El precio de la traición

In Tumbleweed Audie Murphy plays a young scout of a wagon train which is massacred leaving only Audie and two women, K.T. Stevens and Lori Nelson as survivors. The women hid in a cave, but Audie had gone out to parley with the Yaquis and they held him instead.

When Murphy gets back to the white settlement he's a most unpopular man. His only chance at regaining popularity and keeping his right to walk and breathe permanently is to find which white man gave the location of the train to the Yaquis for his own venal purposes.

Tumbleweed is also the name of a horse that Audie gets from sympathetic rancher Roy Roberts for his flight. The horse kind of marches to his own beat, but his brand of horse sense proves invaluable to Murphy.

There's a nice climax of an Indian fight with the Yaquis before the dying chief Ralph Moody reveals all. All in all a good western with Audie Murphy giving a good characterization of a wrongly accused man.

Tumbleweed is directed by Nathan Juran and adapted to screenplay by John Meredyth Lucas from the novel "Three Were Renegades" written by Kenneth Perkins. It stars Audie Murphy, Chill Wills, Lori Nelson, Roy Roberts, Russell Johnson, Lee Van Cleef, K.T. Stevens and Madge Meredith. Music is by Joseph Gershenson and cinematography by Russell Metty.

It's atypical Audie Murphy fare, which for his fans (of which I'm firmly one) is enough for a rollicking good time. Plot has Murphy as Jim Harvey, a Wagon Train leader who mistakenly gets called out for being a coward when the train he is leading is attacked by the Yaqui Indians, leaving all the men folk dead. Forced to evade lynch mobs and the law, he goes on the lam, armed with only his wits and an aging horse called Tumbleweed.

What follows for the 80 minute run time is plenty of action and near scrapes, some barely concealed romantic yearnings, and of course heroics from both man and beast. The locations used for the story are gorgeous, as Death Valley and Vasquez Rocks form a mightily impressive back drop to the unfolding drama. While stunts and machismo are up to the requisite standard. Cast are fine, with Audie being Audie, Wills a gruff lawman and Cleef in loose cannon side-kick mode. The girls are mere tokens, but the beauty of Nelson and Meredith is breath taking. While costuming (Bill Thomas) is high end as well.

A Technicolor treat for Murphy and B Western fans. 7/10

I feel the Summary misses the real point. True Jim Harvey has to right a wrong against him, but when making his getaway he is given what he thinks is a broken down nag. Tumbleweed turns out to be anything but broken down. The horse steals the movie and saves the hero over and over. It really seemed the plot of the movie was there just to show off the ability of Tumbleweed. As Nick Buckley tells him "I told you it was the best horse I have". I hope to get a copy of this movie just to show it to my grand kids so they can see a great example of not judging someone just by looks.

The best horse in a movie next to Trigger.

An Audie Murphy Western from 1953. Murphy is an escort shuttling a family to a town when their party is besieged by a band of Yaqui Indians. Fending off the first wave of attack, Murphy fears a larger force is on the horizon so he decides to intercede hoping him having saved the chief's son (seen in the film's opening) will spare his party further harm. Not believing him, the chief leaves Murphy pegged to the ground only to be saved by the chief's wife but when he finally arrives at his destination, the survivors of the massacre accuse him of abandonment which prompts the sheriff (played by western stalwart Chill Wills) to jail him for his own safety. Soon enough Murphy is sprung from the hoosegow by the chief's son who tells him the initial attack was set up by someone which spurs Murphy to find the person who wronged him before the ensuing posse catches up to him. A little busier than Murphy's usual fare but his steadfastness & determination makes you root for him even when the odds aren't so good. Russell Johnson & Lee Van Cleef also appear in supporting roles.

Audie Murphy is a scout on his way to meet a party he's guiding when he stops to help a wounded Yaqui. Later, when the party is attacked by Yaquis, he makes sure the women are safe, then goes to talk to them. They don't believe his story. After he escapes, he makes his way back to town. The women got away, but saw their men butchered. They think he's a turncoat. There'd be a necktie party, but sheriff Chill Wills sticks Murphy in protective custody. Things are getting ugly, when the Yaqui Murphy saved shows up and frees him from jail (getting killed in the process). Murphy heads off, but his horse is done for. Roy Roberts lets him have a horse, and he's on the run, hoping to get to the Yaquis to corroborate his story, with Wills and the posse trailing him.

Audie Murphy has a great co-star in this movie, the white horse he's on in the second half of the movie. Murphy thinks he a crazy horse, but he turns out to be smarter than Murphy, taking him over a pass that no one else can make, finding water when there is none. Amidst the conventional story and a great role for Wills, that horse makes this a fine picture -- that and the final slugfest between Murphy and the real villain, with Murphy doing some of his own stunts.