Posse

Howard Nightingale is a marshal with his eye on a Senate seat, and he has learned that catching outlaws is good politics. With a photographer on hand to record his exploits, he sets out at the head of a handpicked posse to bring in Jack Strawhorn, a train robber whose reputation would make a fine trophy for a campaign. The pursuit succeeds, but Strawhorn is more resourceful than his captors expect, and the journey back becomes a contest of wits in which Nightingale's ambitions are put at risk. The town and the men riding with him prove less reliable than his plans assume.

Posse was directed by Kirk Douglas, his second film behind the camera after Scalawag in 1973, and he also produced it and plays Nightingale. Bruce Dern appears as Strawhorn, with Bo Hopkins, James Stacy, Luke Askew and David Canary among the credited cast of twenty-two. The screenplay is by William Roberts and Christopher Knopf, and the film runs 92 minutes.

Made in the United States for Paramount and Douglas's own Bryna Productions, the western was released in June 1975. Its reputation rests on a modest but enduring audience: on IMDb it holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 2,700 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6 out of 10 from a much smaller group of 82 ratings.