Summaries

Synopsis

Two dead men lay atop a desert mountain, their weapons close to their hands - apparently dead in a shoot-out in the open. A flock of vultures begin pecking away at them, and one of the men jumps and unloads several rounds from a shotgun into the flying scavengers. He faints again, and eventually walks his way into the nearest town. The shotgun's cross has the inscription 'Dingus+'.

He stops at the saloon for a drink. While sitting at the bar, a man well dressed all in black, Charlie, addresses him as 'Luke', pays him a whiskey, and asks where is Donovan, and if 'the killing is still going on'. He had rent a room in the saloon for Luke, already. Who hired them and who they are going to kill, remains unspoken, and Luke is not letting Charlie know that he lost his memory of what happened in the mountain with Donovan. "Luke" plays it cool and learns he's taken money to kill Victor Barret. The man in the saloon lays out the plan.

"Luke" is to walk right up to Dingus, pull a pistol, and kill him. Charlie will have a rifle in a case, put together with telescope lenses, and position himself on a hill a couple of hundred yards away, as back-up.

The scene is a graveyard with a group of people standing around a tombstone draped with a battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. The names on the tombstone are «Harry MacCalhoun - Jason Phillicote - Vladimir Landusky - Rusty Callagan - Burt Hunnicat - Willy De Soto - Luke Barret».

Before the vote, the Doctor says that Barret and Rojas have not come to save the lands from the Southern bank, that he guarantees to provide them with the peons they need to cultivate their lands. Victor Barret arrives, and exhorts them to hold out, promising to help them. One man refuses, saying he barely broke even last year. Again, Victor promises to help like he did the year before. The farmer says, "You took half my land for that help!" Reluctantly, the men vote (with white pebbles) for Barret. MacCahoun is the first to pick a black pebble, and Doctor Barret puts pressure on him to think better.

While that's going on, Luke is walking up to the group and is spotted by the local doctor who recognizes him as "Luke!" His admiration is explained by the fact that Luke Barret is one of the names inscribed in the tombstone. At the last second, 'Luke' pushes Victor out of the way and goes after Charlie on the hill, eventually killing him. Luke closes the killer's eyes, and is arrested by the Sheriff and two deputies.

Luke is remembering a few things in flashes: a wife who was pregnant as he went off to war. She was murdered by Yankee soldiers, as was his father. Their mother has sank into dementia.

Victor is unhappy with his cowboys; then he tells McCullom that the voting had only been postponed. The rancher tells him that he is decided to sell his lands to the bank. McCullom refuses further help from Victor in providing workers from Mexico, because Victor's price had been half of McCullom's lands already.

In jail, the Doctor tries to get information from Luke, but Luke's memory is gone. The doctor tells him that his brother's name is Victor Barret.Victor is informed by the doctor that the man in prison is doubtless his brother Luke, and Victor asks the Sheriff to free him. The Sheriff is not happy with Victor, as he suspects that Victor's henchmen had killed the deputies escorting the cart with the imported Mexican workers. Victor refuses any link with those murders, and the Sheriff let's Luke go.

From the Southern Bank's upper floor window, Murphy the banker (Wolf in the Spanish version) and his secretary Rover, see Victor hugs his brother in the street. One blames the other for the idea that Luke could shoot his brother Victor. Victor does not seem surprised to see MacCullom's cart arriving at the main street with the man obviously wounded, and he takes his brother into the saloon.

Banker Wolf accuses Barret of having killed MacCullom as he was heading to the bank to sign the contract, selling his lands. The Sheriff replies that there is no proof of that. Wolf goes to the saloon, and confronts Victor, telling out loud how his bank had been instrumental to the towns development; then, he accuses Victor of exerting pressure on the ranchers not to sell their lands to the bank, and recurring to murder. Victor slaps him hard, and he leaves.

The Saloon Madam introduces her girls to Barret's table, where Luke and the doctor are sitting: a redhead in a blue dress, a black hair girl in a yellow dress, and Susan in a light blue dress. Victor takes Susan by the arm, and goes up to a room with her. Luke is not in the mood for girls; he walks out, and opens the cameo she gave him. he looks at the pictures of himself and a girl that does look like Susan, and the inscription on the back of the cameo reads «May 24, 1860, Appaloosa Ranch».

He goes there alone, and he is recognized by the guard dog; then he is recognized by Mrs. Barret, even before he speaks, despite she is now a blind old woman with a walking cane. She takes him by the hand to see his father's tomb - marked with a small picture of the Doctor - and Susan, who had been pregnant when she died. Luke is also recognized by the black servant, Sam.

Victor arrives, looks surprised to find Luke there, and takes him for a ride. He tells him that once that ranch had been theirs, and puts the blame of their family's losses to the Civil War.

Meanwhile, MacCullom's Daughter sells her ranch to the bank and leaves for San Luis, to live with a relative of hers.

Victor takes Luke to his ranch, where he seems to be well liked by the Mexican workers he has imported, and his Mexican headman, Juan. Victor tells Luke that their father had taken the Secessionists' side, and been killed by Unionist soldiers, what caused their mother's madness.Luke surprises Victor - and the drunkard doctor - when he asks about his pregnant wife Susan. Victor says she too, had been shot by Unionist soldiers. Victor and Luke had been away with a guerrilla gang to fight the Norths army. Luke had later joined the Confederate army, and Victor had chosen to stay in the farm to defend it.

Russell interrupts to inform Victor that the orphan of MacCullom had sold her ranch to the bank that morning.

In the evening, Victor visits alone a tomb in the mountains, picks a rosary from the makeshift wooden cross marking the place, and puts it around his neck.

At the Golden Girls saloon, Luke asks for a whiskey, but the Sheriff calls him to his table, and Joe the Barman opts to drink the whiskey himself.The Sheriff prods Luke about the shooting of the man who had been there with Luke the night before. Then the sheriff asks about Donovan, a man who was supposed to have arrived with Luke. Luke does not give straight answers, and the Sheriff asks about Dingus, the name carved in the butt of Luke's rifle. Luke answers he doesn't know, and goes to his room upstairs. In bed, he is ready to answer an eventual attack, as he hears stealthy steps coming close to his room's door. [editing goof]

Meanwhile, Terry (Henry in the Spanish version), his wife and child - new colons - are visited and terrorized by Victor and his men - to force them out of the land.

Luke wanders through the mountains, followed from afar by a cowboy. Then he comes across Susan, who tells him she is the orphan of a Preacher and a woman named Atilia Sousa, and shows him the ravine where the local young men had died fighting the Northern soldiers. She confirms that Susan was pregnant of Luke, and was waiting desperately for his return. She tells him that Susan had died in her arms, and given her the cameo that she had left the night before in his room, telling her that it was Dingus who shot her. The girl does not know who Dingus was, or is. Yet, she knows that's how the Mexicans call bastard sons.

That leads Luke to a Mexican tavern, to inquire about Dingus. The barman takes him to a house in darkness, where Luke is attacked and beaten up by strangers. The Sheriff and his deputy found Luke in the street, and now they hand him, still passed out, to Victor and the doctor. Victor orders Peter, the chief henchman, to gather all the men. He must step back from an open confrontation with Murphy, as the banker has taken precautions, and now he has a number of gunmen backing him, as well as the Sheriff and the deputies.

Luke is getting fit again at Victor's ranch. He is curious about a gun with a modified, reinforced cannon. Victor explains how the gun operates, and says that their father died because he had not time to reload the powerful weapon. Luke asks a couple of questions, and the answers sound dubious to Luke, who just vows to find and kill the man who shot his father.

Luke returns to the Appaloosa Ranch, expecting to get some answers from Sam, the faithful servant of his parents. He is received by a stray of bullets from various windows and doors of the house. He cuts loose the dog, and it attacks one of the gunmen inside. Luke shoots down half a dozen men. The last man he kills is the one-eyed man who had beaten him up in the dark house, whom he recognizes because of the particular shape of his spores.

He finds Sam dying, who tells him just the killer's name: Dingus. His old mother died holding a little box with a family photo inside, which brings back a memory: a photographer had been called to take a photo of the Barret couple and their two sons, and then Luke with his newly wed wife Susan. His brother Victor is there, but he is not Dingus... Dingus had been invited, but did not attend, as he was with his dying Native American mother.

Luke, Victor and Susan pay Dingus a surprise visit just after his mother died. Therefore, Victor was not Dingus, and Dingus was either a family friend or a half-brother born out of wedlock. Luke and Victor join the Southern guerrillas, but not Dingus who had left home alone some days before. The guerrillas are ambushed by Unionist soldiers, led by Dingus. Victor is shot by Dingus, and dies in Luke's arms.

Luke remembers how he fled alone, and how Charlie recruited him, and also how his partner Donovan was shot by Peter when they were going after Dingus. Luke goes to Dingus' house, where he finds doctor Russel alone, dying, shot by Dingus and his men.

Luke takes his father modified gun to go after Dingus. When they come at hearing distance, Dingus calls Luke "my brother", and Luke calls Dingus "treacherous bastard". In the subsequent gun battle, Luke kills all the hired gunmen, but then he is wounded by Dingus. At last, Luke says they're not brothers, but only sons of the same father...

Dingus (literally a bastard) had been the fruit of a relationship of Mr. Barret and the daughter of an Indian chief; hence, after his mother's death, Dingus decided to kill all members of the Barret family, to take possession of their lands. At last, Luke kills Dingus with their father's modified gun - and Dingus dies on the barren land he considered sacred to his Indian ancestry.