La femme apache

Never forget that Roger Corman directed science fiction films during the fifties decade, mostly, and this western - with a couple of others - was an exception. So, he was not a western specialist, he was not Lesley Selander or Ray Nazarro. But he was damn better than Sam Newfield. However concerning this plot, Newfield could have done the equivalent in terms of quality. It is a good little western though bringing nothing special, compared to others I have seen in my movie buff life. It deserves to be seen only for Corman, to help you to fill his filmography. Joan Taylor is the most interesting character of this movie.

"Apache Woman" is perhaps a well intended film, but horrid and stilted dialog make this one a chore to watch, even with a decent performance by Lloyd Bridges in the lead.

The story is set in an old west town near the Apache reservation. There have been some recent robberies and the locals just KNOW it was the Apaches. Of course, this is just an excuse for the local scum to go on a killing spree. The man sent there by Washington is Rex Moffat (Lloyd Bridges) but he has his hands full because it seems no one, including the local sheriff, wants to see a peaceful resolution to the problem. The story also centers on sister and brother who are half Apache...and the hatred of them by pretty much everyone but Rex.

The film seems to have good intentions, calling for peace and brotherhood. But the terrible dialog and mediocre acting doom this one...as well as the acting by the female lead which is pretty emotional....but not very believable. Watchable...but nothing more....and similar material has been done better.

By the way, this Roger Corman film is on YouTube but the print is VERY faded and yellowed.

The movie starts with a street fight between a cowboy and Anne LeBeau (Joan Taylor) who is half Apache, half white. The fight is about the white town people blaming the Apache for the various crimes in the area. By watching this scene, I know why I'm watching a Roger Corman movie. I'm not an expert on Roger Corman movies, but I think he is always trying to make his movies different from other movies by doing scenes that no other director would do.

The theme of the film is what makes this western somewhat different from other westerns. Corman is trying to deal with prejudice between the Indians and the white people. Anne LeBeau who is a 'halfbreed' lives with her brother some miles out of the Apache reservation. Her brother, Armand LeBeau (Lance Fuller), is leader of a band of outlaws who are committing the crimes the Apache are blamed for. The town people want military troops from the government, but they send Rex Muffett (Lloyd Bridges). He starts an investigation, and he starts with Anne. Anne, who thinks she belongs to the Apache refuses to help him, but somehow the fall in love anyway. Rex suspects Armand, and questions Anne some more, who is now troubled by the fact that Rex might be right. What is she going to do? Betray the Apache by turning her brother in? Or be responsible for a war between the Apache and the white men, by protecting her brother. This is an interesting notion, but I think it's poorly played out in the film. At the end Rex and his men are trying to ambush Armand and his men. It ends in a plain ol' shooting festival with Rex and Armand in a fist fight, with Armand falling off a cliff. I think Corman could do a lot more with the theme in his film. By showing more of the tension between the Indians and the townspeople, there would be a lot more tension in the film, and then we could understand better why Anne has such problems. I think the story is OK, the acting is OK (Lance Fuller does a great job at playing Armand LeBeau), the casting is OK, everything is OK. That makes it a very dull movie. It had potential, but in the end it turns out to be just another Hollywood western.

This film essentially begins with a government expert on Indian affairs by the name of "Rex Moffett" (Lloyd Bridges) being sent out west to investigate the murders of several white settlers from a town near an Apache reservation. Since all of the evidence indicates that the Apaches are responsible the people of the town have become quite upset and demand immediate military action by the army-or else. To make matters even more complicated, the townspeople also believe that a half-blood Apache by the name of "Armand LeBeau" (Lance Fuller) and his sister "Anne LeBeau" (Joan Taylor) are also responsible and should be punished as well. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a mediocre, grade-B Western which barely manages to pass the time. To that extent, none of the actors really stood out all that much either and for that reason I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

If Corman's first film reminded me of Sam Peckinpah's work to some limited degree, Apache Woman probably reminds me of the earliest of John Ford westerns. It's a land fight between two groups of people, and it's kind of standard fare. There's some effort at character-based storytelling with the central character being torn between cultures, but it's ultimately just kind of lost in a series of double crosses that were pretty predictable from the beginning as Corman's films show a burgeoning pattern of going in circles to fill out running time.

Anne LeBeau (John Taylor) is a half-breed, her mother an Apache and her father a white man, who has moved to this remote Western town with her brother, Armand (Lance Fuller) to try and create a life on her terms. When the film starts, she's in a knife fight with a local who called her a half-breed, the fight getting broken up by the federal officer Rex (Lloyd Bridges). He's been brought in to help the local sheriff (Paul Birch) figure out what's going on in the town. There have been a series of raids blamed on the local Apache tribe, the townspeople working themselves up into a frenzy to deal with it.

So, the film really has two things running through it (well, I guess three since Rex tries to romance Anne): Anne dealing with her half-breed nature and the plot mechanics of Rex investigating the raids to see if it really is the Apache. This is solid fodder for a full film, but the script by Lou Rusoff just doesn't know how to fill the time. I don't want to say that it's a complete waste of the concept, though. Anne's self-doubt about the situation that develops is something and carries through dramatically to some degree, but the solution is just too predictable from about the ten minute mark.

It's when Anne starts instinctively lying to cover for Armand's presence or lack thereof at home that the film just gives the game away. There's really only one way that matters to interpret that when even Anne doesn't know what Armand is doing, and the inclusion of Armand's sketchy friend Macy (Morgan Jones) who's obviously up to no good makes it even clearer.

So all we really have are plot mechanics to get us towards the ending we can already see from the very beginning, Anne's occasional mentions about how she's caught between worlds and must make her own way, and Rex's occasional, and sometimes creepy, efforts at courting her in the middle of his investigation. It's not much even for a short 80 minute long film.

Which leaves the production design to talk about. Using backlots and established buildings, just like on Five Guns West, Corman makes the most of his tiny budget and gets good images consistently with the help of his DP Floyd Crosby, but the black and white photography tends to feel cheaper than the color photography of the previous film. Black and white tends to need greater care for better images than color, and Corman simply shot too quickly to give that facet of the film the kind of attention it really required.

So, it's standard Western stuff. The kind of thing you'd expect to see in a double bill to fill the time. It's not good, but it's not terrible. It shows a familiarity with the pieces that go into a story and a movie but no attention to draw out the kind of hidden depths the scenario could elicit. It's fine. It's content for the 50s. It's no more than that.