The Marauders

"Laws are usually enforced with guns, which I've got." Homesteader Corey Everett (Jeff Richards) is determined to keep his canyon-sheltered Arizona parcel - complete with its valuable well, the only source of water within 200 miles - in the face of ongoing attacks by a wealthy land baron's mercenary gang bent on driving him out. That's as long as he can convince the invaders he commands a small army, not merely the pioneer couple (Jarma Lewis and James Anderson) and their son (David Kasday) who unwittingly rode into the line of fire. Lean, mean and rife with equal measures of explosive gunplay and nerve-racking suspense, The Marauders also benefits from sunbaked, scenic location filming and the scene-stealing, rattlesnake-like villainy of Dan Duryea as a vainglorious soldier wannabe and Keenan Wynn as his reluctant, one-armed second-in-command.

• western