Apache Territory

Rory Calhoun never really made it to "A" star status as a movie actor,but the roles he played in 'B' movies such as Apache Territory suited him well.A handsome and capable actor he made it bearable to watch movies such as this especially when you needed to while away a couple of hours and forget the troubles of the world.This is your basic story of a group of people in the desert surrounded by a horde of Apache indians intent on doing them harm. John Dehner and Leo Gordon -two extremely competent character actors- add to the allure of Apache Territory. The only failure I found was the addition of two goodlooking females to add romantic interest,when the filmmakers could have concentrated more on the interaction between the attacking Indians and the U.S. calvary. The movie tends to drag in the middle stages,due I think to the female cast members ,but finally builds to an entertaining climax. Overall a nice movie to watch when its raining outside and you don't want to mow the lawn.

It could have been from a director as Lesley Selander, who was, as Ray Nazzaro, a prolific western maker, and who also provided solid grade B - A westerns. This one is made by a professional, where action scenes and character despiction are solid but bring nothing new, nothing exceptional. It is taut but not gritty. But it is more than worth watching, Rory Calhoun produced it, as some other ones and the result is at the level of what any western buff can expect. Don't forget that's only a B picture, lacking a bit ambition in story telling; it's not TERROR IN A TEXAS TOWN nor NO NAME ON THE BULLET.

A great western actioner featuring cowards, heroes, damsels in distress and Native Americans.

A fast paced movie that uses its time well. All the action is used to build drama and tension into the story, The short running time is also an asset here as each frame and moment in the film have a sense of urgency. This is one of Calhoun's better efforts.

The sped up horse chase scenes are great fun along with 'We are running out of water'...'I made you a coffee'.

Load up your six guns and get ready to shoot!

Since he co-produced this movie for his own company (from Louis L'Amour's 1957 novel 'Last Stand at Papagos Wells') Rory Calhoun gets to enjoy himself enormously as the rock upon whom all the other characters depend in this strongly-cast reprise of the basic situation of 'The Lost Patrol'.

Obviously shot mainly on one set, which makes it resemble an episode of 'Star Trek', but also gives it a certain claustrophobic tension; it has two interesting and highly contrasting female characters, the handsome and seemingly capable Barbara Bates (whose last film this was), and fragile Carolyn Craig, both of them played by actresses who later committed suicide.

Sometimes tense B-western stars brawny silent-type Rory Calhoun as a drifter who holds up with an assortment of characters (most reluctant to heed his sage advice) at a waterhole after Apache raids kill a number of their companions. After first rescuing an orphaned young woman (Craig) and wounded young pioneer (Pittman), he's joined by old flame (Bates) and her cowardly fiancé (Dehner), a quartet of Confederate soldiers and a wily gold-prospecting Indian (DeKova) a tribal enemy of the Apaches. As food and water become scarce, tensions within the group cause hysteria and various characters lose their cool leading to fatally poor decisions as cabin fever spreads.

Calhoun gets good support from Bates as his scorned former lover, while Myron Healey has a reasonable role as an initially resilient Confederate, who succumbs to panic at the thought of never seeing his family again. Leo Gordon is imposing as the principal agitator among the group, spurred on by greed and selfish motivations to survive at any expense.

It's economical and typical of Columbia Pictures westerns at the time, with director Nazarro keeping the melodrama to a minimum and the tension palpable. Apache sympathisers might be offended, with the tribe depicted simply as marauding scalpers, while Craig's nubile wife-to-be would surely irk the feminists as she fusses over domestic duties trying to impress Pittman and clumsily convince him to take her as his wife and mother to his future progeny. But despite the chauvinism, I still found the movie a reasonably taut, formula western worthy of a 70 minute pause while channel surfing.