Wagon Train (TV Series)

The Allison Justis Story (1960)

Robert Horton: Flint McCullough

Photos 

Quotes 

• Major Seth Adams : What's the matter, Flint?

  [He takes the billfold from the younger man] 

  Major Seth Adams : Lou Justis. That name mean anything to you?

  Flint McCullough : The girl I was going to visit.

  Major Seth Adams : What?

  Flint McCullough : [Flint swallows, his mouth dry, his face in anguish]  I've just killed her husband.

• Flint McCullough : Allie... You start running now. I'll count to ten and I'll still beat you to that rock.

  Allison Justis : The rock? At the corner of the schoolhouse.

  Flint McCullough : And I'll carry your books to boot.

• Sheriff Fred Miller : 'Cause you wouldn't have brought him in if you'd shot him. Where'd you find him?

  Flint McCullough : Not far from the train. I was coming into town to visit an old friend of mine.

  Sheriff Fred Miller : You know somebody here?

  Flint McCullough : Yeah, I grew up with the dead man's wife.

  Sheriff Fred Miller : Well, now. Don't that beat all. Old friend of Allie's, huh? Riding the wagon train all the way from the East, run smack into a dead husband on the trail. Kinda funny how things happen sometimes, isn't it.

  Flint McCullough : Yeah, it sure is.

  Sheriff Fred Miller : I don't suppose you'd like to be the one to tell Allie what happened?

  Flint McCullough : No, I wouldn't like to but someone's got to tell her.

• Allison Justis : Now, how about some hot bread and strawberry jam? How does that sound?

  Flint McCullough : Hot bread and strawberry jam. Well, if it's as good as your mother used to make, it sounds fine. Just lead the way.

• Allison Justis : How could I possibly not recognise you, the red hair and those freckles. You haven't changed a bit.

  Flint McCullough : You have. I didn't think a young colt could grow up and fill out to be such a pretty woman.

  Allison Justis : I was right, you haven't changed a bit.

• Major Seth Adams : [He walks through the campsite with Hawks and Charlie following]  I don't give a goldarn - if you two would just listen to what I tell ya, and do it. Then we wouldn't have any goldarn -

  [He catches sight of Flint adjusting straps on Stormy Night and eyes the well-turned out Flint] 

  Major Seth Adams : Well, I'll be. Huh. Say it looks like our handsome dashing scout here is gonna pay a visit to the young ladies of Boone Center.

  Flint McCullough : I hate to damage my reputation with you, Major, but I'm paying this visit because her parents asked me to.

  Charlie Wooster : Now what kind of parents would do a thing like that to a young innocent girl?

  Major Seth Adams : [Flint pretends to prepare to take a playful swing at Charlie, they're all smiling]  What kind of folks has she got anyway?

  Flint McCullough : Well, I've known her since I was a kid. She got married about the day she got out of high school. Besides our relationship is more like brother and sister anyway.

  Major Seth Adams : Oooh.

  [Then a man appears in the shadows of the wagons calling: Horse thief. Horse thief] 

• Bert Justis : Where're you staying tonight?

  Flint McCullough : At Allie's.

  Bert Justis : Allie's? You think that's a good idea. I mean, folks talk in a small town.

  Flint McCullough : Well, with my horse here, they won't know where I am.

  Bert Justis : How long you'll be staying?

  Flint McCullough : Just as long as she needs me.

• Sheriff Fred Miller : Reminds me of a story I heard once about a fella called the Headless Horseman. Folks all swore he was riding around the countryside at night carrying his head under his arm. But he wasn't. It was just a pumpkin.

  Flint McCullough : You think there's a pumpkin in this?

  Sheriff Fred Miller : Somehow. I guess more than one man's been convicted for what it looked like he was doing.

• Billy Justis : I'm gonna kill the man that shot my Dad.

  Allison Justis : Billy-

  [She runs off, upset] 

  Flint McCullough : It's a fine looking rifle, Billy. You ever use it before?

  Billy Justis : Lots of times. Dad taught me. We used to go hunting and- I'm gonna use it on the man that shot Dad.

  Flint McCullough : That's not an easy job for a grown up man, let alone a little boy.

  Billy Justis : I'm big enough.

  Flint McCullough : Sure you're big enough to shoot the gun. You just did.

  Billy Justis : Give it to me.

  Flint McCullough : I'm not going to give it to you. This bullet went into the floor. What if it'd gone through the wall and into the kitchen and hit me or your mother? Ever think of that? If you had, you wouldn't be trying to pull it out of my hands. You'd want to throw it away as far as you possibly could. Believe me, you'd wish you'd never seen a gun in your life. Once a bullet is fired, Billy, you can't take it back, no matter how much you want to. No matter how much you wish you hadn't pulled the trigger. Once a bullet is fired, you can never bring it back.

  Billy Justis : I don't care what you say. I want the gun.

  Flint McCullough : Let me tell you about guns.

  [He draws his pistol] 

  Flint McCullough : You see this one? It's killed a lot of things, yet it's never broken the law. That's one of the terrible things about guns, about carrying one. You see a man go for his gun, you shoot him first because you figure he's going to kill you. In less than a second, a man can get the idea of drawing fire, one second. It's not very long to decide whether he's planning to wound you or threaten you, or kill you. So you kill him first. It's legal. It's honourable. But for the rest of your life, you wonder whether you've killed a man who didn't deserve to be killed.

• Flint McCullough : [Bending over a coffee in the darkness except for the light of the campfire]  I don't like lying, Major, it doesn't sit well with me.

  Major Seth Adams : It's not exactly lying. You're just not telling the whole story, that's all.

  Flint McCullough : Well, it's the same thing. And I don't know what to do about it.

  Major Seth Adams : Don't do anything about it. The minute you tell 'em that you shot Justis, you'll have to tell 'em why. How in the world can you tell this girl that the man that she loved enough to marry was nothing but a horse thief.

  Flint McCullough : Well, I wish I hadn't been so quick with the gun.

  Major Seth Adams : Well, I saw the man go for his gun.

  Flint McCullough : Yeah. It could've been a reflex.

  Major Seth Adams : Of course it was a reflex action. Anytime a horse thief gets himself caught, he's gonna try and shoot his way out. He's not gonna hang around and wait for a rope. So quit blaming yourself, will ya.

  Flint McCullough : 'Fraid I already have, Major.

  Major Seth Adams : Listen, you go back there and do what you can to straighten it out, will ya. You can catch up to us later. Let's turn in.

• Flint McCullough : Maybe, some day, it will be possible for a man to go out on the street without a gun and not feel naked. But that's up to young fellows like you, Billy, to have the courage to go out unarmed and prove to this country that a man's a man because of what's inside him and not because of what's slung across his hip. Leave guns alone, Billy, because if you start to use them, you'll never be able to stop.

• Flint McCullough : I don't know what else to say, Allie. Except that I'm sorry.

  Allison Justis : It isn't true. Lou never stole anything in his life. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

  Flint McCullough : I know this is hard for you to accept but there are all the witnesses that you'd care to talk to.

  Allison Justis : My husband is not a horse thief. I don't care what you saw. I don't care what any man, woman or child on that wagon train saw. He did not do such a thing.

  Flint McCullough : Don't you think I've asked myself over and over again, from every angle. Why should he steal when he had so much to lose and so little to gain. I admit it, it doesn't make much sense but don't ask me to deny what I saw.

  Allison Justis : You saw it wrong, Flint.

  Flint McCullough : I've told you the truth, Allie.

  Allison Justis : I don't believe it.

• Flint McCullough : If there was something I could do, I'd be glad to stay.

  Allison Justis : Every time I looked at you. I'd have to think... how useless it all was. Maybe later. Time will take care of things. Maybe in a few years.

  Flint McCullough : Yeah, in a few years... Allie, ah, if, in a few years, you decide maybe to forgive me, I'd appreciate it very much if you'd try to let me know.

• Sheriff Fred Miller : I knew if I let you birddog him long enough, he'd corner himself. I don't know how anyone could hate Lou that much. Not even him.

  Flint McCullough : He's done a pretty good job.

  Sheriff Fred Miller : I suppose the more you do for some folks, the more they hate you for it.

• Flint McCullough : [Facing the boy as Billy cocks the rifle]  Billy, there's only one thing worse than shooting a man down, that's to shoot him in the back.

• Flint McCullough : I'm planning to settle down here. Even get married.

  Bert Justis : Married?

  Flint McCullough : That's right. That's the intention.

• Major Seth Adams : Well, just what in tarnation do you think he was doing?

  Flint McCullough : I think he was running the horse to check its wind. I think he thought he was buying the horse.