Aufstand der Apachen

I had the pleasure of seeing every one of the Lyles' westerns on original release here in London, dear old Blighty. I was never much interested in the main attractions of the double feature programmes where AC's cracking little cowboy pictures always took second billing. " Apache Uprising " however, broke the mould and played main feature, with " Beach Ball " in support, at the splendid Paramount Plaza at Piccadilly Circus - although only for two weeks, after which it was relegated to the usual spot for general release. I wrote to dear AC and got a couple of letters back from him, where he told me all about how he was moving away from westerns into dramas and was working on " Rogue's Gallery ". A true gentleman. It must have been a joy working with such an array of talent from yesteryear.

A stagecoach hauling honest citizens mixed with a few dubious people travels through the Southwest wilderness during an Apache uprising with everything culminating at a way station. Rory Calhoun, Lon Chaney Jr. And Corinne Calvet are the protagonists while John Russell, DeForest Kelley and Gene Evans play the outlaws

"Apache Uprising" (1965) is an A. C. Lyles Western, who produced over a dozen 'B' Westerns in the mid-60s. These flicks were shot in about 12 days, give or take, using past-their-prime actors mixed with a couple up-and-comers. They were shot on town sets with a few sequences done in the nearby wilderness of SoCal. The teams Lyles gathered always knew what they were doing and did it competently and efficiently, albeit with little artistic merit and just a notch above a TV movie.

This one has elements of "Stagecoach" (1939), "Hangman's Knot" (1952) and "Black Spurs" (1965) with Rory making for a tall, dark Western protagonist; he should've been more popular. While it isn't as good as his previous "Black Spurs," it's still a solid traditional Western with fleshed-out characters and a well-written story, albeit a tad complicated.

Kelley, who would go on to fame with Star Trek the next year, is entertaining as an irascible psycho while the towering John Russell is even more grim as the scarred ringleader.

On the female front, Corinne Calvet was almost 40 during shooting and still alluring. I liked the bit about her unjustly being an outcast purely through gossip/slander (or perhaps I should say impurely).

The movie runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot at Vasquez Rocks, just north of Hollywood in the high country east of Santa Clarita, with studio stuff done at Paramount Studios and some stock footage from Arizona.

GRADE: B-/B (6.5/10)

The film takes place in Arizona circa 1880s and deals with the stage coach lines trying to run from Texas through Arizona over to Phoenix and points west. The stage coach and passengers are attacked by renegade Apaches. These stage coach hands, passengers, and various AZ outlaws, all of whom are travelling through Indian country, are forced to join forces against the Apaches in order to save their lives and scalps.

Old fashioned/traditional westerns like this A. C Lyle western is what I prefer and they were fast becoming anachronistic in the 1960s in the cinema halls, however this western is fairly ordinary with a few good points such as some action sequences, an array of older actors, nice location and an oddness - it's an ok time filler, nothing more. Deforest Kelley plays a psychotic gunman who goes into psycho mode every five seconds. It amazes how John Russell's character would hire such a loose wire when he would be attracting attention with his behaviour.

I've a real affection for the A.C. Lyles westerns which gave employment to a lot of old time players who were finding work increasingly hard to get because of the decline of the studio system and in some cases a refusal to work in television. But Apache Uprising took elements from Stagecoach, Rawhide, Broken Arrow, Coroner Creek, with a little bit of English Gothic thrown in the mix and it didn't come out well.

The English Gothic gets into it when the passengers of a stagecoach get held hostage in a relay station by three outlaws, with thunder and lightning flashing outside together with Apaches on the warpath. It comes right out of innumerable old English murder mysteries.

Funny thing that with all the old stars like Rory Calhoun, Corinne Calvet, John Russell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Johnny Mack Brown, the one you will remember from this film is DeForest Kelley. The original Star Trek was debuting this year and I'm willing to bet this was Kelley's final work prior to becoming wise old Dr. Leonard McCoy. Toby Jack Saunders is as far from McCoy as you can get. He's reminiscent of the outlaw that Kelley played in The Law and Jake Wade. He's one hateful punk with some serious self esteem issues.

I've seen every member of this cast do better work, even better work for A.C. Lyles and it's too bad the film was beneath the talents of all of them.

A rather mean-spirited A.C.Lyles potboiler shot mostly indoors with plenty of sixties-style violence in which nasty people do nasty things to each other (none nastier than a pre-Star Trek DeForest Kelly, who shoots one guy in cold blood).

As the lady with a past, Corinne Calvert is there to incur the disapproval of a bunch of "miserable old biddies" led by Jean Parker and be fought over rather than wooed.