''Ambush at Cimarron Pass'' is a 1958 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by Jodie Copelan and starring

Scott Brady Scott Brady (born Gerard Kenneth Tierney; September 13, 1924 – April 16, 1985) was an American film and television actor best known for his roles in Western films and as a ubiquitous television presence. He played the title role in the televi ...

and

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

(third billed, later first billed upon reissue). The film also features

Margia Dean Marguerite Louise Skliris-Alvarez ( Skliris; April 7, 1922 – June 23, 2023), known by her stage name Margia Dean (name is pronounced as Mar-juh) was an American beauty queen and stage and screen actress of royal Greek descent, who had a career ...

Irving Bacon Irving Ernest Bacon (September 6, 1893 – February 5, 1965) was an American character actor who appeared in almost 500 films. Early years Bacon was the son of entertainers Millar West Bacon (who was a teenager) and Myrtle Vane. He was born ...

, Frank Gerstle, Baynes Barron, and William Vaughn. It is the only feature film ever directed by Copelan, who was primarily a

film editor Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...

Plot

The survivors of a

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of Military organization, military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and United States, U.S. doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a fireteam, ...

of cavalry led by Sergeant Blake are escorting a prisoner, Corbin, back to their fort. Corbin had been attempting to sell

repeating rifle A repeating rifle is a single-barreled rifle capable of repeated discharges between each ammunition reload. This is typically achieved by having multiple cartridges stored in a magazine (within or attached to the rifle) and then fed individually ...

s to the

Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...

, and the cavalry are now carrying the rifles. They encounter the survivors of a Texas

cattle drive Droving is the practice of walking livestock over long distances. It is a type of herding, often associated with cattle, in which case it is a cattle drive (particularly in the US). Droving stock to market—usually on foot and often with the ...

, all former

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

soldiers led by Sam Prescott, who include the young Keith Williams who still hates northerners and has to be restrained from shooting Blake. While the two groups are discussing their predicament, the Apache deliver a bound Teresa Santos, a young woman who is the only survivor of a raid on a nearby ranch. It turns out this was a distraction so the Apache could steal the group's horses. Blake and Prescott agree to join forces and continue on foot to the fort, through Cimarron Pass. Judge Stanfield, a survivor in Prescott's party, suggests trading the rifles to the Apache for their horses, but Blake dismisses this on the basis that the rifles are the only means they have of defending themselves against the superior Apache numbers. When Blake ignores Stanfield's threats of criminal charges, Stanfield plots with Keith to overthrow Blake's command. Several of the group, mostly Blake's men, are killed or wounded in skirmishes or ambushes, including Blake's Indian scout, Henry. Johnny Willow takes over scouting duties, while Teresa flirts with Keith. Stanfield encourages Keith, who is annoyed at Blake's leadership and the way Prescott and Johnny are going along with it, to mutiny. Keith's first attempt is interrupted by an Apache attack but, in the aftermath, he challenges Blake, who easily defeats him. After this, Keith largely falls into line and decides to take out his anger on the Apache rather than Blake. During an Apache attack, Stanfield frees Corbin so that he can complete the deal with the Apache, but Corbin betrays and kills him. Corbin then attempts to deliver some of the rifles, but the Apache kill him on sight and Blake's group is able to recover them. Blake decides to raid the Apache camp and drive off their horses, to remove their advantage. The raid is successful in stampeding the horses, but escalates into a battle in which Johnny Willow and most of the Apache are killed. During the fighting, Blake rescues Teresa from an Apache warrior, and she kisses him. The raid seems to end the direct threat from the Apache but the group is still short of food and water. As they continue towards the fort, Teresa collapses from exhaustion and Blake realises that the rifles are too heavy to carry any further. Rather than let them fall into the hands of the Apache he orders them to be burned. The final shot is of the fort, suggesting that the group reached safety.

Cast

as Sergeant Matt Blake *

as Teresa Santos *

as Keith Williams *

as Judge Stanfield * Frank Gerstle as Capt. Sam Prescott * Ray Boyle as Johnny Willows (billed as Dirk London) * Baynes Barron as Corbin the Gunrunner *William Vaughn as Henry the Scout *

Ken Mayer Ken Mayer (June 25, 1918 – January 30, 1985) was an American actor best known for his portrayal of Major Robbie Robertson in the 1950s television series, '' Space Patrol''. Career Following service in the United States Army Air Corps' int ...

as Corporal Schwitzer *John Damler as Private Zach *Keith Richards as Private Lasky *John Frederick as Private Nathan (billed as John Merrick)

Production

The film was made by Regal Films Inc. It was one of a two-picture deal Scott Brady signed with Regal the other being '' Blood Arrow''.

, at the time best known for his performance in ''

Lafayette Escadrille The La Fayette Escadrille () was the name of the French Air Force unit escadrille N 124 during the First World War (1914–1918). This escadrille of the History of the Armée de l'Air (1909–1942)#World War I (1914–1918), ''Aéronautique Mil ...

,'' was cast in September 1957.

Reception

Most film guides include in their entry for this film a quote attributed to Eastwood, "probably the lousiest Western ever made." Eastwood recalled how he felt when he saw the film at a movie theatre. In a 1978 interview he said he felt "really depressed" at the time and said of the film "It was sooo bad I just kept sinking lower and lower in my seat. I said to my wife 'I'm going to quit, I'm really going to quit. I gotta go back to school, I got to start doing something with my life.' " The notes on pages 553 and 554 indicate these quotes came from an article in the April 1978 issue of Crawdaddy magazine. The film was never released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

. It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

by Olive Films in 2012.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, id=0051349
''Ambush at Cimarron Pass''
at BFI
''Ambush at Cimarron Pass''
at TCMB 1958 films 1958 Western (genre) films 20th Century Fox films American black-and-white films American Western (genre) films Western (genre) cavalry films Apache Wars films 1958 directorial debut films Films scored by Paul Sawtell Films scored by Bert Shefter 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language Western (genre) films