Summary
A fugitive framed for embezzlement flees south of the border, chasing the ghost of a vanished lover whose silhouette flickers behind cantina beads and roulette lights. Barr Messenger, collar still warm from the noose that never closed, crosses the Río Grande into a dusk that smells of mesquite and cheap tequila, only to discover Betty Brownlee—once a prim bookkeeper—transformed into a cigarette-slinging chanteuse under the red neon talons of the Kingfisher’s Roost. The saloon, part cathedral, part abattoir, squats on the edge of a dust-blown plaza where every shadow wears a price tag: ten grand in vanished company cash, a sister’s virtue, and the last shred of a man’s belief that innocence matters. Betty’s eyes, once ledger-sharp, now shimmer with the fatal knowledge that every peso she earns dancing for "Red" McGee drags her deeper into the talcumed fist of "Bull" Keeler, the self-crowned Kingfish whose diamond stickpin winks like a constable’s badge. Around this triangulation of desire and debt swirl pistoleros, hymn-singing peons, and a silent sister whose loyalties shift quicker than a cardsharp’s wrist. The film corkscrews toward a dawn shoot-out on a cantilevered cliff, where the border itself—river, razor wire, rumor—becomes the final arbiter of who keeps his name and who becomes carrion for the actual kingfishers circling overhead.
Synopsis
Barr Messenger escapes to Mexico after a frame-up. He is in love with Betty Brownlee, who disappears after $10,000 is stolen from the firm she works for. It is thought she took the money. In Mexico, In Mexico, Barr finds Betty working in a saloon for "Red" McGee, the chief henchman of "Bull" Keeler's (the Kingfish) Kingfisher gang. Betty's sister is also involved.
Director
Cast
