Das Rennen gegen die Sonne

When his sister is kidnapped , a young boy (Petersen) set out in pursuit Indians , leaving his parents (Clint Ritchie, Fannon) . He join forces with an alcoholic gold prospector (Richard Boone) who saves him of drowning and helps him to rescue the young girl . They are driven by an elderly Indian (Henry Wilconson) toward a location where lives a strange tribe . He must risk his own life by passing the proof of crooked sky and to avoid his sister to be killed from an arrow archer .

The film is a crossover from the ¨Searchers¨ (John Ford) , also with a pair looking for abducted daughter , and ¨MacKenna's gold¨ (J.L.Thompson) with fantastic inspiration in the rare Indians and the spectacular outdoors . Richard Boone as a drunk trapper is magnificent , he's usual in Western genre and John Wayne films (The Alamo, Big Jake, Shootist). The veteran Henry Wilconson (Last of Mohicans , Crusades, Cleopatra) is also excellent . The film gets sensational landscapes shot in Colorado River and Arches National Park , Moab, Utah . The motion picture was well directed by Earl Bellamy . He was a good professional who served in the US Navy's photographic unit in the WWII and directed more than 1600 episodes of television and catastrophe films such as : Fire! and Flood! and a sequel titled Walking tall II . Rating : acceptable and entertaining .

I saw this movie as a kid in the theaters. Once.

It haunted me for the rest of my life - at least until the internet came along with IMDB and I was finally able to recall the movie's title (due to Boone's presence). So I watched it again many years ago. I thought it stunk.

Still it haunted me. Here I am, watching it again!

Why? Can't say. Maybe it's the thing about the gold or the cheeseball climax or the weird, misplaced "Indians"... I still don't know why this films sticks in my head.

Maybe that, more than any other reason, is a good cause to watch. Perhaps every ten years or so. Maybe by the time I die I'll be able to figure out the allure of this ham bone production.

Watch it if you have ninety minutes to kill. But be warned: you won't get them back again!

I watched this movie on TV so many years ago that I cannot now be certain of all the details, such as how many times I have seen it. I still remember the theme song (that's how I found the movie, again, on IMDb).

There is nothing profound in this movie, but it is a respectable (if slightly cheesy) story about family devotion as a boy transforms into a young man. An Indian (sorry, Native American), sees the boy's sister rising from her bath in a creek, and kidnaps her. That's about as much nudity as this movie contains (we only get obscure views), which is the reason that I mention it specifically. The boy spends most of the rest of the movie trying to rescue his sister, aided only by a crotchety, old drunk, a task that overwhelms both of them. Someone must die, and the brother is determined to rescue his sister, even at the cost of his own life.

Against A Crooked Sky tells the story of a young boy's efforts to save his sister who has been kidnapped by a mysterious Indian tribe that no one seems to have heard of. From the look of them they seem to be surviving Aztecs although the film never specifically says so.

Young Stewart Petersen sees his sister Jewel Branch kidnapped by this group of Indians who in the intervening years since Cortes have learned to ride horses. Although his parents certainly disapprove because they don't want to lose their surviving child either, Petersen goes on a mission to rescue Branch. Along the way he picks up a cantankerous old trapper who likes to pop a jug cork every now and then played by Richard Boone. Of course Boone just steals the film.

Boone and Petersen also pick up Henry Wilcoxon an old Indian who was living with the Cheyenne and who is known as Cut Tongue because his was cut out lest he reveal secrets of the lost tribe of which he was one. He guides them to their location where Petersen has to pass a warrior ritual to save his sister's life though it may cost him his own.

Against A Crooked Sky is a nice family film, small and unpretentious but filled with good values. The location shooting in Arizona and Utah is really superb. Petersen is an earnest and winning young performer and Boone just chews the scenery to beat the band, but that's his kind of character.

The film holds up well and I recommend it for family audiences.

This was a great movie. Set in the old west, a teenage girl gets kidnapped by indians from a mysterious tribe. Her brother stops at nothing to find her and bring her home. Once he does find her, he must pass a horrifying test called "crooked sky". This movie has a lot going on in it. It's about love and friendship. It's really a great movie and well worth watching.