Apache Blood (1973) User Reviews

Has its Moments... but they are few and far between

[mstomaso · 3/10 · 23 January 2008]

Apache Blood is a low-budget western exploitation flick aimed at the audience that appreciated some of the less realistic Native American-oriented films of the early 70s, such as Billy Jack.

What Apache Blood does effectively is to establish a life or death adversarial relationship between two sympathetic characters who are pitted against each other mainly because of prejudice and circumstance. However, once this is established, the film deteriorates into a badly directed, poorly filmed, seemingly unedited series of lengthy desert pans and weird apparently unplanned and unscripted scenes of Chief Yellow Shirt (Ray Danton) chasing down Sam Glass (Dewitt Lee), with orchestral music inappropriately wandering about in the background. Some of the scenes are actually laughable, not because of execution, but because of content.

The two big problems here are editing and directing. The story line is a cliché, but it is compelling enough to carry the film and the script because it is so minimal, works. What kills Apache Blood is the 40 or so minutes of unnecessary pans, zooms, and lengthy, uninteresting and unconvincing chase scenes. The story had about an hour's worth of interesting material, and this would have been a fine 1970s desert western had it been cut to about 45 minutes.

Thankfully, Danton and Lee dominate most of the film. The rest of the cast is pretty awful, and the poor editing does not enhance anybody's talent.

Two last remarks... If you enjoy surrealist 1970s westerns, you may want to see this... and if you make it half-way through the film, the end is definitely worth sticking around for.

The Existentialist 70s Western As Craparoni With Cheese

[Steve_Nyland · 3/10 · 13 June 2007]

This is perhaps the most existentialist of the existentialist Westerns made in the US during the 1970s paranoia years when filmmakers re-defined the Western into a movie that wasn't supposed to be enjoyed. With that in mind this is perhaps the perfect example of the idiomatic shift since it is not enjoyable in any conventional sense of the term and is so existential in nature that one starts to project themselves sitting in front of a different television watching a different movie. Heavy. Matinée icon Ray Danton was coaxed out of semi-retirement by something along the lines of a palimony lawsuit and convinced to appear in this movie for enough chump change to pay his lawyer, and from the bravely solemn look on his face during the film's runtime (he has no dialog, period) one can presume that he lost the case. In any event he is cast as "Yellow Shirt", a fictional Native American renegade Apache who went on a murder spree to avenge the deaths of the Native tribe slaughtered at the conclusion of SOLDIER BLUE, which the writers of this movie obviously saw during it's 1975 re-release.

So moved were they by that film's carnage that they dreamed up the idea of having the Apaches avenge their mistreatment at the hands of Yankee cavalry troops. Either that or they were just ripping off any one of the myriad of other movies that were made by likewise minded young semi-independent filmmakers who were also moved by SOLDIER BLUE's concluding 20 minutes -- see CRY BLOOD APACHE, APACHE MASSACRE, and Bruno Mattei's SCALPS for more information. And better film-making, for that matter. There are times when extreme low budget and lack of talent in front of and behind the camera can excuse what turns out to be an inept project, but this isn't one of them. It was ineptly made by people lacking even the smallest degree of talent who gave their all & came up empty, and the majority of those involved were correctly never allowed to work in the industry ever again.

The movie appears to have been filmed over a period of roughly nine days by a group of people drawn together by a shared, common artistic urge to make a really crummy movie that would pack a nihilistic message into it's last 3 minutes, the more nihilistic and existentialist the better, and as such the film concludes with a sequence who's ambiguity is only outdone by the artlessness with which it was executed. The most artful thing in the film is a charcoal drawing of Ray Danton in his Injun brave makeup that is panned by a camera adjustment to a rendering of a fallen Apache by his tepee, which is perhaps an effort to compensate for the Apache Massacre which triggered this series of events only being mentioned as a voice-over narration.

This is heavy stuff, as I mentioned, and Danton is joined on his spree by a couple of other schnooks the director knew, who's Injun brave costumes consist of over-sized chamois shirts, some war paint & a headband, and their underwear. The cavalry soldiers (two of him were the film's writers) wear their own department store Levis with what appear to be identical bowling league shirts, and the weapons shown all look suspiciously like cap guns from the local K-Mart. As such none of the killings shown save one involve anyone being shot: The most imaginative is an homage to DEATH RIDES A HORSE where one of the evil cavalry hicks is buried up to his neck in the dirt whilst the Injunts play polo with his head.

The movie is unremittingly grim, mean spirited, cheap, and surprisingly uneventful even after the supporting cast has been whittled away and the movie devolves into an homage to Cornel Wilde's THE NAKED PREY as the surviving cavalry guide and Yellow Shirt engage in a mano a mano footrace to reach a stockaded compound that reminds me of a KOA Campgrounds main office. Between images of the two flaking out we are treated to hallucinations of their women waiting anxiously back at home, and the movie climaxes in a twist ending that is the very epitome of the word "underwhelming."

And yet, while being awful in the truest sense of the word, this utterly forgettable little movie actually manages to be more sincere than it's source material, SOLDIER BLUE, in that it never bothers to be anything more than an ultra cheap, grimy, thick-skulled exploitation film masquerading as an existentialist paranoid years Western. There is no star power at work, no politics, no dogma and no lessons on survival from Candice Bergen. Just a cheap, pathetic, filthy little movie that has very rightfully been relegated to obscurity on appropriately dingy, tattered fullframe home video prints that have very correctly been allowed to fall out of print. But you can find it on a 50 movie box set called -- apparently just for the hell of it -- "Gunslinger Classics" with 49 other haggard, unkempt and uncared for home video prints of movies that will all undoubtedly be better. It may not be much compensation but in this case it will have to do.

3/10

Mediocre Drive-In Western

[FightingWesterner · 4/10 · 22 November 2009]

Another Indian treaty is broken and the angry Apaches, led by Hollywood/exploitation veteran Ray Danton, are massacring any blue-coat they come across. Meanwhile, a civilian Army scout is mauled by a bear and left for dead by his troop, much like Richard Harris in Man In The Wilderness. (a much better film)

The enjoyment (or non-enjoyment) of Apache Blood is entirely dependent on one's tolerance for no-budget drive-in schlock.

The film is told with minimal dialog and almost entirely in pictures with familiar library music blaring away, keeping it from being totally boring but also hampering the story a bit as well.

After a lousy ending, the final eight or so minutes is a complete waste of time with a long slow-motion sequence recounting all the movie's violent moments, as well as an artist's rendering of Danton as the Apache explored at length by the camera!

Low Budget Chase With A Twist

[geomst3kfreak · 5/10 · 2 June 2007]

I absolutely do not understand why anyone would post a comment to a movie they hadn't bothered watching all the way through. Thank God for the internet, keeping these folks off the streets! I have not seen Apache Blood in years, but my recollection of it should be more useful than the "didn't watch it...fast-forwarded...made snide remarks" review that appeared previously. I saw it on the late, late movie, with commercials, several years before my area was even wired for cable! Apache Blood is a low-budget, independent effort, with only one "name" in the cast. It's a western concerning a soldier's efforts to get back to his fort while being pursued by an Apache, played by Ray Danton. I don't recall a great deal of dialog, but the movie managed to hold my attention to the end. The tone established in the first 99% of the movie abruptly changes at the end; I was never sure how I felt about that, but it was definitely a surprise! If you enjoy cheap little indies, you should like this one.

Not good!

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 30 December 2018]

When "Apache Blood" begins, Danton himself provides some narration over some credits which seemed cheap and hastily added to the movie. It seems that a treaty has been broken and Yellow Shirt (Danton) is determined to fight the American government. What follows are some cavalry folks being stalked by Yellow Shirt and being picked off one by one.

Technically, the movie is a mess. In addition to the narration, the actors throughout the film sound as if they were recorded in a phone booth...a weirdly bad sound track! And, it doesn't get any better when it comes to the cinematography and editing. In particular, the edits are jumpy and illogically made...as if the editor simply had no idea what they were doing in many cases. The acting, at times, is amateurish. In many ways, the film looks as if many of the people making it had no experience in the business and they were simply learning by doing....much like some of the Ed Wood films...though not nearly as fun to watch. It's not surprising that this film sat on the shelf for several years before it was finally released...a sure sign that a picture is a dud.

Overall, a dull and horridly made film...one that features little to endear it to anyone except for the staunchest Ray Danton fans...both of them.Suave, sophisticated Ray Danton as a Mescalero Apache warrior??

Better to watch it via fast forwarding

[boatierra · 1/10 · 14 January 2003]

This is truly one of the worst films I have had the misfortunate of seeing. It was my dad's turn to rent a film, and for some reason he came home 'Pursuit' a.k.a 'Apache Blood.' The fact that it is a western, piqued his interest. As we began to watch it, we recognized that the acting (what little there was) was horrid, and the plot, insipid. Upon this discovery, we realized that our evenings entertainment was ruined. But maybe not. My dad ingeniously decided to run the tape on fast forward while in play function. With a few added silly sound effects, what was drivel, turned into a hilarious father/daughter evening.

Unbelievably bad Western

[bellino-angelo2014 · 2/10 · 27 August 2019]

After a cavalry man is killed at the beginning, there is some stock footage with sloppily credits that must have been added at the last minute narrated by Ray Danton that explains that there was a treaty and Yellow Shirt (Danton) is fighting all by himself his personal war. The movie simply consists of Yellow Shirt that stalks these Cavalry men and takes them down one by one.

In every single aspect, this movie is horrible. Apart from the narration, there is barely any talking in the movie. And they almost all mumble incomprehensibly throughout. And when it comes to the cinematography it's even worse. From time to time some scenes jump illogically. In particular when the movie focuses on the last surviving man, there is some footage of desert animals (a owl, a group of pecaris and a rattlesnake that is thrown away) that simply doesn't make sense whatsoever.

All in all, a truly sad and wretched movie only of interest to bad movie fans or if you want to see once-respected actors in career suicide mode.

"Help me, somebody help me"!

[classicsoncall · 2/10 · 28 August 2010]

My summary quote was yelled out by mountain man Sam Glass (Dewiit Lee) as he wandered helplessly through the desert, but could just as well have been uttered by myself at just about any point in the flick. This one's not to be confused with "Cry Blood, Apache", up till now what I had considered to be the worst Western I'd ever seen. Slow, tedious and boring the first time around, the picture manages to fill some screen time with a laborious rehash of the high (low) points with a flashback sequence just before it wraps things up.

But as bad as it is, I tried to find some takeaway that might make it interesting for the casual observer. There's that scene when Sam launches what looks like a small rock at a hill climbing Apache giving chase, and it turns into a boulder just before hitting him in the head! And the mountain man's nightmarish chomp down on a hapless desert lizard is about as gross as you can get.

One thing I couldn't figure out - when Sam buried that cactus pad surprise in the dirt for the Indians on horseback, why would that have made any difference? Horses have hooves, how could that have possibly bothered them?

Ray Danton portrays Mescalero Apache Yellow Shirt, out to avenge renegade soldiers that wiped out members of his tribe. His name's not that well known today, perhaps only by followers of TV Westerns back in the day. My first look at him was in an episode of 'Lawman' starring John Russell. He played a gunman named Yawkey, and it was such a convincing portrayal that I consider that episode to be my favorite of the series.

You heard of B Westerns, this is a Z Western!

[The_Colonel · 1/10 · 13 July 2009]

This is basically the story of mountain man Hugh Glass worked over and placed later in the later Old West with him becoming a Cavalry scout and the other mountain men becoming cavalry troopers. Watch "Man In The Wilderness" and see the resemblance. Mr. Danton was the only actor in the whole movie while the rest were more than likely hired off the streets. Pass this one by! Low Budget? Yeah. This one must of been made with $1.98! I feel sorry for Mr. Danton as he was a terrific actor and this film was below his standards. The two scriptwriters were actors in this film. One played the scout and the other was the Agarn-looking trooper in the fort at the end of the flick who shot at the scout and Mr. Danton.

What it is and What it is not

[Eaglegrafix · 4/10 · 17 April 2010]

I came into possession of this film with the purchase of a 5 disk/20 movie set called "Spaghetti Westerns" Apache Blood does not belong in this collection but that is not my greatest disappointment with the film.

The story and its ending is the only value this film has and we will give 4 stars for that alone. No other effort in the making of this film deserves any stars at all. The directing is awful and the only thing worse is the editing which was probably done by the director. At first I thought that the film was a student project done by a student that flunked out of film school. It is a sin what was done to a provocative story about the treatment of the so called "Indians" (native Americans) because of the prejudice, bigotry and hate of the invaders of their land.

We make no comment on the acting. It is difficult to critique the actors performances with the obvious sub-amateurish directing. The director just did not know when to say "cut"; did not understand screen direction; did not know that one does not have to play the whole journey or day to communicate distance or time.

Extremely protracted scenes of being on the run or on the chase made this movie too long by 30-40 minutes. We can not blame the editor too much since the director probably provided minimal options. Then, to add even more, the end has a recap that is totally unnecessary and presumes the viewer won't understand the ending without it. Instead, if you do watch this movie, stop it when the recap begins as it only confuses what is the best part of the movie.

One reviewer here states that if you make it half way through then stick around for the end, its worth it.

Underatted Western Slasher

[Bezenby · 7/10 · 31 July 2012]

• This film gets a bad rap on reviews sites, but c'mon! You've got the director of the cheesy Psychic Killer dressed as an Indian, a Western slasher film that turns Rambo in the middle, then back to slasher mode again. This film is great!

Our Final Girl is a gruff guide for a troop of Yankees who's having a really bad day. Not only was he attacked by a bear, he was mistaken for dead and chucked in a shallow grave by his mates. Worse still, Ray Danton's crazed Apache and his sidekicks are on the warpath. No gun fights here, per se – this is stalk and slashtastic!

I got a bit worried when Danton seemingly killed all the Yankees in the space of the first half hour of this film, but this was when the guide turned the tables and started kicking Apache arse, setting cactus spike traps, and dropping rocks on people's heads.

I also started to worry a bit when the last half hour of the film seemed to boil down to one guy chasing another guy through the desert, but I didn't find this at all boring. Check out the guide having a tantrum at a rattlesnake! Also, there's a grim ending and a head scratching epilogue.

It looks to me like a lot of the gore was edited out of this film, although there's brief flashes here and there. Hardly any dialogue too, which may be why folks complain so much about this film. Well, that and the lack of any plot whatsoever. I enjoyed it, though. Don't go in expecting anything but a Z-grade Western slasher and you might like it too.

Low budget Western made on Hollywood's fringe with former heartthrob

[FrankiePaddo · 4/10 · 14 March 2005]

Ultra low budget, and not particularly good, western from the 70s. The vastly underrated Ray Danton shows what ruined his acting career... although he had been on the slide for some time. This was his third last film - he went on to direct, mainly in TV.

Still for those who enjoy watching films (as I do) made on Hollywood's fringe with former stars this is for you.

The reality is these types of films kept former leading actors (albeit some of them were second string leading men) working when they grew older and had been forgotten by the major studios. ( great actor stars like Rory Calhoun, Guy Madison, Cameron Mitchell, John Carradine and many more). It's would be quite a experience to go ( like Ray here) from "under contract to ...." to small B pictures and drive-in fair, but an actor has to pay the bills. And this fringe Hollywood can produce minor classics ( although this is not one of them) and must be an interesting place to work in. The only film to capture a bit of this fringe low budget Hollywood cinema successfully is Frank Oz and Steve Martin's comedy "Bowfinger".

As for the film itself, the direction is basic, the editing is rotten, and the acting is passable... just.( better direction could have helped). But still through it all Ray Danton shines, you can tell he is a breed apart from everyone else involved in the film.

Maybe not the WORST movie I've seen. Maybe.

[powelltolar · 1/10 · 8 December 2010]

I would call this movie a dog, except I like dogs. I've seen this movie compared to "Man In The Wilderness," but to me, it looked like "Naked Prey" set in the west. After being attacked by a bear in the cheesiest animal attack since the '30s, the main character tries to elude a group of Indians as he crosses a desert. The copy I saw was in a retail DVD collection, but the print looked like a 5th generation copy, murky and grainy. It might have been the transfer, but from the poor quality of the "acting" and the horrible editing, I suspect it was a $3 camera with WWII vintage film stock. Except for the fact that I was at a friend's house enjoying the conversation with this in the background, it would have been a waste of a couple of hours of my life. Avoid this pile of poo.

Ray Danton deserved better

[lonniebeale56 · 1/10 · 15 January 2013]

I feel so sorry for Ray Danton, who was such a fine established actor and Director. This is so bad,acting wise,I played Pogo while watching the movie,just so I could say I watched it all the way through. The writer must have had such a big ego to also play the central role and no wonder we never heard of him again. The script was close to Chato's land in context but what a difference when you have actors who know how to act. As for the music added to this film, what a joke, the suspense would have been greater with out it. I suggest they add this movie to the curriculum of any film school to show how not to write and make a movie. It is a sad legacy for Mr. Danton who deserves to be remembered for many other fine performances. As for one of the worst westerns ever made, it would go close, one can only assume the other actors are now retired or doing a 9- 5 job out of show business.

The Worst Western Ever Made

[NoDakTatum · 1/10 · 30 November 2023]

This mess ranks up there, or down there, with the absolute worst films ever made, Western or otherwise. Bold, unimportant narration tells us that Chief Yellow Shirt (Ray Danton) is hunting down white men because they broke a treaty. He and all three of his braves find a small squad of U. S. soldiers and take after them. Among the soldiers is Sam Glass (Dewitt Lee), a mountain man who is attacked by a bear in the funniest scene in the movie and left for dead. I assume one of the writers was familiar with "The Revenant" story. Sam eventually regains consciousness and starts fighting off the warriors while trying to catch up with the soldiers. Eventually, both sides are killed down to Yellow Shirt and Sam, who now race across the desert, try to outsmart each other, and survive wind storms, snakes, and hallucinations of their respective women.

I cannot give too much away from the ending because I am still trying to figure it out. Let me just say it is perhaps the stupidest plot twist of all time, and do not take this as a peaking of your curiosity to go find this thing. The editing seems to have been done with a chainsaw. This is beyond bad, this is so inept you will want to hurl things at the television, whether it be physical objects or your semi-digested lunch. The acting is terrible, the direction seems to have been achieved by my toddler, and the film is padded so heavily to stretch this to an hour and a half, you could use the screenplay as a flotation device in the event of a water landing. How this was made, marketed, dubbed onto video, and found its way to my local video store decades ago is a great mystery that may never be answered through the coming ages, but I guarantee you will be hard pressed to watch a more idiotic example of film making. Also known as "Pursuit," this is a waste of time and money.

Apache Blood

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 16 June 2022]

Not an Italian western - no matter how many YouTube channels tell you so - this movie was also released as Pursuit and A Man Called She. It stars Ray Danton, once the husband of Julie Adams and the narrator of Psychic Killer, as Yellow Shirt.

Shot under the title Sh'e ee Clit Soak (The Man Who Wore the Yellow Shirt in Apache), Yellow Shirt seeks revenge against the U. S. Calvary who killed most of his people.

Some sites report this as being directed by Tom Quillen, who could also be Vern Piehl or Vincent Powers. Vern Piehl was also the producer of this movie. They could be the same person. Or Quillen could be a stage director associated with the Arizona Repertory Theater and the Phoenix Musical Theater Guild. It was written by Dewitt and Jack Lee, who also wrote The Legend of Jedediah Carver.

Honestly, the question of who directed this is way more interesting than what they directed.