Apache Drums (1951)

• Year: 1951
• Released: 01 Apr 1951
• Country: United States
• Adwords: N/A
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043291/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/apache_drums
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Approved
• Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
• Runtime: 76 min
• Writer: David Chandler, Harry Brown
• Director: Hugo Fregonese
• Cast: Stephen McNally, Coleen Gray, Willard Parker
• Keywords: apache nation, gambler,

	6.5/10
	30% – Audience

Apache Drums Storyline

In 1880, in the Southwestern USA, Apache Chief Victorio breaks the peace treaty and starts attacking White settlements with his band of renegade braves. His reason is the famine to which his tribe of Mescalero Apache is subjected to. The newly drawn Mexico-USA border line prevents the Apache from hunting on either side of the border. These reasons are of little consolation for the American settlers who feel the wrath of Apache attacks. In the town of Spanish Boot, inhabited mostly by Welsh silver miners, Mayor Joe Madden decides to preserve the clean image of a hard-working town by evicting the bad elements. Among them, Madam Betty Careless and her girls are told to leave town. Also, card-shark gunfighter Sam Leeds is ordered out of town but he suspects that Joe Madden simply wants him out of the way due to their romantic rivalry concerning cantina owner Sally. Madam Betty Careless and her girls leave for Silver Springs by wagon. Following a ways behind on horseback is Sam Leeds. At a mountain pass, Sam stumbles upon the dead bodies of Betty and the girls killed by Apache arrows. He returns to Spanish Boot to warn the townsfolk but no one believes him. When they’re about to run Sam out of town for the second time, the stagecoach arrives but everyone on the stage is dead, killed by Apache arrows. Realizing that Sam’s warning was true, the townsfolk hold council. A small platoon of cavalry, led by Lt. Glidden, arrives in town and they help the locals organize a defense. One man on horseback is sent to the nearest army fort to bring reinforcements. Unfortunately, the dead body of this man is discovered the next day in the town’s water well. The locals now have to bring water from a far-away river that flows on Apache lands. They also have to bury the dead, including the bodies of Betty and her girls. During the funeral, the Apache attack the town. Some locals are killed while the rest, escorted by Lt. Glidden and his men, take refuge in the sturdily built church and they barricade the heavy oak doors. Outside the church Apache Chief Victorio and 200 braves prepare to burn the emptied town, to assault the church and kill everyone. Throughout the night, the Apache incessantly beat their drums and probe the church’s defenses with small attacks but they plan a major assault for the next morning. Running low on food, water and ammunition, the people trapped inside the church are praying for a miracle.

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Apache Drums Movie Reviews

an aging classic

While not one of the greatest westerns to ever be brought to the screen, this movie does bring something else that others seemed to fail at, and that is actual human feelings and and what they went through in times of turmoil such as this film suggests. The townsfolk have to hold up in a church while outside they are attacked by Indians. In the movie it shows how the people would have and must have felt. The ending also leaves the viewer feeling pretty good. For not a very popular movie as say a John Wayne movie, this movie is actually quite good. It has yet to be released on DVD or VHS and i seriously doubt that it even has a chance yet if it was i strongly suggest western fans to grab a copy of it and see what I’m really talking about. As for those who want to see it now, your best bet is probably to try to catch it on the Western Channel although i have bee watching the channel for a few years and have yet to see it on there. The only time i ever saw it on television was on AMC, back when they had no commercials and actually played what the channel suggested, Classics.

The Devil’s Creatures.

Produced by Val Lewton, Apache Drums is directed by Hugo Fregonese and adapted for the screen by David Chandler from the book “Stand at Spanish Boot” written by Harry Brown. It stars Stephen McNally, Coleen Gray, Willard Parker and Arthur Shields. Music is by Hans J. Salter and cinematography is courtesy of Charles P. Boyle. It was shot on location at Red Rock Canyon State Park, California & it’s a Technicolor production. Plot sees McNally as notorious gambler Sam Leeds, who after shooting a man in self defence, is forced to leave the town of Spanish Boot. However, outside of town Sam happens across a terrible scene that forces him back into town to warn the folk of an impending attack by the Mescalero Apaches.

The name Val Lewton is synonymous with atmospheric horror, the likes of Cat People, The Body Snatcher, I Walked With a Zombie and Bedlam have carried the brooding Lewton production stamp. For this, his last film before he sadly passed away, we find him entering the realm of the Western. An odd coupling without doubt, yet as odd as that seems, the oddest thing of all is that the film manages to rise above its budget restrictions and come out just about on top. Working with his director Fregonese (The Raid), Lewton has produced a final movie that whilst not oozing those eerie atmospherics he’s known for, does have enough about it to make it of interest to Lewton completists.

Plot and narrative are simple, where on the surface it appears to be a run of the mill Western where the Indians are the bad guys, and the white man stands up to repel them. Yet to dismiss this as solely being formula fodder is unfair, for it has interesting characters, plenty of tension, a grand piece of action and a couple of genuinely haunting images. There’s also some smarts in the writing, where racism and ethical principals are scrutinised. While the work involved for the final third of the film, as our group are holed up in a church awaiting Apache incursion, is of a very high standard. Here Fregonese and camera never leaves the room, as the town burns and the Apache chant and bang the drums, we along with the characters are left to our own imaginations, awaiting a savage death in semi darkness. It’s a fine claustrophobic set up that’s executed admirably. So why isn’t the film better known and regarded then?

To get to the good stuff you have to suffer the bad, quite a bit of bad in fact. Running at only 75 minutes the film just about gets away with its drawn out periods of chatter, much of which is mundane – especially where the love triangle is concerned. And the acting ranges from the effective – McNally (Winchester ’73/ Criss Cross) & Gray (Red River/Nightmare Alley) – to the solid – Shields (The Quiet Man/She Wore a Yellow Ribbon), but away from those three it’s pretty wooden fare. Problems also exist with the colour, with low budget comes very basic Technicolor lensing, Red Rock Canyon is reduced to being a dull observer on proceedings and the fiery flames during the finale lack colourful snap. There’s also the bizarre use of the song “Men of Harlech”. Zulu aficionados (and I’m one of them) know the song well, and the use here in Apache Drums is the same as in Cy Endfield’s film, only here it’s performed in native Welsh – with the actors dubbed! It’s a poor fit all round. History tells us, though, that the defenders of Rorke’s Drift did not sing the song, so it’s a distinct possibility that the film Zulu owes a debt of gratitude to is in fact Apache Drums. Thank you Lewton and Co.

Good and bad every where you look in the film, but the final third swings it well above average in my book. A generous 7/10 rating to my fellow Western movie fans, 6/10 to the casual Sunday afternoon lounge lizard.

The Lewton touch gives a twist to the traditional western.

Best known for producing eerie horror movies, Val Lewton switched to Universal westerns after five years over at RKO. What results is an interesting take on the typical natives bad/white folks good western film with the opening indicating such through their written narration indicating that starving Apaches were on a mission to raid the religious white settlement (which did include a native American as well as a few Mexicans and briefly one blackk man) after attacking and killing members of a wagon train leaving the settlement.

The white settlers are presented as holier than thou, banishing Stephen McNally after he killed two men in self defense. They also order “entertainment” provider Ruthelma Stevens to leave along with her girls which ends up with them massacred on the wagon train that McNally finds, only pianist Clarence Muse still barely alive to tell him what happened.

With the settlement now trapped inside their church, they fear the potential break-in of the attacking Apaches, a group called the Mescaleros. Under Lewton’s producing eye and director Cy Endfield, this sequence becomes as scary as anything he did in his horror movies, and the tension is quite overwhelming. Muse in his small role is quite moving, and Arthur Shields as the hypocritical reverend is very good as well. It should be noted that Chinto Guzman who plays the kind Mexican Chacho is a male actor, not an actress as listed in his page here, although this was his only film.