Hondo and the Apaches (TV 1967)Two episodes from the TV series "Hondo" edited together and released as a feature. Director:Lee H. Katzin |
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Hondo and the Apaches (TV 1967)Two episodes from the TV series "Hondo" edited together and released as a feature. Director:Lee H. Katzin |
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
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Ralph Taeger | ... |
Hondo Lane
(archive footage)
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| Kathie Browne | ... |
Angie Dow
(archive footage)
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| Michael Rennie | ... |
Tribolet
(archive footage)
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| Noah Beery Jr. | ... |
Buffalo Baker
(archive footage) (as Noah Beery)
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| Gary Clarke | ... |
Capt. Richards
(archive footage)
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Randy Boone | ... |
Sean Gallagher
(archive footage)
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| Gary Merrill | ... |
General Philip Sheridan
(archive footage)
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John Smith | ... |
Ed Dow
(archive footage)
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Buddy Foster | ... |
Johnny Dow
(archive footage)
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| Michael Pate | ... |
Vittoro
(archive footage)
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Victor Lundin | ... |
Silva
(archive footage)
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| Jim Davis | ... |
Krantz
(archive footage)
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| Steven Marlo | ... |
Reese
(as Steve Marlo)
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John Pickard | ... |
Lieutenant
(archive footage)
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William Bryant | ... |
Colonel George Crook
(archive footage)
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Renegade Apaches capture frontier scout Hondo Lane who's trying to keep the peace between the soldiers at Arizona's Ft. Lowell and the local Indian chief, Vittorio. "Your dying will be slow and hard," the renegades tell Hondo, just before staking him out and preparing to pour hot coals on his bare chest. Vittorio arrives in time to save Hondo but troubles remain at the fort. Hondo's forced to kill the husband of store-owner Angie Dow, whose little boy adores him, and he must help protect a local mine owned by a man named Gallagher. Written by dinky-4 of Minneapolis
This feature, made up of material from the short-lived TV series, HONDO, may be just good enough to earn the adjective "competent" but it's such standard stuff done in such a routine way that it's unlikely to linger in the memory. (The TV series might have been more successful had it come along in the mid-1950s rather than the mid-1960s.) Leading man Ralph Taeger has a wry quality which is refreshing and he looks pretty good with his shirt off but, for some reason or other, his career quickly faded after this point and he hasn't been heard from in years. Too bad. He had "potential." A highlight comes when he's staked-out by a vengeful Apache who's about to pour hot coals on Taeger's bare chest when a rescue intervenes. Bring staked-out and left to die under a scorching sun had become something of a routine torture in TV westerns. It happened to Richard Boone in "Have Gun Will Travel," Robert Horton in "Wagon Train," and both Peter Brown and William Smith in "Laredo." Modesty prevailed, however, and in none of these cases were the men's legs spread very far apart. Taeger's legs, however, are spread apart and tied to stakes -- he still wears boots! -- at such an extreme angle that his stance inevitable draws attention to his crotch and gives the scene a homoerotic quality which might shock those who think of these TV westerns as "family entertainment."