy of his could do wrong.
09:04And how he'd sit in judgment of the men who judged his son.
09:09Sit as judge and executioner.
09:11Well, was nothing done?
09:12They were threats.
09:14We tried to check up.
09:15The letter came from Kentucky.
09:17We found out there was a circuit-riding judge named Zephaniah Burton.
09:21A harsh, unyielding man.
09:23Regular hanging judge.
09:24We'd just lost an election there.
09:27Nobody knew where he'd gone.
09:29They questioned Ephraim, but he claimed he had no father.
09:32Said he never knew who he was.
09:34I guess he was denying the man.
09:36Do you recollect where in Kentucky the letter came from?
09:40Freemansboro.
09:41Why?
09:41Well, I'd like to get a look at this man, wouldn't you?
09:45I sure would.
09:47It's no good for a man to pick this up every time a stranger rides by.
09:51Yes, Micah.
09:56It'd be a real welcome to know what the man looks like.
09:59Wants to kill me.
10:00We haven't got those coals hot enough by the time I get back from school, Paul.
10:21I'll show you how to do it.
10:23You just show yourself the mullification tables, huh?
10:27All right.
10:27All right.
10:30But if you didn't pack the coals so tight, you'd get a better draft.
10:36You just better get yourself the school, boy.
10:44Bye, Paul.
10:45Bye, Paul.
10:48Bye, Paul.
10:49Bye, Paul.
10:50Bye, Paul.
10:51Bye, Paul.
10:52Bye, Paul.
10:53Bye, Paul.
10:54Bye, Paul.
10:55Bye, Paul.
10:56Bye, Paul.
10:57Bye, Paul.
10:58Bye, Paul.
10:59Bye, Paul.
11:00Bye, Paul.
11:01Bye, Paul.
11:02Bye, Paul.
11:03Bye, Paul.
11:04Bye, Paul.
11:05Bye, Paul.
11:06Bye, Paul.
11:07Bye, Paul.
11:08Bye, Paul.
11:09Bye, Paul.
11:10Bye, Paul.
11:11Bye, Paul.
11:12Bye, Paul.
11:13Bye, Paul.
11:14Well, it looks like you hurt your leg, sweetie pie.
11:31We'll take good care of that.
11:44When a prodigal son of a dead calf was prepared, before my son of a hangman's rope, don't turn around, unless you would look into the face of death.
11:58Can I put the calf down?
12:00Gently, for I am not here to pass judgment on a calf, nor on a man, since it has been revealed to me that you too have a son.
12:09That is right, for I am the judge, and this is my judgment.
12:17An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a son for a son.
12:24It is simple, poetic justice.
12:27Yeah, simple, poetic justice.
12:36My son could have been guilty of no evil.
12:39All my life I've been a judge of evil.
12:42I've raised him in a stern and righteous mode, punishing harshly and swiftly when he strayed from the path of righteousness.
12:48My son did no evil, but all of you who persecuted him did.
12:52So you must suffer as I have suffered, waiting endless hour upon hour for my son to hang.
12:58For this is the judgment I pronounce upon you.
13:01That you wait for the death of your son.
13:04That you count the minutes and the hours as the sun passes across the heavens,
13:07knowing that the moment approaches when either judge, either jury,
13:11will act as executioner, as hangman for your son.
13:15Soon the scales of justice will be balanced.
13:17Soon the scales of justice will be balanced.
13:19Soon the scales of justice will be balanced.
13:20Soon the scales of justice will be balanced.
13:44Why not now?
13:47You've got me?
13:48This is not for you.
13:49There was no hangman's noose for me, but for my son.
13:54Listen, it's me.
13:57I'm the one who caught your boy.
13:59I'm the one you have to judge and punish.
14:01And this is my judgment.
14:04That as I waited for my son to hang,
14:07so shall you wait for yours to do likewise.
14:10If you touch him,
14:12if you harm him, I'll kill you.
14:14You hear me?
14:15So help me, I'll kill you if I have to crawl back from my grave to do it!
14:22Judge Burton,
14:24you believe in the law.
14:26That's all I did.
14:27I upheld the law.
14:28A legal jury brought...
14:29Run!
14:29Run!
14:29Run!
14:59Hello, boy.
15:10Mr. McCain around?
15:14Ain't you his son?
15:16Heck no.
15:17And I'm sure glad I ain't, Mark.
15:19Won't be home until way past dark.
15:22Way past dark?
15:23That's what he told me to tell his pa.
15:26Teacher caught him pitching spitballs,
15:28so he's got to cut a whole quarter kindling.
15:31That's a big heap of wood.
15:32You tell Mr. McCain?
15:35I'll tell him, boy.
15:36Thank you, sir.
15:47Joy on your face.
15:49Well, judgment will still be mine.
15:52Even the patience of a judge can be sorely tried.
15:55I'm going after your boy.
15:57Bring him here.
15:58Come on.
15:58Come on.
15:59Come on.
15:59Come on.
15:59Come on.
16:29Come on.
16:59Come on.
17:29Come on.
17:59Come on.
18:29Is it serious?
18:30Serious, ma'am, but not fatal.
18:33A badly broken ankle.
18:34How'd it happen?
18:36I found him on the road.
18:37His wagon hit a rut.
18:38It turned over.
18:40The pod tried to jump free, but his foot got caught.
18:42What is it, boy?
18:47I was just giving thanks.
18:50It weren't no worse.
18:51You a God-fearing boy?
18:53Of course, sir.
18:55That's good, boy.
18:56Good.
18:57Come on.
18:58I'll show you where your power is.
19:00Let's hurry.
19:07Let's hurry.
19:07Yes.
19:08Come on.
19:18Let's hurry.
19:19Let's go.
19:19Let's go.
19:20Oh, my God.
19:50Oh, my God.
20:20Hey, mister, are you all right?
20:33Why?
20:34What happened?
20:36Well, your horse must have stumbled.
20:38How do you feel?
20:40I don't.
20:41My head.
20:43It hurts, Ephraim.
20:45I'll get somebody.
20:46No, no, don't.
20:47Don't deny your power.
20:49Power?
20:50I raised your right, boy, in the powers of righteousness.
20:54If I was strict and hard, it was for your own good, Ephraim.
20:57You understand that, boy, don't you?
20:58You understand that?
21:01Sure.
21:02I knew you would, boy.
21:04They was lying when they said you did evil to deny me, wasn't they?
21:09Of course, but don't talk so much.
21:12Pa.
21:14Say it, Ephraim.
21:16Call me Pa.
21:17I want them to hear it.
21:19But you never denied me.
21:22Say it, boy.
21:24Pa.
21:25Pa.
21:27Pa.
21:28Pa.
21:28Thank you, boy.
21:55The End
22:25How are you?
22:41Poorly, I'm afraid.
22:42Do you know who I am now?
22:45Luke McCann's boy.
22:47You could have gone off, but you stayed here caring for me.
22:52You were kind of out of your head there for a while.
22:55You kept on calling me Ethan, asking me to call you Paul.
22:59And did you?
23:01Sure did.
23:03I was afraid not to.
23:05Thanks, boy.
23:11Boy, I'd be pleased.
23:13A drink of water.
23:15I'll get you some.
23:16You stinking very devil!
23:42I'll kill you in my bare hands!
23:44I'll see you in fire and brimstone for the devil's scum you are!
23:47Paul!
23:49Paul!
23:50Mark!
23:51It's a rattler, Paul.
23:53I didn't see it.
23:53He shot it.
23:55Mark!
23:56Oh, son.
24:00You said your ankle was broke.
24:02You said my Paul's ankle was broke.
24:05I did, boy.
24:06I don't understand, Paul.
24:10I don't know whether to kill you or thank you.
24:14Why did you save him?
24:15I saved him through the mercy of the Lord God Jehovah,
24:19who has permitted me some atonement for the evil I have wrought.
24:23For he is the true judge of all things,
24:27and I am but his.
24:28let us.
24:36Let us.
24:38Let us.
24:50Let us.
24:50Let us.
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