Ambush at Cimarron Pass

Let's face it - the only real reason to catch this pedestrian oater is to get a glimpse of a 27 year old Clinton Eastwood. The future star is still coltish in his acting craft here, and he hasn't fully developed his excellent timing and intensity as in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" and "Dirty Harry", but the B western does show why this film was a good reason that he pursue acting. His scenes with Margia Dean are the best in showing a charisma which would one day make him box office.

Made in 1958, Eastwood looks very youthful. He holds his own in scenes with a sturdy and sullen Scott Brady, and is somewhat confined by a script that has him cast as the young fool. But Eastwood does well with what he's got, and exhibits a star quality as a young Hollywood actor.

Remnants of an ambushed Army unit hook up with a group of cowboys to fight their way through Indians on the warpath. Sounds like it could be an exciting western, but this one is dull, dull, dull. It moves like molasses, the action scenes are uninspired, the acting is pedestrian, the writing is flat, even the photography isn't very good. Eastwood, in a very early role, plays an ex-Confederate who doesn't like the idea of fighting on the same side as Yankees. That's about the only remotely interesting situation in the whole movie, but Eastwood wasn't experienced enough an actor to pull it off, and his character comes across as petulant rather than angry or embittered. A very ordinary western. Actually, a very less-than-ordinary western. Worth a look if you're a die-hard Eastwood fan and want to see him at the very beginning of his career. Otherwise, don't bother.

Very low budget B-Movie. No surprise, no originality, no creativity, lots of cliche, but an honest sense of rythmn. We can almost see the paintings of the studio setting. One good reason to watch this is to see young Clint Eastwood before his cinema fame (circa 1965).

This film essentially begins with a squad of cavalry escorting a prisoner known simply as "Corbin" (Baynes Barron) through Apache territory to a fort to stand trial over 100 miles away. However, on the way there, their squad is decimated by an Apache war party which leaves a man named "Sergeant Matt Blake" (Scott Brady) responsible for the delivery of his prisoner. As luck would have it, the cavalry squad comes across a few former confederate soldiers were taking part in a cattle drive but encountered a separate Apache war party on the way. That being said, while none of the former confederates have any great desire to serve with these cavalry soldiers, they realize that their only hope of survival depends on doing just that. It is then revealed that, along with their prisoner, the cavalry squad also has a great number of repeating rifles which Corbin had been planning on selling to the Apache. Needless to say, knowing how badly the Apache want these rifles, everyone now realizes that time is not on their side and that, if they are going to survive, they must make it to the fort as quickly as possible. What they don't realize, however, is that the Apache are equally determined to slow them down--and they have an idea on how to do just that. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay Western which suffered to some degree by its rather low budget. As far as the acting was concerned, everyone played their parts well enough but nobody--to include Clint Eastwood (as the bitter confederate cowboy named "Keith Williams")--really impressed me that much. To be sure, he wasn't necessarily bad, by any means. It just wasn't one of his better performances. Regardless, while certainly not a great Western, it managed to pass the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

'Ambush at Cimarron Pass' is a bit of a bore.

Even though I don't think it's as bad as one Clint Eastwood reportedly does, I do agree in the sense that this 1958 production is a limp effort at making a western. I found none of the characters to be likeable, not that they're necessarily unlikeable per se, and the events depicted onscreen failed to give me any form of entertainment/enjoyment.

Eastwood is solid in arguably his biggest role at this point in time, though the rest of those alongside the aforementioned aren't noteworthy to me - at a big push, Scott Brady is the standout of the others. Eastwood didn't return to film acting after this until 1964, but arrived back with a bang with the start of the Dollars Trilogy - I look forward to watching those!