40 fucili al Passo Apache

This joke of a movie -- with terrible acting, a thin plot and cheap production values -- at least gave me a laugh once when I badly needed one. For some unaccountable reason, they sent us this movie about the cavalry to see when we were serving in the actual 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) in Vietnam.

These guys couldn't shoot straight, except for the few times when a single shot felled multiple Indians, but they also could not be wounded, even when taking cover behind the flimsiest rail fence.

So little thought went into this movie that it deserves to be ranked among the worst of all time. However, I gave it a second star because of the laughs.

A fully-fledged ninety minutes approx action Western, fast moving, tense and excitement throughout its running time. Here Audie Murphy takes on Apaches led by their chief Cochise who are on the warpath in 1868 Arizona. As Murphy as US Army captain Coburn is assigned by his Colonel to a dangerous assignment : to get a shipment of forty rifles through Indian territory . As a group of volunteers (Kenneth Tobey , Michael Burns , Brubaker , Kenneth MacDonald.. ) is formed and all of them face off a lot of risks , assaults , attacks, ambushes, treason ... Along the way, captain Coburn : Murphy gets in trouble with his beautiful girlfriend : Loraine Stephens whose two brothers : Michael Burns, Kenneth MacDonald are volunteers in the perilous adventure. The West ablaze.. courage aflame ! He had to get the guns through the whole Apache nation ! He had to get the guns through ..if had to take on the whole Apache nation to do it ! Guns, guts ... Glory !

Typical Audie Murphy spectacle with usual ingredients as violent fights , go riding, ambushes , betrayals , thrills and cavalry charges. It contains slickness enough and crude vigour, though some scenes are failures. Audie Murphy is nice as the regular hero who struggles Indians as well as baddie soldiers . This so-so though passable Western has action enough with breathtaking attack scenes and riding pursuits across deserts and rocky landscapes . A nail-biting storyline allowed director William Witney to keep thrilling scenes at his own exciting and moving gallop. Resulting to be another usual Hollywood product but B-series. The flick bears remarkable resemblance to another Eddie Murphy/William Witney Cavalry Western titled "Rifles Apaches" 1964 with similar issue about confrontation between Apache Indians and soldiers, equally shot at the same outdoors, Rock Mountains, California, being well photographed by cameraman Jacques Marquette.

The motion picture was middlingly directed by William Witney . This prolific filmmaker Witney was a craftsman who worked a lot for Republic Pictures , the studio where he laboured for many years churching out a series of short budget westerns , many of them starred by singing cowboys as Roy Rogers and Gene Autry . Witney spent his entire career making serials and second-features, one of them this 40 Guns at Apache Pass, as well as Rifles Apaches. After WWII William Witney went on directing western films as Shadows of Tombstone , Heart of Rockies , Bells of Coronado , The painted stallion, The Lone ranger , Home in Oklahoma, On the Old spanish trail, High Time in Nevada , Gay Ranchero, Helldorado , Rex Ryder , Eyes of Texas , among others. In addition , his television work included some quite interesting episodes of successful series, such as : High Chaparral , Bonanza , Laramie , Zorro , The Virginian, Wagon Train and he followed working in cinema and was capable to make passable films in medium budgets as Santa Fe Passage , The Bonnie Parker story , Robur and Escaped from Devil Island . Rating : 5.5/10 . An acceptable and decent , at times, Western that will appeal to Audie Murphy fans.

Here's the bad news about this film. It has a ridiculous narration that keeps telling us what we don't need to be told. And the music is hit or miss, sometimes appropriate to what's being shown, and sometimes seriously off, sounding like merry go round music when major action is happening.

If those things were corrected, then the rest of the film's flaws are lesser and could have been put up with. The acting is good in some parts and with other actors not quite good enough. The story is OK and has some thrilling bits in the last half.

If you're an Audie Murphy fan, then you may want to watch this, but it's not as good as some of his earlier films.

So sad, why didn't he change over to modern action films.

40 Guns to Apache Pass is directed by William Witney and written by Willard and Mary Willingham. It stars Audie Murphy and Kenneth Tobey. Music is by Richard LaShelle and Jaques R. Marquette photographs it in Pathe Color with location work coming at Lovejoy Buttes, Red Rock Canyon and North Ranch in California.

The Apaches, led by Cochise (Michael Keep), are on the warpath and vowing to kill all whites they come across. Captain Bruce Coburn (Murphy) is in charge of leading homesteaders out of harms way. But there is unrest in the band of men under his charge and mutiny is afoot.

This was the last but one film Murphy made before retiring, you feel that he hoped this would be a fitting swan song to his career. It wasn't. Saddled with a weak script and surrounded by wooden supporting actors, Murphy alone can't make this lacklustre, cliché riddled, Western work. There's some nice scenery shot by Witney and Marquette, but with LaShelle scoring it like an episode of Scooby Doo the impact is lost. It would be easy to blame director Witney, a man more than capable of stringing together an action based movie, but asking him to try and make this particular screenplay stretch to over an hour and half was asking for the impossible.

3/10 for Murphy's manful efforts to carry such a low-budget, routine and forgettable piece.

Director William Witney is no John Ford. But it's doubtful that even the great Ford could have done anything with this lame western which has possibly one of the dullest screenplays ever written.

Saddled with bad material, it's no wonder that AUDIE MURPHY finds himself floundering about in a role that's so poorly written, he never has a chance. The actor himself admitted to being a "no talent" when it came to screen acting, and here he really gets his chance to prove it. The only other respectable performance in the film is given by KENNETH TOBEY, usually Mr. Nice, here cast as the bad guy who wants to sell rifles to the Indians and ends up in a heap of trouble when Audie decides to single-handedly take care of the situation and put Tobey and his cronies out of business. It takes more than an hour to get to this situation and by that time it's doubtful whether anyone was left watching.

Filmed in muddy color with some interesting background scenery the only thing to dwell on during long stretches of dull dialog, it's no wonder Murphy's career was in decline by the time he did this film away from his home studio, Universal. Unfortunately, a tragic plane accident took his life only a few years later.