Ambush at Cimarron Pass | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jodie Copelan |
Written by | John K. Butler Richard G. Taylor |
Based on | story by Robert A. Reeds Robert E. Woods |
Produced by | Herbert E. Mendelson |
Starring | Scott Brady Margia Dean Clint Eastwood |
Cinematography | John M. Nickolaus Jr. |
Music by | Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter |
Production company | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 73 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Ambush at Cimarron Pass is a 1958 American Western film directed by Jodie Copelan and starring Scott Brady and Clint Eastwood (third billed, later first billed upon reissue). The film also features Margia Dean, Irving Bacon, Frank Gerstle, Baynes Barron, and William Vaughn. [1]
It is the only feature film ever directed by Copelan, who was primarily a film editor.
The survivors of a squad of cavalry led by Sergeant Blake are escorting a prisoner, Corbin, back to their fort. Corbin had been attempting to sell repeating rifles to the Apache, and the cavalry are now carrying the rifles. They encounter the survivors of a Texas cattle drive, all former Confederate soldiers led by Sam Prescott, who include the young Keith Williams who still hates northerners and has to be restrained from shooting Blake. While the two groups are discussing their predicament, the Apache deliver a bound Teresa Santos, a young woman who is the only survivor of a raid on a nearby ranch. It turns out this was a distraction so the Apache could steal the group's horses.
Blake and Prescott agree to join forces and continue on foot to the fort, through Cimarron Pass. Judge Stanfield, a survivor in Prescott's party, suggests trading the rifles to the Apache for their horses, but Blake dismisses this on the basis that the rifles are the only means they have of defending themselves against the superior Apache numbers. When Blake ignores Stanfield's threats of criminal charges, Stanfield plots with Keith to overthrow Blake's command.
Several of the group, mostly Blake's men, are killed or wounded in skirmishes or ambushes, including Blake's Indian scout, Henry. Johnny Willow takes over scouting duties, while Teresa flirts with Keith. Stanfield encourages Keith, who is annoyed at Blake's leadership and the way Prescott and Johnny are going along with it, to mutiny. Keith's first attempt is interrupted by an Apache attack but, in the aftermath, he challenges Blake, who easily defeats him. After this, Keith largely falls into line and decides to take out his anger on the Apache rather than Blake. During an Apache attack, Stanfield frees Corbin so that he can complete the deal with the Apache, but Corbin betrays and kills him. Corbin then attempts to deliver some of the rifles, but the Apache kill him on sight and Blake's group is able to recover them.
Blake decides to raid the Apache camp and drive off their horses, to remove their advantage. The raid is successful in stampeding the horses, but escalates into a battle in which Johnny Willow and most of the Apache are killed. During the fighting, Blake rescues Teresa from an Apache warrior, and she kisses him. The raid seems to end the direct threat from the Apache but the group is still short of food and water. As they continue towards the fort, Teresa collapses from exhaustion and Blake realises that the rifles are too heavy to carry any further. Rather than let them fall into the hands of the Apache he orders them to be burned. The final shot is of the fort, suggesting that the group reached safety.
The film was made by Regal Films Inc. It was one of a two-picture deal Scott Brady signed with Regal the other being Blood Arrow . [2] Clint Eastwood, at the time best known for his performance in Lafayette Escadrille, was cast in September 1957. [3]
Most film guides include in their entry for this film a quote attributed to Eastwood, "probably the lousiest Western ever made." [4] Eastwood recalled how he felt when he saw the film at a movie theatre. In a 1978 interview he said he felt "really depressed" at the time and said of the film "It was sooo [ sic ] bad I just kept sinking lower and lower in my seat. I said to my wife 'I'm going to quit, I'm really going to quit. I gotta go back to school, I got to start doing something with my life.' " [5]
The film was never released on VHS. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray by Olive Films in 2012.
Unforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood himself, as William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job, years after he had turned to farming. The film co-stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris and was written by David Webb Peoples.
Leif Erickson was an American stage, film, and television actor.
The Missing is a 2003 American Western film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett. It is based on Thomas Eidson's 1996 novel The Last Ride. The film is set in 1885 New Mexico Territory and is notable for the authentic use of the Apache language by various actors, some of whom spent long hours studying it. The film was produced by Revolution Studios, Imagine Entertainment, and Daniel Ostroff Productions and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Scott Brady was an American film and television actor best known for his roles in Western films and as a ubiquitous television presence. He played the title role in the television series Shotgun Slade (1959-1961).
Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American revisionist Western film directed by Ted Post and written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching; Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him; Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched Cooper; and Pat Hingle as the federal judge who hires him as a Deputy U.S. Marshal.
Joe Kidd is a 1972 American Revisionist Western film starring Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall, written by Elmore Leonard and directed by John Sturges.
The Battle of Cieneguilla was an engagement of the Jicarilla War involving a group of Jicarilla Apaches, possibly their Ute allies, and the American 1st Cavalry Regiment on March 30, 1854 near what is now Pilar, New Mexico. The Santa Fe Weekly Gazette reported that the action "was one of the severest battles that ever took place between American troops and Red Indians." It was one of the first significant battles between American and Apache forces and was also part of the Ute Wars, in which Ute warriors attempted to resist Westward expansion in the Four Corners region.
Lauran Bosworth Paine was an American writer of Western fiction.
The Yavapai are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai – literally “people of the sun” – were divided into four geographical bands who identified as separate, independent peoples: the Ɖulv G’paaya, or Western Yavapai; the Yaavpe', or Northwestern Yavapai; the Gwev G’paaya, or Southeastern Yavapai; and the Wiipukpaa, or Northeastern Yavapai – Verde Valley Yavapai.
G. Clifton Wisler was an American historical novelist, the author of almost 70 books, many of them historical fiction for young adults. Wisler lived in Plano, Texas in the United States. He died on April 7, 2006.
Blood on the Arrow is a 1964 Western film directed by Sidney Salkow and written by Mark Hanna and starring Dale Robertson and Martha Hyer. The plot is about the sole survivor of an Apache ambush, who rides out to save a young boy who has been captured.
Tomahawk is a 1951 American Western film directed by George Sherman and starring Van Heflin and Yvonne De Carlo. The film is loosely based on events that took place in Wyoming in 1866 to 1868 around Fort Phil Kearny on the Bozeman Trail such as the Fetterman Fight and Wagon Box Fight. In the UK, the film was released as The Battle of Powder River.
Victorio's War, or the Victorio Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Apache followers of Chief Victorio, the United States, and Mexico beginning in September 1879. Faced with arrest and forcible relocation from his homeland in New Mexico to San Carlos Indian Reservation in southeastern Arizona, Victorio led a guerrilla war across southern New Mexico, west Texas and northern Mexico. Victorio fought many battles and skirmishes with the United States Army and raided several settlements until the Mexican Army killed him and most of his warriors in October 1880 in the Battle of Tres Castillos. After Victorio's death, his lieutenant Nana led a raid in 1881.
Sierra No. 3, often called the "Movie Star locomotive", is a 19th-century steam locomotive owned by the State of California and preserved at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown, California.
Marguerite Louise Skliris-Alvarez, known by her stage name Margia Dean was an American beauty queen and stage and screen actress of royal Greek descent, who had a career in Hollywood films from the 1940s until the early 1960s, appearing in 30 starring roles and 20 bit parts.
Francis M. Gerstle was an American character actor who appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, radio programs and TV shows following World War II.
Dragoon Springs is an historic site in what is now Cochise County, Arizona, at an elevation of 4,925 feet (1,501 m). The name comes from a nearby natural spring, Dragoon Spring, to the south in the Dragoon Mountains at 5,148 feet (1,569 m). The name originates from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Dragoons who battled the Chiricahua, including Cochise, during the Apache Wars. The Dragoons established posts around 1856 after the Gadsden Purchase made the area a U.S. territory.
Dead Man's Walk is an American epic Western adventure television miniseries starring David Arquette as Augustus McCrae and Jonny Lee Miller as Woodrow F. Call. It was directed by Yves Simoneau. It is a two-part adaptation of the 1995 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry and is chronologically the third book of the Lonesome Dove series, but regarded as the first events in the Lonesome Dove franchise. In this prequel to Lonesome Dove, it is 1840s Texas, and two young men join the Texas Rangers unit that's on a mission to annex Santa Fe. While the miniseries has been broken up into 3 parts for the DVD release, the series was originally broadcast by ABC over two nights in May 1996, and was later nominated for several awards.
Jodie Copelan was an American film editor who worked on dozens of B movies and TV shows from the late 1940s through the 1970s.
Baynes Barron was an American film and television actor.