Hondo and the Apaches (1967) (TV)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Lee H. Katzin

Writers:

Andrew J. Fenady (writer)
James Edward Grant (earlier screenplay)

Release Date:

24 May 1968 (Finland)

Genre:

Western

Plot:

Two episodes from the TV series "Hondo" edited together and released as a feature.

Plot Keywords:

Captain | Colonel | Lieutenant | Remake | Based On Play

Cast

Ralph Taeger	...	Hondo Lane (archive footage)
Kathie Browne	...	Angie Dow (archive footage)
Michael Rennie	...	Tribolet (archive footage)
Noah Beery Jr.	...	Buffalo Baker (archive footage) (as Noah Beery)
Gary Clarke	...	Capt. Richards (archive footage)
Randy Boone	...	Sean Gallagher (archive footage)
Gary Merrill	...	General Philip Sheridan (archive footage)
John Smith	...	Ed Dow (archive footage)
Buddy Foster	...	Johnny Dow (archive footage)
Michael Pate	...	Vittoro (archive footage)
Victor Lundin	...	Silva (archive footage)
Jim Davis	...	Krantz (archive footage)
Steven Marlo	...	Reese (as Steve Marlo)
John Pickard	...	Lieutenant (archive footage)
William Bryant	...	Colonel George Crook (archive footage)

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Company:

Andrew J. Fenady Productions

Quotes:

Silva: Your dying will be slow and hard.
[looks at Hondo's dog, Sam]
Silva: Today two white dogs will die.
Hondo Lane: Beat it, Sam!
Silva: [after the dog runs off] Then you will die two times as slow.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Hondo (1953)

A bit too conventional, a bit too late

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."