Complete credited cast: | |||
Peter Graves | ... | Lt. Ben Keegan | |
Joan Vohs | ... | Melanie Crown | |
John Hudson | ... | Sgt. Jonas | |
Joan Taylor | ... | Francesca | |
William 'Bill' Phillips | ... | Sgt. Milo Hallock (as Wm. {Bill} Phillips) | |
James O'Hara | ... | Cpl. Taylor (as James Lilburn) | |
Abel Fernandez | ... | Mangas | |
Addison Richards | ... | Gen. Crook |
A disgruntled settler kills an Apache chief at Fort Yuma, and the fort's commander knows that the chief's son, Manga Colorado, will seek revenge and go on the warpath. He sends word by a courier to Fort Apache where a supply column is due to head across the desert to Fort Yuman, but the courier is killed by Mangas. The column, under the command of Lieutenant Ben Keegan who hates Apaches because he doesn't trust them, and because his assigned scout is Jonas, the brother of an Apache girl, Francesca, whom Keegan has been having an affair with. Also accompanying them is Melanie Crowne, who is going to do missionary work among the Apaches. Mangas attacks the column wiping out everybody but Keegan, Jonas and Melanie. Francesca is killed while trying to warn Keegan, and he realizes how foolish he had been in his prejudice and in keeping his love secret. The Apaches, dressed in the uniforms of the dead soldier, plan to gain entrance to Fort Yuma and massacre the men there. Written by Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>
There's more talk than action in this well-mounted Technicolor Western programmer (set at Christmas, although it makes little of that fact) which could have just as well been called 'Fort Apache' - had that title not already been taken - since most of the story concerns the trek from one fort to the other through hostile Indian territory.
To complicate matters, blond, blue-eyed cavalryman Peter Graves hates Indians while drawn reluctantly to dusky maiden Joan Taylor, whose brother John Hudson attracts the interest of missionary Joan Vohs.