''Taza, Son of Cochise'' is a 1954 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

Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for ...

and starring

Rock Hudson Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Gold ...

and

Barbara Rush Barbara Rush (born January 4, 1927) is an American actress. In 1954, Rush won the Golden Globe Award as most promising female newcomer for her role in the 1953 American science-fiction film ''It Came from Outer Space''.Warren 1982, pp. 151–63 ...

. The film was shot in 3D, and is one of just two films confirmed to have been released in the Pola-Lite 3D System using one projector.

Plot

Three years after the end of the

Apache Wars The Apache Wars were a series of armed conflicts between the United States Army and various Apache tribal confederations fought in the southwest between 1849 and 1886, though minor hostilities continued until as late as 1924. After the Mexi ...

, peacemaking chief Cochise dies. His elder son

Taza Taza ( ber, ⵜⴰⵣⴰ, ar, تازة) is a city in northern Morocco occupying the corridor between the Rif mountains and Middle Atlas mountains, about 120 km east of Fez and 150 km west of Al hoceima. It recorded a population of ...

(Rock Hudson) shares his ideas, but brother Naiche ( Bart Roberts) yearns for war...and for Taza's betrothed, Oona (Barbara Rush). Naiche loses no time in starting trouble which, thanks to a bigoted cavalry officer, ends with the proud Chiricahua Apaches on a reservation, where they are soon joined by the captured renegade

Geronimo Geronimo ( apm, Goyaałé, , ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache b ...

, who is all it takes to start a war.

Cast

as Taza *

as Oona * Gregg Palmer as Captain Burnett * Bart Roberts as Naiche *

Morris Ankrum Morris Ankrum (born Morris Nussbaum; August 28, 1897 – September 2, 1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor. Early life Born in Danville in Vermilion County in eastern Illinois, Ankrum originally began a career in ...

as Grey Eagle * Gene Iglesias as Chato * Richard H. Cutting as Cy Hegan *

Ian MacDonald Ian MacCormick (known by the pseudonym Ian MacDonald; 3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a British music critic and author, best known for both '' Revolution in the Head'', his critical history of the Beatles which borrowed techniques from ...

as Geronimo *

Robert Burton Robert Burton (8 February 1577 – 25 January 1640) was an English author and fellow of Oxford University, who wrote the encyclopedic tome '' The Anatomy of Melancholy''. Born in 1577 to a comfortably well-off family of the landed gentry, Bur ...

as General Crook * Joe Sawyer as Sgt. Hamma * Lance Fuller as Lt. Willis * Bradford Jackson as Lt. Richards (as Brad Jackson) * James Van Horn as Skinya * Charles Horvath as Kocha * Robert F. Hoy as Lobo (as Robert Hoy) * Barbara Burck as Mary * Dan White as Tiswin Charlie * Jeff Chandler as Cochise (uncredited) * Russell Johnson as Narrator (uncredited)

Production

It was the third time Jeff Chandler played Cochise, following '' Broken Arrow'' and ''

The Battle at Apache Pass ''The Battle at Apache Pass'' is a 1952 American Western film directed by George Sherman. The stars are John Lund as United States Army Maj. Colton and Jeff Chandler (in brownface) repeating the role of Apache chief Cochise, whom he had played ...

''. Parts of the film were shot in Castle Valley, Professor Valley, Sand Flats, Devil's Garden, and

Arches National Park Arches National Park is a national park in eastern Utah, United States. The park is adjacent to the Colorado River, north of Moab, Utah. More than 2,000 natural sandstone arches are located in the park, including the well-known Delicate Arch, ...

in Utah.

Acknowledgment in end credits

"We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properti ...

of the

United States Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the ma ...

whose splendid cooperation made possible the photography of scenes at Arches National Monument Park."

Home media availability

* Universal Home Video, in conjunction with

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

, released a

print-on-demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

Region 1 DVD DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to ...

of ''Taza, Son of Cochise'' in 2014. * KL Studio Classics released a new 2K 3D restoration of the title on Region A

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

in May 2020 in combined 3D and 2D formats.

References

External links

* *
Review of film
at ''Variety''
Taza, Son of Cochise
at th
3-D Film Archive
1954 films 1954 Western (genre) films 1954 3D films American Western (genre) films American 3D films Films about Native Americans Universal Pictures films Films directed by Douglas Sirk Films produced by Ross Hunter Films shot in Utah Films scored by Frank Skinner 1950s English-language films 1950s American films {{1950s-Western-film-stub