Yuma

Clint Walker would have been a great movie cowboy had he born twenty years earlier. As it was he made his mark on television playing that most stoic of western characters in the title role of Cheyenne. In this film Yuma he brings his Cheyenne Bodie persona to the role of Dave Harmon, US Marshal sent to cleanup the lawless town of Yuma.

No sooner does he arrive in town than he's forced to kill the hotheaded brother of cattle baron Morgan Woodward. He arrests another brother, but later two men break him out of prison and then shoot him in the back. Unfortunately for them there was a witness, a young Mexican kid played by Miguel Alejandro who Walker has taken in.

Woodward is not a man given to calm discourse and that's what the people who shot him are counting on, that he will rid them of their new Marshal so that a nice little racket they have will go on unmolested. But Walker's witness leads to a nicely paced unraveling of the whole affair and a surprise ending, kind of tacked on, but still interesting.

Such players as Kathryn Hays, Peter Mark Richman, John Kerr, Barry Sullivan and Edgar Buchanan round out a cast of professionals that are comfortable in a sagebrush setting. Director Ted Post best known for Clint Eastwood classics Magnum Force and Hang 'Em High directed many a television western and he knew what he wanted and got it out of his cast.

Fifteen or even ten years earlier Paramount would have released Yuma to the big screen as a second feature in a double bill. Yuma will satisfy any western fan's appetite.

This was an obvious series pilot TV movie that wasn't picked up, most likely due to the fact that there were already Western series on TV and this one did not stand out as particularly unique in comparison. Plus TV westerns were on the way down, being replaced by cops and robbers action series, and such. As a TV movie, this is slightly above average than most, and entirely enjoyable and fairly fast-paced, especially if you like Clint Walker. The other actors are more than adequate for their parts, nothing awe-inspiring, and that's how it's supposed to be in these projects. Nobody shows up the lead. There is little on screen violence, as should be expected for a TV movie from 1971, and the "Indians" are once again pretty stereotypical, and reduced to welfare status as they wait for their dole of cattle from the Army. This part was probably pretty true. One thing that's nice is to see Edgar Buchanan as a weasel get taken down, like I wished he had been on the series Petticoat Junction, where he also played a weasel.

A sheriff named Harmon(Clint Walker) goes into a small town to impose peace and order .The picture deals an intrigue concerning livestock smuggling.Harmon confronts against corrupt owners,Indians and gunfighters.At the ending contains a little action and plot twists.

This mediocre and old-style TV western produced by Aaron Spelling is redeemed by its great stars and supporting cast. Good casting formed by Clint Walker(Dirty dozen), Western usual(Bounty man,None but the brave,Pancho Villa,White Buffalo),Barry Sullivan as mean proprietary of Decker's freighter company, Kathryn Hays as hotel's receptionist, Peter Mark Richman as colonel of cavalry, John Kerr as a captain, and Edgar Buchanan as deputy,he's an eternal secondary of uncountable Western.The movie was a pilot episode but its little success caused cancellation of series. Passable and some dull direction by Ted Post. He's a Western expert, in fact his best movie is still a Western called ¨The legend of Tom Rooley¨. Besides, he has directed Clint Eastwood many times , starting working on Eastwood's television Western series, ¨Rawhide¨. When Eastwood returned to America after his successful Sergio Leone movies , he called for Post who directed him in Western ¨Hang'Em high¨ and the second entry Dirty Harry pictures, ¨Magnum Force¨.Ted Post also directed acceptable Sci Fi(Beneath of the planet of apes,Harrard experiment) and horror movies(The Baby,Dr Cook's garden).

The new sheriff comes to town and immediately happens to shoot down a hoodlum who happens to be the brother of the local tycoon on whom the whole town depends for its limited prosperity. This is Tombstone and O. K. Corral settings, and if you expect some gunfire you will not be disappointed. The intrigue is good and interesting, as it accelerates by complications, and you are in for some positive surprises. The most interesting part though is played by the Indians, who appear in two scenes, but that is enough to save the film. They are very convincing in their brevity, and Clint is sometimes reminding of both Henry Fonda and Gregory Peck, which brings back to memory other golden times of the very wild west.

Notable is the small part of the lieutenant and quartermaster White, the most sensitive part of the film and in some ways the most decisive, as he is the one who turns the tables. He is played by John Kerr, who excelled in equally sensitive parts in films like "South Pacific" (another lieutenant) and "Tea and Sympathy" with Deborah Kerr, who was not his mother.

Ted Post is also notable for his very few films, he was mainly a TV director, also this one was made for TV, but he has two major films to his credits, "Hang Them High" with Clint Eastwood and the tremendously clever thriller "Nightkill" with Robert Mitchum as the police lieutenant. He lived a long life to 95 years.

"Yuma" is hardly great art, nor even a great Western. It is a good TV Western, and a good TV mystery. The cast of stalwart TV regulars, a post-Cheyenne Clint Walker as well as the lovely Kathryn Hays (Gem of the odd Star Trek episode "The Empath" I believe)make for good viewing. Peter Mark Richman brings his unusual screen presence and the writing is rather good. Walker's character has a tragic back-story that supports his gritty determination. Morgan Woodward brings his usual strong Western presence (again a guest star from Star Trek). In many ways a cross between a fifties Western and a sixties mystery, "Yuma" is not at all a bad way to take a break from the challenges of everyday life in the 21st century. The kid is not all that irritating.