Blood on the Arrow

The film started off badly for Wade Cooper: a handcuffed prisoner of the US Cavalry, ambushed by Native Americans, wounded in the shoulder by an arrow, staggering through the wilderness . Then he sees Martha Hyer bathing nude in the river ... She takes him back to her husband's trading post and nurses him so well that within a day or two he's able to defeat in hand-to-hand combat a brave who assaults her.

Suspiciously well-graded roads also serve to diminish the film's worth.

Often I feel that monetary values in these old Westerns reflect the era when the film was made, rather than the one that it features. At one point a bad guys reflects that his share of the loot - $4,000 - isn't that much, but in 18971 it would have been very useful indeed - worth some $88,000 in 2021 values.

A predictable ending.

Blood on the Arrow is a rather confused western that stars Dale Robertson, Martha Hyer and Wendell Corey. It's got everything in it, cavalry, outlaws, Indians and a damsel in distress. Lest no one be confused the damsel is Martha Hyer.

Martha finds a wounded Dale Robertson, an outlaw separated from his men, and brings him back to the trading post where she endures a loveless marriage with Wendell Corey. But before the film is over they will have to put up with Apaches jumping the reservation and Robertson's men, none of whom are as scrupulous as he.

For an outlaw Dale's a little too good to be true. When the Indians kidnap young Dandy Curran, Hyer's son, Robertson gets his men involved in a scheme to rescue the lad that involves stealing army rifles and arming the Apaches. A big old no-no in any Hollywood western.

Personally while I think Martha's beautiful, one of the most beautiful women ever in films, I just can't swallow Dale risking all for her. If I was him, I'd have kept on riding.

The cast performs well, certainly Robertson is no stranger to the Hollywood west. But the film's just a tad bit too unreal for my taste.

Nice-looking but run-of-the-mill Western, including a few novelties, but also with regular elements, such as frantic action, thrills , shootouts , cavalry charges, drama , romance and some breathtaking action scenes. Dealing with prisoner of a U. S. Cavalry patrol, outlaw Wade Cooper (Dale Robertson) is detained and moved to a fort by US Cavalry. After surviving an Indian attack, he is the only survivor and is seriously injured. Nancy Mailer (Martha Hyer) rescues Wade and brings him to her husband Clint's (Wendell Corey) trading post, where she nurses the outlaw back to health over the objections of her husband, a cowardly miser, but then they're ambushed by the violent Indians. The Apaches raid the 'Mailers Trading Post', abducting the Mailers' son (Dandy Curran) and demanding rifles in exchange for his release. The fugitive outlaw helps the family recover their kidnapped son from the Apaches. Clint Mailer obtains the aid of a desperado band (Elisha Cook Jr, John Matthews, Tom Reese) led by Jud (Ted de Corsia) to steal the rifles from an Army post, but they are pursued by soldiers. Along the way, Cooper and Nancy have fallen in love. Meantime, Wade attempts to rescue the boy by leading the Indians into a booby trap in Clint's gold mine. Their Justice Was The Arrow!

Typical and routine Western with the usual incidents, emotions, Indian attacks, assaults and cavalry charges. It is a regular Western whose plot we have seen hundreds of times, dealing with a family that is besieged by the Indians and at the same time by a group of evil bandits and of course an ambiguous hero who saves them in order to stay with the lady in distress.

This movie has a passable combination of decent performances, stirring drama and attractive outdoors. The agreeable script drives mercilessly forward with emotion, a love triangle among husband, wife and outlaw, cavalry charges, overwhelming attacks and turns. Director Sidney Salkow aims for noisy action and thrills with a contemporary treatment about an outlaw who gets redemption by becoming a savior of a kidnapped son. Along with a love triangle in which implicates the three main roles: Dale Robertson, Martha Hyer, Wendell Corey. The plot is plain and simple, a blending of tarnished main actors with support character players of whom Dale Robertson holds the best role as a reckless outlaw. A warm and sometimes slow-moving storyline, makes an acceptable movie, a real time-passer in B-style . The hothouse story drives mercilessly forward with rapid action, breathtaking shooting, thrills, overwhelming attacks, and plot twists. The yarn is wonderfully located against a spectacular background from Magma Arizona Railroad, Superior, Sonoran Desert, Superstition Mountains, Arizona, Apache Leap Mountain, Superior, Picketpost Mountain, Superior, Arizona, Ray, Cochran, Arizona and Apache Trail, Arizona. However, the photography of the spectacular exteriors cannot be well appreciated due to the poor, dilapidated and faded copy of the film that is circulating. Only when a perfect remastering is done will the marvellous landscapes to be really enjoyed.

It isn't hard to pick holes in it, it is after all one of those quintessentially early 1960s Westerns in which was ignorant to intelligent scripting and screenplays. Stars Dale Robertson and Marta Hyer who give decent interpretations, but their golden days had already passed a few years before. Here the secondary cast stands out, which for a B series film is quite good with full of familiar faces, such as: Wendell Corey, Paul Mantee, Ted de Corsia, Tom Reese and the eternal supporting actor Elisha Cook Jr. Also the exciting and moving musical score by Richard LaSalle is quite good. The motion picture was unevenly and professionally directed by Sidney Salkow. He was a craftsman who had already filmed other Westerns . He realized all kind of genres such as routine westerns (Sitting Bull , The great Sioux massacre , Pathfinder) , Adventures (Prince of Pirates, Sword of the avenger), war films , Sci-Fi (The last man on Earth) , Terror (Twice-told tales) and melodramas (City without men). Salkow first worked for Republic, after joining Universal. At Columbia , he handled , among other assignments, four installments of the popular Lone Wolf series . After 1953, Salkow was primarily active as director of episodic television . Rating : 5.5/10 middling, a frankly average Western.

"Blood on the Arrow" (1964) is a "B" Western, which mixes together several staples of the genre: Calvary, outlaws, saguaro cacti, Indians, gunfights, a trading post, a hottie, a mine and gold. It rips-off blatant elements of "Shane" and transplants them to the Arizona desert, but gets away with it because there are enough differences. It's just severely mediocre by comparison, although Dale Robertson is stalwart as the hopefully redeemable outlaw protagonist and Martha Hyer is a blonde beauty worth risking everything.

Regrettably, there are some "Why sure!" plot problems and what's up with the trap door that's anything but hidden? Also, you'll clearly see power/telephone lines on 3-4 occasions. I'm assuming that the producers felt they'd pass for telegraph lines, which WERE present in 1871 when the story takes place. I'll accept that argument, I guess.

GRADE: C/C-

I don't understand why such a good western is so rare, hard to find. There is not many surprises, but a quite exciting pace and action scenes. The Indians are here not the only villains and Dale Robertson the good hero; I know, that may sound cheesy, predictable, and it partly is too...This is not ULZANA'S RAID, but really worth purchasing. Sidney Salkow was really a good adventure, western director, but not noir though, except CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL...Such a shame. Here, the performances are quite convincing, even Dale Robertson, who seems better than usual. Wendell Corey too, in a supporting role and not a good guy one. Good directing.