The man with a plan here was ex-Confederate Rebel Joe Barlow (Dan Duryea), who had a well thought out strategy for retrieving a shipment of gold stolen from the Union Army during the closing weeks of the Civil War. The story relates how he pitted his Southern cronies against each other and hijacked the only watering holes in the Staked Plains section of Comanche Territory. Which left the coast clear for him to do the same with Army Captain Matt Martin (Robert Fuller) and his band of volunteers as they tried to find the gold at the request of Union General Hood. This Barlow was a pretty sharp cookie.
There's a minor hitch in the works for all concerned with the appearance of Miss No Last Name Memphis (Jocelyn Lane), run out of Hays City by her former beau and sheriff Carter Drum (Don Collier) when he found a better catch. I don't know, Memphis looked pretty good to me and we never got to see who Drum threw her over for. Only thing is in Westerns like this, I could never figure how good looking gals, or any kind for that matter, managed to maintain their makeup in perfect condition throughout their entire trek through the desert. Lipstick, eye shadow, rouge, and never a smudge from wiping the sweat and grime off one's face - unbelievable!
Well this one proceeds along at a pretty standard pace with a band of Cheyennes trailing the gold hunters as their group gets whittled down through various means, mostly at the hands of bad guy Barlow. I couldn't help thinking Duryea borrowed his manic cackling bit from Richard Widmark for this picture, but Claude Akins' character proved even more of a nut case in his determination to get three more Indian scalps. I guess he couldn't foresee the consequences of attacking a half dozen Cheyenne all by himself. If Bugs Bunny were in this picture, he would have said, "Gee, what a maroon."
With a cool sounding title this was an okay Western, but that's about as far as I'll go. I thought the story might have been based on a real historical incident, but an internet search on the location brought up a bunch of hits for this picture and a place called Fort Phantom Hill in Texas. It was actually used by both Union and Confederate Armies during the Civil War, about the only connection this picture had with historical accuracy. No mention of stolen gold or any such incident as shown in the story.
There's a minor hitch in the works for all concerned with the appearance of Miss No Last Name Memphis (Jocelyn Lane), run out of Hays City by her former beau and sheriff Carter Drum (Don Collier) when he found a better catch. I don't know, Memphis looked pretty good to me and we never got to see who Drum threw her over for. Only thing is in Westerns like this, I could never figure how good looking gals, or any kind for that matter, managed to maintain their makeup in perfect condition throughout their entire trek through the desert. Lipstick, eye shadow, rouge, and never a smudge from wiping the sweat and grime off one's face - unbelievable!
Well this one proceeds along at a pretty standard pace with a band of Cheyennes trailing the gold hunters as their group gets whittled down through various means, mostly at the hands of bad guy Barlow. I couldn't help thinking Duryea borrowed his manic cackling bit from Richard Widmark for this picture, but Claude Akins' character proved even more of a nut case in his determination to get three more Indian scalps. I guess he couldn't foresee the consequences of attacking a half dozen Cheyenne all by himself. If Bugs Bunny were in this picture, he would have said, "Gee, what a maroon."
With a cool sounding title this was an okay Western, but that's about as far as I'll go. I thought the story might have been based on a real historical incident, but an internet search on the location brought up a bunch of hits for this picture and a place called Fort Phantom Hill in Texas. It was actually used by both Union and Confederate Armies during the Civil War, about the only connection this picture had with historical accuracy. No mention of stolen gold or any such incident as shown in the story.