The storyline of A Covenant With Death (1967), based on a novel by Stephen Becker and set in a sleepy 1923 southwestern town, poses an intriguing question. If an innocent man -- wrongly accused, found guilty, and sentenced to hang for his wife's murder -- escapes from the gallows and causes the death of the hangman in the process, only to then be absolved of his wife's killing by the confession of another man, how should he be punished for the death of the hangman?

The answer comes in the climax to a film that actually centers more on the presiding judge in the case, a 29-year-old part-Mexican man (George Maharis). He engages in a clash of judicial philosophy with an older jurist (Arthur O'Connell), but all the while seems more interested in girls than the law; his mother (Katy Jurado) is pressuring him to marry a Mexican woman instead of the white woman he desires. Maharis must grow up fast, in all ways.

This picture, shot near Santa Fe, New Mexico, was made by Warner Brothers under Jack Warner's new "William Conrad production unit." Conrad was a former actor (memorable as one of the heavies in the opening of The Killers [1946]), who seven years earlier had moved into producing television, and now had a deal to produce features. In later years, he would return to acting full-time.

Director Lamont Johnson had also started as an actor, in 1951, and began directing for television in 1957. This was his first feature film. He would continue to work in both mediums more or less equally, racking up eleven Emmy nominations and winning the award twice. His best-known works are probably A Gunfight (1971), The Last American Hero (1973), and the TV movie The Execution of Private Slovik (1974).

The cast is an appealing blend of veterans (O'Connell, Jurado, Kent Smith, Sidney Blackmer, Whit Bissell,) and younger actors (Maharis, Holliman, Gene Hackman, Wende Wagner). Jurado drew fine notices for her warm and wonderful turn as the cigar-smoking mother, or as The Hollywood Reporter called it, "Miss Jurado's first role as an older woman."

Maharis had achieved fame for his role as Buz Murdock in 82 episodes of the hit TV series Route 66, beginning in 1960, and he also found success as a singer, recording six albums. At the height of his TV stardom, he left Route 66 to pursue feature films, but most of his movies were critical and commercial duds.

Earl Holliman, meanwhile, had appeared almost fifty times in movies and on television since 1953, but his most memorable role would come later in the 1970s, on the hit show Police Woman.

Gene Hackman had been working primarily in television since 1961, and this was one of his earliest features. He later told biographer Michael Munn, "I can't say I was any good in those films because I hadn't learned how to do movie acting. My main function in A Covenant With Death was to find a suicide note from the real murderer, so that didn't take much emoting." Still, his performance impressed producer William Conrad enough that he cast him in his next film, First to Fight (1967).

25-year-old beauty Wende Wagner, playing the Mexican girl in this movie, was actually of French, German, and American Indian descent. She had a decade-long career and married James Mitchum (son of Robert) soon after filming.

Critics generally agreed that the premise of A Covenant With Death was provocative and the movie at times riveting, but overall it meandered too much. "A genuinely original idea for a drama weighing justice, prejudice and the human conscience is studiously frittered away," declared The New York Times. "Three performances stick: Katy Jurado, Emilio Fernandez, and Wende Wagner, as Mexicans. But a fine idea, instead of tightening into a hangman's knot, slackens."

The production values were superb, however, as trade paper Variety noted: "Johnson's visual style is good, and at home in a large-screen environment. Robert Burks and his Technicolor camera provide mobility. A substantial, and rewarding, assist is the full-bodied score by Leonard Rosenman: it is a refreshing and welcome change of pace from contemporary scoring which often is little more than isolated riff gimmickry."

A Covenant With Death was released in major cities as part of a double feature with a re-release of Battle of the Bulge (1965). In Britain, the film was cut by 25 minutes to make it a true B feature.

By Jeremy Arnold