The Trackers (1971)

When a rancher's daughter is kidnapped by Apaches, he forms a posse and sends for the U.S. Marshal but an African-American Deputy Marshal shows up instead.

Director:

Earl Bellamy

Writer:

Gerald Gaiser

Stars:

Sammy Davis Jr., Ernest Borgnine, Julie Adams

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Sammy Davis Jr.	...	Ezekiel Smith
Ernest Borgnine	...	Sam Paxton
Julie Adams	...	Dora Paxton
Connie Kreski	...	Becky Paxton
Norman Alden	...	Pete Dilworth
Jim Davis	...	Sheriff Naylor
Gary Marshal	...	El Grande (as Caleb Brooks)
Arthur Hunnicutt	...	Ben Vogel
Leo Gordon	...	Higgins
David Renard	...	Father Gomez
William Katt	...	Davey Paxton (as Bill Katt)
Ross Elliott	...	Captain (as Ross Elliot)
Lee de Broux	...	Bartender
Bucklind Beery	...	Wagon Driver (as Bucklind Noah Beery)

Storyline

A rancher comes home and finds that his son has been murdered and his daughter kidnapped by a bandit gang. He hires a professional tracker with a reputation for finding his quarry to help him find the gang and rescue his daughter.

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Plot Keywords:

arizona territory | arizona | apache territory | posse | tracker | 

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Taglines:

In search of a kidnapped girl deep in forbidden Indian country!

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Genres:

Western

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to a letter in John Wayne's files, Sammy Davis Jr. hoped this would be the film that he and Wayne had wanted for years to do together. A conflict in their commitment schedules prevented Wayne from making the film, which was originally intended for theatrical release, with Burt Kennedy directing.

User Reviews

Not Ulzana's raid, but...

The first thing that I thought about when I watched this tV movie from the early seventies is that it reminded me Bob Aldrich's masterpiece, made one year later, starring Burt the Great. Of course, that would be a mistake to expect a better movie from this one, starring Ernie Borgnine and Sam davis Jr, but it's worthwhile though, with good cast and performance. And that's a posse movie, a genre within the western one, a very specific scheme, proper to western mainly, not crime movie. As you also have the revenge topic, alone sheriff against corrupted town scheme too, or blue coats against Indians, or caravan west and of course bad white men selling alcohol or guns to good Indians. Back to this film, you have here a good character depiction, especially between Borgnine and Davis. Not that much racism oriented, only a little, it was the period for this.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 December 1971 (USA)

Also Known As:

No Trumpets, No Drums

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Aaron Spelling Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

73 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1