THE BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ

Texas 1901

Robert M. Young's film is based on a
popular ballad, commemorating the true
story of a Mexican who outsmarted the
Texas Rangers.

In a gunfight caused by a misunderstanding, the young Mexican cowhand, Gregorio Cortez, shoots and
kills a sheriff. Claiming to have acted in
self-defence, he then flees towards the
Mexican border. Covering enormous
tracts on foot and horseback, he manages to escape hundreds of Texas Rangers who set out to capture him.

Legends begin to spring up about
him, but in the very last moment, the Rio
Grande already in sight, Cortez is betrayed by a sheepherder for the offered reward of a thousand dollars. In the following trial he is sentenced to a fifty year prison term.