The Outrage 1964

Three disparate travelers—a disillusioned preacher William Shatner, an unsuccessful prospector Howard Da Silva, and a larcenous, cynical con man Edward G. Robinson—meet at a decrepit railroad station in the 1870s Southwest United States.

The prospector and the preacher were witnesses at the rape and murder trial of the notorious bandit Juan Carrasco, Paul Newman. Carrasco had duped Colonel Wakefield, an aristocratic Southerner, into believing that he knew the location of a lost Aztec treasure. While the greedy Wakefield was bound to a tree and gagged, Carrasco assaulted his wife Nina, Claire Bloom. These events led to the stabbing of the husband, and Carrasco was subsequently tried, convicted and condemned for the crimes.

In court, accounts from each witness diverge dramatically. Carrasco claims that Wakefield was bound with ropes while Nina was assaulted, after which he killed the colonel in a duel. The newlywed Nina contends that she killed her husband because he accused her of luring Carrasco and causing the rape. The dead man’s testimony is presented through a third witness, an old Indian shaman, Paul Fix, who says that neither of those accounts is true. The shaman insists that the colonel used a jeweled dagger to commit suicide after the incident.

There is a fourth witness, the Prospector, Howard Da Silva, who offers a completely different perspective on what took place, yet the reliability of that account remains just as uncertain as the others. The result is a tense, multifaceted portrait of blame, motive, and truth, where every version of events carries its own weight and none are fully conclusive.