`The Desperate Trail;: Elliott Enjoyed The Ride

----------------------------------------------------------------- "The Desperate Trail" 5, 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday, TNT. -----------------------------------------------------------------

It's hardly a secret that Western movies aren't made as frequently as they once were . . . but when they are, Sam Elliott clearly is a man for the job.

The lanky, deep-voiced actor has exuded Western tradition since the first film for which he received billing in the credits, the 1969 classic "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." One of his most notable recent works was as star, producer and co-writer of TNT's version of the Louis L'Amour story "Conagher," and Elliott returns to the genre - and also to that cable outlet - Sunday in "The Desperate Trail," which had an advance release on home video last fall.

The plot incorporates a number of familiar aspects, but also yields some twists, as it weaves the saga of a near-obsessively dedicated marshal (Elliott) relentlessly pursuing the murderer (Linda Fiorentino, the recipient of rave reviews for last year's "The Last Seduction") who escaped from him after the ambush of the stagecoach they were aboard.

Teaming up

She finds an ally in another passenger (Craig Sheffer, of "A River Runs Through It") who has taken the coach's strongbox, and they hide out at the farm of his brother (Frank Whaley). However, the lawman is determined to retrieve his prisoner, especially since he has a very personal tie to the man she killed. Filmed in Santa Fe, N.M., the tale was directed and co-written by newcomer P.J. Pesce, who learned his craft from such established talents as Martin Scorsese and Brian De Palma.

Citing "The Desperate Trail" as "the first thing I ever did that went directly to video," Elliott says Ted Turner's organization became involved in the project after it already had gone into production. "They bought into it when we were about a week in," he recalls.

"The reason I did this was that I really liked the script, and I liked this director. He really sold me on it. I had just come off `Tombstone' (in which Elliott played one of the Earp brothers) when we did this, so it was like the other side of the coin. `Tombstone' was a big project with a lot of stars and a lot of money behind it, and here came this little thing, but I thought (Pesce) was an interesting director and that he'd written a great script. I thought, `Let's take a shot at it.' "

Though "The Desperate Trail" contains many Western signposts that pay tribute to such filmmakers as Sergio Leone ("A Fistful of Dollars") and Sam Peckinpah ("The Wild Bunch"), it adds plenty of cerebral "action" to the more physical showdowns.

Elliott says, "I've always felt that if you try to get too psychological with a Western, you're going to ruin it, because it's pretty much a straightforward kind of entertainment." However, Fiorentino's crafty character creates questions about her psyche that aren't that far removed from those generated by her "Last Seduction" role, and that's apparently not by coincidence.

Checking out Fiorentino

"She'd done that before this picture," Elliott adds, "and I know that (Pesce) had either seen the finished product or looked at a lot of scenes from that film, because they were talking about it while we were making this."

With such exceptions as 1975's "Lifeguard," which has become a cable staple on both TNT and another Turner-owned channel, WTBS, whenever Elliott isn't doing a literal Western, he seems to be working on adventure fare of some sort ("Rush," "Road House," etc.), and he's just finished a bomb-squad story called "The Final Cut."

He calls that tale "interesting, especially since it was born long before the Oklahoma City thing happened." However, the actor also earned highly positive reviews for his portrayal of a veteran forest ranger in the recent ABC movie "The Ranger, the Cook and a Hole in the Sky."

Elliott says, "You hope something like that is going to get good notices, because it was a great piece of material, but I don't know. I've been involved in other things that I've considered good work and somehow, they've escaped the reviewers."

Still, Elliott particularly enjoyed "Ranger" for the work he did with Jerry O'Connell, whose "Sliders" series has been picked up for mid-season by Fox. "For starters, he's a real handsome kid," says Elliott, "over 6 feet tall. He's not only a great actor, he's really a decent human being, and that comes from being from a good family."

Seeking another project

Since Turner Entertainment bankrolled "Conagher" - as well as "Gettysburg," in which Elliott also appeared - he has been hoping to generate another project from scratch with that firm.

"We got real close on one this year that we almost did," he says, "a story about Black Jack Pershing and his war with Pancho Villa during the war on the border, just before the big war overseas."