Wednesday, April 1, 2020

BLOOD ON THE ARROW 1964 (SHOUT TV)

Interesting western.

Sidney Salkow directed this 1964 Allied Artists production starring Dale Robertson as an escaped convict named Wade Cooper.

The film opens with Cooper being escorted to prison by members of the US Cavalry. They are attacked by a renegade group of Indians who leave them all for dead. Cooper survives and makes his way to a river before he collapses.

He is then found by a beautiful woman named Nancy Mailer (Martha Hyer) who brings him home where her husband Clint (Wendell Corey) and son Tim (Dandy Curran) are working a gold mine. Clint knows who Cooper is and doesn't want him around, but Nancy wants to help him.

Wade is nursed back to health just in time for the renegade Indians to attack again and kidnap Tim and hold the child hostage until Clint brings them some rifles he has promised them in exchange for he and his wife's lives.

Wade has Clint bring him some friends from his old gang and offers to rescue the boy as well as deliver the rifles. However, some double crosses and other problems throw a wrench into the plans and soon Wade finds himself fighting his gang members as well as Clint and the Indians.

I found myself really enjoying this sometimes confusing western. It has a lot of action and beautiful color. The leads all play their roles very well, but Robertson has always seemed, at least to me, a little out of place in westerns. I cannot explain this feeling I have.

The rest of the cast includes such veterans as Ted de Corsia, Elisha Cook, Jr., Paul Mantee, Tom Reese, Robert Carricart and Boyce Wright.

If you're a westerns fan, you might want to check this out as it doesn't disappoint and Hyer is always worth watching.

No comments:

Post a Comment