Most of the handful of review here compare "Apache War Smoke" to "Stagecoach", the Wayne/Ford classic, but I saw the latter around 40 years ago so cannot remember the fine details as much as other reviewers.
I just watched it, not expecting much and was very pleasantly surprised. The always charming and likeable Gilbert Roland is Peso, a drifter who likes money and the ladies. He kicks the movie off with his arrival at a station managed by his son, played by "Wagon Train" star, Robert Horton, with a view to helping himself to some loot. Apaches attack the station in revenge for someone in the station having killed some of their tribe. I didn't really know who that was until later in the film and I won't reveal it here, but suffice to say it leads to some pretty convincing action, with well staged fights. There is a very large army of Apaches on the warpath here, more than I would normally expect in a small B picture and it adds to the thrills. We do not see them close up so we don't have the embarrassment of seeing white actors playing Indians which was so prevalent in the 1950's so they look more authentic.
A really well acted little western with a great cast of supports. Glenda Farrell, famous for early gangster movies, Gene Lockhart, always a steadfast character, here the boss of the station master, the lovely Barbara Ruick, most famous for "Carousel" a few years after, the great character actor Harry Morgan who ended up in "MASH" and regular baddie, Myron Healy, who seemed to be in every western made at that time.
Don't take it too seriously and you may enjoy it as much as I did.
I just watched it, not expecting much and was very pleasantly surprised. The always charming and likeable Gilbert Roland is Peso, a drifter who likes money and the ladies. He kicks the movie off with his arrival at a station managed by his son, played by "Wagon Train" star, Robert Horton, with a view to helping himself to some loot. Apaches attack the station in revenge for someone in the station having killed some of their tribe. I didn't really know who that was until later in the film and I won't reveal it here, but suffice to say it leads to some pretty convincing action, with well staged fights. There is a very large army of Apaches on the warpath here, more than I would normally expect in a small B picture and it adds to the thrills. We do not see them close up so we don't have the embarrassment of seeing white actors playing Indians which was so prevalent in the 1950's so they look more authentic.
A really well acted little western with a great cast of supports. Glenda Farrell, famous for early gangster movies, Gene Lockhart, always a steadfast character, here the boss of the station master, the lovely Barbara Ruick, most famous for "Carousel" a few years after, the great character actor Harry Morgan who ended up in "MASH" and regular baddie, Myron Healy, who seemed to be in every western made at that time.
Don't take it too seriously and you may enjoy it as much as I did.