Conquest of Cochise

I saw this movie when it was new, back in 1953, and the only thing I remembered about it was the final reel in which Cochise (John Hodiak) is sentenced to suffer three tortures: (1) scalded by hot steam, (2) sliced with knife blades, and (3) burned by fire. Many years later I saw the movie again and, what do you know?, the only thing worth remembering about it is that final reel. Robert Stack makes a serviceable, though undistinguished, hero, and the color photography has that "brightness" so common in early 1950's movies.

Agreeable but underrated B-movie about the famous Indian leader , being set on spectacular landscapes and attempts to adhere to historical facts concerning his life . History comes alive in color by Technicolor with passable actors and adequate action . 1853 an Army Major named Tom Burke (Robert Stack , future Elliot Ness in The untouchables) along with Capt. Bill Lawson (John Crawford) have been sent to Tucson to agree peace with the Indians. He is successful with Cochise (John Hodiak : Lifeboat , Battleground) , the Apache leader, but Cochise is unable to get the Comanches to make peace treaty . The Apaches then turn back a raid by the Comanches and white men rode into the hills to turn back the Apache tide . The cavalry officer tries to keep a lid on a volatile situation when Indian leader Cochise is being prodded into starting a warn . There is a man in Tucson that wishes the Indian war against the cavalry to go on and when a stray Army rifle is discovered and it murders Cochise's spouse, it appears the Apaches will break the peace treaty . Later on , the daughter (Joy Page who worked in Casablanca) of a Mexican wealthy owner is kidnapped by Indians and Cochise fall in love with her .

There are wonderful outdoors shot on spectacular territory and it displays action , shootouts, violence and though sometimes is slow-moving , isn't tiring neither dreary , sustaining the interest for quite a while . The movie also portrays the sensitive side of the Native American character though is dramatically slack and some moments there's nothing left to maintain viewer involvement . The film states that there were thousands Apache warriors at war in Arizona, when in fact was in the entire state and never more than several hundred fighting the white settlers and the US Army at any one time . This Indian-on-the-warpath tale is based on historical character and real events : Cochise and and the Gadsden Purchase 1853 that just brought part of Mexico into the United States . The motion picture didn't obtain success and resulted to be mediocre at box office , in spite of the appropriate sets , glimmer cinematography in Technicolor by Freulich and atmospheric musical score ; being filmed on location in Santa Clarita, Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park California, USA .

This low-budgeted motion picture was professionally directed by William Castle . He was an expert craftsman with some of the all-time great schlock names serving as the producer Sam Katzman and fondness for gimmicks as proved in his successful terror films such as House of haunted hill , The Tingler , Mr Sardonicus , Strait-jacked , Homicidal , Macabre and 13 Ghosts . Castle emulated Alfred Hitchcock , this included the practice of appearing in the trailers, and even making cameo appearances in his films . Furthermore , he made several Western such as 1955 Duel on the Mississippi , 1955 The Gun That Won the West ,1955 El Americano , 1954 Masterson of Kansas , 1954 The Law vs. Billy the Kid , 1954 Jesse James vs. the Daltons , 1954 Battle of Rogue River , 1953 Fort Ti , 1951 cave of outlaws. Rating : 5'5 . Acceptable and passable .

I remain staggered when contemplating the inconsistency of William Castle's direction. My being boggled is seemingly rooted in Castle's implementation of two stylistic systems - malformed 'Twins' as it were. The Arnie isn't present in this outing. The "Devito" system is in full force with passive direction that features a tableau frontality dominant in the staging/blocking and camera positioning that succumbs to the idea that action should pass through it or track it in the most linear fashion. Like some of the Boston Blackie films, groups of characters are staged symmetrically creating an evenness like a Moe Howard bowl cut. Hackneyed quips and stilted performances abound. I believe the AFI archival notes on the film remark that the uniforms didn't fit historically. The stereotyping throughout Conquest of Cochise would fit adequately if you upped the action sequences in quantity and quality. The stereotyping could thus be rendered parodical cartoon or comic-strip homage, and vice-versa. The authorial voice of Castle is mute in this film and sequences are connected with sterile methodical execution. As such, the 4th Wall stands strong and the story is required to tell itself. The story itself is poor and the characterization does nothing to create spectator investment. Too much melodrama and not enough action renders a comic strip story into a tepid soap opera. Romantic subplots are developed as filler and not as focused torrid affairs. The talkiness is so overt that I have to wonder whether this churned out "B" historical Western was not produced solely to serve necking teens who needed a dark anonymous escape for a couple of hours. The ethnography of this film is bunk for a contemporary audience and perhaps outdated even at the time of its release. Were these Katzman-Castle history-drama productions simply gimmicks in service of a romantic subculture among audiences? I will admit that it would be easy to pay full attention to my lover's lips and blouse buttons with Conquest of Cochise playing - there would be no chance of a distraction.

Sam Katzman formerly of Monogram Studios probably could not believe the budget he had with Columbia Pictures for Conquest Of Cochise. Color and location shooting. I can hear him saying I know I'm not at Monogram any more.

This story about Cochise takes place as the USA has formally taken over the Gadsden Purchase in 1853, the last bit of continental USA that we acquired. The Mexicans sold it to us for a tidy sum, it was mostly desert and its largest city was a desert settlement that was called Tucson. But it did sit across a possible southern continental railway route and we bought it for that purpose.

Now to enforce some law there because Cochise and his Chiracahua Apaches rule most of that bit of turf with Comanches occasionally raiding in there as well. That's what Major Robert Stack of the US Cavalry is sent there to do, make a treaty. Of course there are forces who don't want a treaty made.

Nevertheless Stack goes to negotiate with Cochise who is played most impressively by John Hodiak.

Broken Arrow which is set post Civil War has a lot of similarities and an actor who got great acclaim for playing Cochise. Jeff Chandler got an Oscar nomination for his performance. Broken Arrow got a far bigger budget than Conquest Of Cochise. Still what Hodiak did should have gotten more acclaim.

Conquest Of Cochise was not a bad film and for a Sam Katzman production its positively Cleopatra like.

This is an interesting film of the Indians with John Hodiak as the legendary chief of the apaches Cochise, who finds himself in a quandary, whether to make war with the white Americans or with his brothers the comanches. He chooses what he thinks is the lesser evil and gets trouble with the comanches. The diplomatic efforts to make peace between Robert Stack as the white major and Cochise encounter difficulties and lead inevitably to a violent serttlement with the comanches. John Hodiak was always interesting as a character on film, always playing personalities with great integrity, and here he is perfect as Cochise, an apache chief of superior self control. He never shows his feelings, but the audience must understand them all too well. The film is directed by William Castle, who made all the Crime Doctor films, and this is made with equal efficiency with no waste on nonsense. The film is mainly worth watching because of the insight into the apache way of life that it offers, and of course there is a lady involved (Joy Page) who also knows her own mind: she actually kills an Indian here in a raid. The colours are brilliant, they always are in films of Arizona, and that is an extra credit to the film to make it more than worth while. It is one of the first major westerns that take sides with the Indians or at least shows a deeper understanding and interest in them, which makes it important in the line of westerns. Robert Stack as the major is more standard military officer routine soldier, while it is the actions of Cochise that keep you engaged.