Tragique odyssée

As has been said before, this is "The African Queen" out west. Colleen Gray does well and is far easier on the eyes than the starchy Katherine Hepburn.

If I had to put my finger on the film's weakness, it would be Jeff Morrow. He plays a drunken ex-cavalryman like a skid row alcoholic. Morrow's character is an experienced man of the west despite his drinking problem, yet when getting ready to set out across the desert, he packs 10 times more whiskey than food or water. Drinking that much alcohol in the western desert would kill him faster than the Indians.

The movie neither explores the humor of mismatched people, nor the drama of weak people rising to meet a challenge. This them was also better done in "Heaven Knows Mr. Allison" with Robert Mitchum & Deborah Kerr.

The writing is bad but I can't help feeling that a different B actor like Lee Marvin for example, could have done more with a limited script. Marvin always found the humor in the tough guy. He also know how to play drunks.

Morrow doesn't show any shame at his condition, yet he's a former cavalryman. He does show some competence once Gray disposes of his liquor.

Tenpercent's review pretty much nails my view of this stinker. Yep, a very, VERY badly-written "African Queen" rip-off.

Too bad, because there are actually a few tinkling of something really good beneath all the stink. Well, basically the tinklings are all due to Coleen Gray. Good Lord, is she beautiful, and a fine actress to boot. I had never heard of her before seeing this film, and am amazed that she wasn't more famous.

Jeff Morrow is so bad in this, I'm shocked to see he still had a career afterward.

But the real culprit is whatever drug-addict wrote the screenplay. Painful.

If you have never seen Coleen Gray, it is worth watching the first 20 minutes or so (until she lets her hair down and bathes in the river.) After that, it's simply torture.

i have not seen this film for over 40 years, at least. i loved it then and long to see if my memories of it have held up over the years. the main character was sleeping off a drunk in the jail house when the indians attack and left him the sole survivor. his journey has him meet the female lead, for a person of my age there was some "mushy stuff" but there was a few scenes that were erotic and may even hold up, today. if there is any way to see this film again, i am waiting to find out.

The first problem that Copper Sky has is that when you give a film a title of that with all the images of desert heat that the mind conjures up, color would have been essential. But this was a B western and the budget just didn't call for it.

That was a pity because this could have gotten a notch or two higher in the ratings from me. Pedestrian direction was also a problem. The obvious comparison to The African Queen has been made by many. Let's not forget that in addition to Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, The African Queen also had the services of John Huston.

Jeff Morrow plays a former cavalryman jailed for shooting an Apache because he was in the vicinity of the killing and scheduled to be hanged. But an interesting twist of fate as Morrow is locked in his cell passed out dead drunk, the entire town is massacred with him the only survivor. I'm still trying to figure out how he got out of the locked cell.

But he did whereupon he runs into new school teacher Coleen Gray, fresh from Boston and experiencing her first encounter with hostile Apaches. The two are forced together by circumstance to seek shelter and safety and to do it they have to cross the desert.

Like Hepburn and Bogey, Morrow and Gray are on screen together most of the film and they have the burden carrying it. A director like John Huston would have helped enormously.

Copper Sky is a decent enough programmer, but it had potential that was squandered.

A Boston school marm out West meets the sole survivor of an Indian massacre, a drunk in jail. Alcoholic former cavalryman Hack Williams is arrested for killing an Indian, something he did not do. The townspeople, fearful of Apache reprisals, plan to hang Williams in hopes of heading off an attack. But the attack comes and Hack, locked in his jail cell, is the only survivor as a massacre occurs. Into the scene of carnage arrives schoolteacher Nora Haynes. Together she and Williams must find a way to reach safety before another Indian attack. But the pair are by no means well-matched, and their trip alone across the desert is not destined to be an easy one. This is a fine Western with a very fine cast.Try it. You'll like it!