Copper Sky

From the beginning of the film, when Jeff Morrow arrives in a town where everyone is dead until the end, Copper Sky piques the interest more than a low-budget Western normally does.

There is an erotic tension between Coleen Gray's character and Jeff Morrow's which also is unusual in a film like this. At first Gray is prim and proper and later on becomes attracted to Morrow.

The killing of an Indian in the film is very different also. In most films, killing of Native Americans is treated very casually. Here, the murder is depicted realistically as Gray's character goes from initial empathy with the Indian to revulsion at the killing to understanding that it had to be done.

Unusual in all respects, the film is worth watching.

The first problem that Copper Sky has is that when you give a film a title of that with all the images of desert heat that the mind conjures up, color would have been essential. But this was a B western and the budget just didn't call for it.

That was a pity because this could have gotten a notch or two higher in the ratings from me. Pedestrian direction was also a problem. The obvious comparison to The African Queen has been made by many. Let's not forget that in addition to Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, The African Queen also had the services of John Huston.

Jeff Morrow plays a former cavalryman jailed for shooting an Apache because he was in the vicinity of the killing and scheduled to be hanged. But an interesting twist of fate as Morrow is locked in his cell passed out dead drunk, the entire town is massacred with him the only survivor. I'm still trying to figure out how he got out of the locked cell.

But he did whereupon he runs into new school teacher Coleen Gray, fresh from Boston and experiencing her first encounter with hostile Apaches. The two are forced together by circumstance to seek shelter and safety and to do it they have to cross the desert.

Like Hepburn and Bogey, Morrow and Gray are on screen together most of the film and they have the burden carrying it. A director like John Huston would have helped enormously.

Copper Sky is a decent enough programmer, but it had potential that was squandered.

Tenpercent's review pretty much nails my view of this stinker. Yep, a very, VERY badly-written "African Queen" rip-off.

Too bad, because there are actually a few tinkling of something really good beneath all the stink. Well, basically the tinklings are all due to Coleen Gray. Good Lord, is she beautiful, and a fine actress to boot. I had never heard of her before seeing this film, and am amazed that she wasn't more famous.

Jeff Morrow is so bad in this, I'm shocked to see he still had a career afterward.

But the real culprit is whatever drug-addict wrote the screenplay. Painful.

If you have never seen Coleen Gray, it is worth watching the first 20 minutes or so (until she lets her hair down and bathes in the river.) After that, it's simply torture.

i have not seen this film for over 40 years, at least. i loved it then and long to see if my memories of it have held up over the years. the main character was sleeping off a drunk in the jail house when the indians attack and left him the sole survivor. his journey has him meet the female lead, for a person of my age there was some "mushy stuff" but there was a few scenes that were erotic and may even hold up, today. if there is any way to see this film again, i am waiting to find out.

A Boston school marm out West meets the sole survivor of an Indian massacre, a drunk in jail. Alcoholic former cavalryman Hack Williams is arrested for killing an Indian, something he did not do. The townspeople, fearful of Apache reprisals, plan to hang Williams in hopes of heading off an attack. But the attack comes and Hack, locked in his jail cell, is the only survivor as a massacre occurs. Into the scene of carnage arrives schoolteacher Nora Haynes. Together she and Williams must find a way to reach safety before another Indian attack. But the pair are by no means well-matched, and their trip alone across the desert is not destined to be an easy one. This is a fine Western with a very fine cast.Try it. You'll like it!