The production certainly saves on make-up since there's not a woman in sight. It's all about a 10-man posse setting out after a bad man, but ending up mouse-trapped by Apaches in dry desert badlands. The movie plays much better if you haven't seen The Lost Patrol (1934) of which this is a virtual remake with a transposed setting. The premise is a good one as we get to know the posse members before they get picked off by the shadowy Apaches. Barrat is excellent as the stalwart sheriff, showing why he was such a fixture in movies of the 30's and 40's. Addison Richards shines too, as a tough guy, before becoming the more familiar silver- haired business executive of the 40's and 50's. And, of course, there's the lugubrious Andy Clyde, along with a rather shifty Noah Beery Jr. of Rockford Files fame.
Unfortunately, the wagon-load of tension coming from the premise is not equaled on screen since events unfold rather loosely, without the kind of tension that John Ford gets, for example, in The Lost Patrol. As a result, the movie is more interesting than riveting; at the same time, when pay-off's occur, there's not the involvement that makes for memorable viewing. And I think it a mistake for both this film and the 1934 one to show the attackers in the end. Instead, let them remain an unseen "force of nature" since that's how they're portrayed to that point. Nonetheless, this is a Western that certainly doesn't follow the formula horse operas of the day.
In passing—I don't know if it's the presence of Paul Hurst and Francis Ford or maybe the posse theme, but the movie reminds me in ways of the classic Ox-Bow Incident of 1943.
Unfortunately, the wagon-load of tension coming from the premise is not equaled on screen since events unfold rather loosely, without the kind of tension that John Ford gets, for example, in The Lost Patrol. As a result, the movie is more interesting than riveting; at the same time, when pay-off's occur, there's not the involvement that makes for memorable viewing. And I think it a mistake for both this film and the 1934 one to show the attackers in the end. Instead, let them remain an unseen "force of nature" since that's how they're portrayed to that point. Nonetheless, this is a Western that certainly doesn't follow the formula horse operas of the day.
In passing—I don't know if it's the presence of Paul Hurst and Francis Ford or maybe the posse theme, but the movie reminds me in ways of the classic Ox-Bow Incident of 1943.