Invitation to a Gunfighter

Invitation to a Gunfighter is a 1964 Western directed by Richard Wilson, starring Yul Brynner and George Segal. It was based on a 1957 teleplay by Larry Klien that appeared on Playhouse 90.

Confederate veteran Matt Weaver (George Segal) returns home to New Mexico after the Civil War and discovers his farm was sold by a banker named Brewster (Pat Hingle). His fiancee Ruth (Janice Rule) has married another man in his absence.

Ruth's husband and other Union sympathizers in town resent Weaver's allegiance to the Rebels during the war. His town turns against him, and soon Brewster hires a mulatto gunman named d'Estaing (Yul Brynner) to come to town and provoke Weaver into a fatal fight. However, the gunfighter becomes a malevolent and sinister force and so the town leaders are forced to turn to the Rebel whom they once wanted dead, to save them from the killer they hired.

The film recorded a loss of $900,000.