The Road to Fort Alamo (1964)
"La strada per Forte Alamo" (original title)

A lone rider comes across a dying soldier, the victim of an Indian attack, who gives him a paper authorizing the payment of $150,000 to the U.S. Army. The rider gathers some colleagues who ... See full summary »

Director:

Mario Bava

Writers:

Livia Contardi, Lorenzo Gicca Palli (screenplay),

Stars:

Ken Clark, Jany Clair, Michel Lemoine

Cast

Cast overview:
Ken Clark	...	Bud Massedy / Lt. John Smith
Jany Clair	...	Janet
Michel Lemoine	...	Carson
Adreina Paul	...	Mrs. Collins
Alberto Cevenini	...	Slim / Sgt. Jim Kincaid (as Kirk Bert)
Antonio Gradoli	...	Capt. Hull
Gustavo De Nardo	...	Sgt. Warwick (as Dean Ardow)

Storyline

A lone rider comes across a dying soldier, the victim of an Indian attack, who gives him a paper authorizing the payment of $150,000 to the U.S. Army. The rider gathers some colleagues who disguise themselves as soldiers and who take the paper to a bank. They get the money but a shoot-out occurs, an old woman is killed, and the gang acrimoniously splits up. Later some members of the gang meet up with some real U.S. Cavalry soldiers and together they must fight off new Indian attacks.

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Plot Keywords:

soldier | money | civil war | union soldier | female prisoner | 

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Italy France

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

10 July 1966 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Road to Fort Alamo

Filming Locations:

Elios Studios, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Comptoir Français du Film Production (CFFP), Piazzi, Protor Film S.r.l.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[surrounded by Ozark Indians]
Bud Massedy: We've no hope at all.

User Reviews

La Strada per mal melodrama

I've only seen each of the 3 Bava spaghetti westerns once (neither among his best work or his preferred genre), but I disagree with many people who considered Nebraska Jim to be a better film. Strictly from an entertainment sense, Arizone Bill (La Strada per Fort Alamo) held my interest noticeably better (though admittedly the copy of Nebraska Jim that I saw had severely distraction issues with audio). While Nebraska Jim seemed like a mostly cookie cutter extended western TV show episode you'd expect to see on American TV, Arizona Bill was more like a 2nd rate Good Bad and Ugly wannabe with its stolen civil war funds plot line and a group of criminals that ranges from a couple of more 'decent' people who are criminals to outright despicable violent ones. It was just slightly different enough to make it more interesting to me and it felt more like a Bava film. Maybe if I rewatch these films a few more times I'll notice things I've overlooked which will explain others' preferences, but I'm a bit skeptical that that will happen.

It's not the greatest or most original film, but it kept me entertained and my biggest complaint is with regards to the 'romantic' subplot and its cheesy accompanying music (at least on the copy I saw, I'm not sure if it was or wasn't the original music used). Bava isn't always at his best when trying to provide romance/love interests to his films. Black Sunday (La Maschera del demonio) is IMHO the quintessential Italian Gothic horror film and a favorite of mine, but even his admirers have to admit that in that great film, the 'undying love' of the young Dr. Gorobec for Katia -- whom he has just met one day previous -- is a bit silly and one-dimensional and at times almost laughably overly melodramatic. I took off one point for the botched romance portions of Arizona Bill, though I did like it overall more than Nebraska which ended up with the same 5/10 score from me.

The copy of the film I saw was an English language widescreen version from an old somewhat glitchy videotape source with a runtime closer to the USA or German cuts. I'm not sure what was excised from the original 90 minute cut listed on IMDb and maybe when TL's big Bava book comes out it will tell us what is or isn't missing from the cut I saw, but I hope one of the cult DVD companies (like Image, Anchor Bay or Blue Underground) pick up both this title and "Nebraska Jim" sometime in the near future to provide Bava's fans with a good legitimate uncut DVD release with the best transfer possible considering whatever film elements exist. I'm sure the underrated director's fans would welcome quality releases of all his films, even the lesser known and hard to find ones where Mario took over directorial duties from a previous director leaving a project.