Apache War Smoke

Ernest Haycox wrote the story that became John Wayne's breakout western, "Stagecoach". Another one of Haycox's stories was filmed as "Apache War Smoke"...and the two films are very, very similar.

A group of travelers in the old west come to a stagecoach relay station. Once there, however, they cannot leave as the local Apache are in a rage...as apparently SOMEONE killed on of their people. Much of the film consists of the folks preparing for the worst...and the stage operator refuses to give in to the Apache demands.

This is an okay film...neither bad nor good. The acting is decent and it's always nice to see Gilbert Roland in a movie because his acting seems so natural and effortless. But the story, well it seems structurally too much like "Stagecoach" without the wonderful payoffs in the script.

An outlaw murders several Apaches and flees to a stagecoach way station with the tribe in hot pursuit. A stagecoach and its passengers have just pulled into the station, as has the stationmaster's father, a former bandit named Peso, and they all find themselves besieged by the Apaches, who want them to turn over the killer to them or they'll take the station and kill everybody. The problem is that the people in the station aren't sure just who among therm is the actual killer.

With a title like Apache War Smoke you would expect plenty of tense conflict between the Stagecoach inhabitants and the Apaches, however this MGM western is preoccupied with Gilbert Roland's desire to steal the gold shipment and the love triangle between two ladies and Robert Horton - it's a fairly routine affair and can be quite humdrum with plenty of talk. However, Gilbert Roland, Robert Horton, Glenda Farrell and the two beauties as well as the Apache attack 43 minutes into the film keep it at least a little watchable.

A Wells Fargo stage pulls into a way station just as they see Apache war smoke in the hills. It seems a robber and murderer named Pike (Myron Healey) has just killed some Apache braves and stolen some of the tribe's jewelry.

In the meantime Herrera (Robert Horton) the stationmaster has run into his father, the bandit named Peso (Gilbert Roland) who seeks to rob the Wells Fargo stage of all it's money. Herrera agrees to let Peso stay at the station if he agrees to give up his guns and stay out of trouble, which Peso reluctantly agrees to.

Next thing ya know, Pike hauls ass into the way station with the Apaches close behind and they lay the place under siege. They (the Apaches) know he was the one who did it, even though all the stage passengers think it's Peso who was behind the murders. They want to leave him outside the walls and take his own chances, but Herrera has the final say and he refuses to turn his father out.

So they all take a stand and fight, including a young, teenaged Bobby Blake as an Indian who helps Herrera out at the station. Funny, but Blake's voice sounds like it was dubbed or something because he don't sound at all like BARETTA. Not even close.

There are some half way decent battle scenes but in the end, Peso catches on to what's happened and turns Pike out at gunpoint to the Apaches while the others aren't looking. The indians get their man and leave the rest of them in peace.

It's a decent little MGM oater that doesn't dwell on for too long since it only has a 67 minute playing time. Short by 'A' western standards, it's still worth a look, imo.

6 out of 10

Most of the handful of review here compare "Apache War Smoke" to "Stagecoach", the Wayne/Ford classic, but I saw the latter around 40 years ago so cannot remember the fine details as much as other reviewers.

I just watched it, not expecting much and was very pleasantly surprised. The always charming and likeable Gilbert Roland is Peso, a drifter who likes money and the ladies. He kicks the movie off with his arrival at a station managed by his son, played by "Wagon Train" star, Robert Horton, with a view to helping himself to some loot. Apaches attack the station in revenge for someone in the station having killed some of their tribe. I didn't really know who that was until later in the film and I won't reveal it here, but suffice to say it leads to some pretty convincing action, with well staged fights. There is a very large army of Apaches on the warpath here, more than I would normally expect in a small B picture and it adds to the thrills. We do not see them close up so we don't have the embarrassment of seeing white actors playing Indians which was so prevalent in the 1950's so they look more authentic.

A really well acted little western with a great cast of supports. Glenda Farrell, famous for early gangster movies, Gene Lockhart, always a steadfast character, here the boss of the station master, the lovely Barbara Ruick, most famous for "Carousel" a few years after, the great character actor Harry Morgan who ended up in "MASH" and regular baddie, Myron Healy, who seemed to be in every western made at that time.

Don't take it too seriously and you may enjoy it as much as I did.

In its black-and-white photography, unimaginative wardrobe, and perfunctory sets, it resembles one of the many Western series that were to dominate the television screen for the next twenty years. The performances and direction follow suit.

The always reliable Gilbert Roland -- reliable if you don't ask too much of him -- is Peso Herrera, a likable and roguish thief who rides into the adobe compound and says the Apache are after him. Soon they will send the war signals and will slaughter everyone in the camp, including the two lovely ladies, one earnest and pretty brunette with the pointiest breasts on any 1950s movie screen, and the other a teen-aged blond flirt.

Roland offers his son, Robert Horton, who is the sheriff, a deal. If Horton and the other men of the compound hand over the chest full of payroll money from Wells Fargo, he, Roland, will ride off hurriedly with it and the Apaches will follow him and not attack the fort. The Apaches will follow Roland because they will be able to recognize him at a distance. They should. He's in an obscene black Mexican outfit studded with silver studs and medallions, jacket, trousers, and boots alike, a kind of twisted Cisco Kid ensemble that can easily be recognized from a distance. It could probably be recognized from the moon.

Father and son have a slight disagreement over the ethical issues involved in the deal. Both are packing two guns. They have a stand off and finally draw. Horton manages to shoot the guns out of both of Roland's hands without drawing any blood. Not even a wince of pain.

But why go on? Robert Horton can't act and he looks like a cross between Dan Duryea and George Segal, and a heavy one to bear. Gilbert Roland is good at proud, smiling, sarcastic, self confidence but nobody bothered to rein him in and his snoot is constantly up in the air. "Aye, Chihuahua!", he exclaims at one point, and he is so right. The two babes are okay, but Barbara Ruick looks like she belongs in a Beach Blanket movie, mostly because of the way make up and wardrobe have groomed her. I believe I saw her perform in "Boyfriend" on a Los Angeles stage years later. Patricia Tiernan is the attractive and classy brunette whose bosom precedes her by a quarter of a mile.

Do yourself a favor and skip it unless you've prepared yourself chemically for the experience.