Run Home, Slow

Run Home, Slow is a 1965 American Western film starring Mercedes McCambridge, Linda Gaye Scott, and Gary Kent, directed by Ted Brenner and written by Don Cerveris.

Plot

After her father is murdered by hanging, Nell Hagen sets out with her brothers Ritt and Kirby and cousin Julie Ann to seek revenge.

Music

Cerveris had previously taught English at Antelope Valley High School in California, where Frank Zappa had been one of his pupils. After leaving the job to move to a career in screenwriting, he and Zappa had remained in touch, and in 1959 he persuaded Tim Sullivan, the producer of Run Home, Slow, to commission Zappa to compose and conduct the score for the film.
One of the themes Zappa composed, And Very True, became the basis for the track Duke of Prunes on the Mothers of Invention's 1967 album Absolutely Free. Studio performances of the film's main theme later featured in Zappa's posthumous compilation albums The Lost Episodes, as a stereo mix, and Mystery Disc, as a mono mix with an additional Zappa guitar solo. A live performance of the theme is included in You [Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5].