Blood on the Arrow

In 1871 Arizona, after Geronimo's escape to Mexico and Apache return to the reservation, a tribe of Coyotero Apaches are defying orders to lay down their arms. They attack army patrols and settlements. Captured outlaw Wade Cooper is transported by an army patrol to the nearest fort when they are attacked by Apaches. All are killed, except Wade who is wounded. Making his way to a creek he's saved by Nancy Mailer who washed in the waters. She takes him to the nearby trading post which is run by her family. Clint Mailer is her husband and Tim is her son. The husband has a secret gold mine nearby and has extracted 20,000 dollars in gold nuggets already. The family hides Wade but an army patrol, en route towards the troublesome Apache, tells the Mailers to leave the unsafe area immediately. While they all pack to leave, Apaches attack the trading post and take all rifles they can find. When they want to kill the whites, Clint Mailer promises them many more rifles in exchange for their safety. The Apaches agree but they take the young Tim as hostage. The Apaches promise to return Tim in exchange for the promised rifles in ten days. After their departure, Wade Cooper offers to help the Mailers retrieve their son by stealing army rifles for the Apaches. In return, he wants the gold nuggets Clint has been stashing inside a wagon and under the floorboards inside the trading post. The Mailers reluctantly agree but Wade first needs to contact some of his old buddies to help him steal the army rifles. Wade's buddies eventually arrive at the trading post but the ensuing events prove that no one can be trusted. ...

Quite an enjoyable western with an interesting story, a plot that pulls you in and interesting characters, especially centering around Wendell Corey and his wife. Corey seems more interested in his gold than his wife and son, and predictably Hyer and Dale Robertson are going to fall in love with each other. It's a familiar story, well told, has some fine action sequences, great landscape, but what plays against it is its plodding pace.

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.

Outlaw Wade Cooper (Dale Robertson) is a prisoner of the US Cavalry. When the Apache attacks, he is the sole survivor. Nancy Mailer (Martha Hyer) rescues Wade and brings him back to the her miserly husband Clint's (Wendell Corey) trading post. When the Apaches raid the post, Clint propose to trade their lives for all the guns that the Apaches would need. The Apaches take their son for leverage.

There are outlaws, Indians, gunfights, Cavalry, and melodrama. This is quintessential Western B-movie. The characters are all iconic. There isn't much subtlety. Not all of it makes sense. It's questionable why the outlaws didn't just fight for the gold, but instead help to rescue the boy. I get Wade's motivation for the Mrs Mailer. The other outlaws make little sense.

"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-

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.