James Garner and Sidney Poitier western.
Sidney Poitier relishes the opportunity to play a cool gambler gunfighter dude, with less emphasis on racial connotations, but his character is not central to the story.
James Garner is the central figure here, seeking the killer of his Indian wife.
With Bibi Anderson as the woman who was captured by the Indians and had a child by the son of a chief, who is then rescued and treated as an outcaste back in the white mans world.
While Dennis Weaver is her formerly loving husband who can't forgive her either.
And Bill Travers is a cavalry Lieutenant who wants to make a glorious name for himself, is a friend of Garners, a former rival of Poitiers and due to be married in a few days...
So it could have ended up being very soapy, but the director does a good job of keeping it all moving along with some decent action.
And the film manages to have it's cake and eat it too, with the plight of the Indians treated sympathetically, while still casting them as the dangerous enemy who must be survived and defeated.
The music and the opening credits have a distinctly swinging 60s flavour to them, but fortunately that doesn't spill over into the rest of the movie.
Review of Duel at Diablo
