Review of Santa Fe Passage

Managing to be both standard and unusual at the same time, this western should entertain most viewers for its 91 minute running time. Payne plays a trail scout who, with his sidekick Pickens, helps wagon trains cross hostile Indian territory. After one of his jobs goes horribly wrong, he has trouble finding work until Cameron hires him to assist his team of packhorses (and three wagons) on a drive to Santa Fe. Also on the trip is tough, skeptical Gordon as the trail boss and Domergue, who plays Cameron's girlfriend and owner of the cargo being transported. Domergue has an Indian companion (Tedrow!) who combs her hair and gets her gussied up each night at camp in one pretty gown after another. Before long, a love triangle develops between Payne, Domergue and Cameron, with Domergue harboring a shameful secret. Meanwhile, the Indians (led by chief Keymas) try everything they can think of to destroy and loot the wagon train. Some of the usual "Pioneers versus the Indians" clichés are touched on here, but the film does have more than a few unique and interesting touches. (It must have the most authentically muddy city streets of any film from this period.) It's also quite picturesque and relatively full of action and interest. Payne does a decent job and shows off a still fit and trim physique (in a memorably uncomfortable scene involving being caught in his drawers by Domergue.) Domergue, outfitted with some distracting and anachronistic earrings, is also strong in her role, though her storyline borders on the preposterous. Cameron, who at 6'5" towers over everyone (making even 6 foot tall Payne seem diminutive!), is solid and tough throughout. He has a memorable scene involving the handling of a traitor. Pickens is authentic and mildly entertaining in his sidekick role. What really sends this flick into Bizarro-Land is the presence of Tedrow as an old Indian squaw. Stone-faced, smeared with tan Ben Nye make-up, borrowing Groucho Marx's eyebrows and speaking in a tone 3 octaves lower than usual, she is hysterically funny. Best of all is when she comes alive near the end of the film and turns into a knife-wielding Super Squaw, running at the speed of light, fiercely riding a horse and taking part in skirmishes with her enemies! No viewer of Tedrow as Miss Lucy Elkins on "Dennis the Menace" could ever have envisioned that she once played this role in a movie! The viewpoint towards Native Americans in the film is mostly the standard unsympathetic one of this time with some exceptions. Keymas is wounded at one point and sports some hilariously unconvincing injury makeup. One memorable sequence involves a very dusty pony stampede and the attempts to divert it. There's also a big "twist" ending that is completely discernible within the first 15 minutes of the film. It's a familiar type of tale, but one told with a diverse cast, lots of activity and some edge in the story and direction.