Ambush at Cimarron Pass

Jodie Copelan: Ambush at Cimarron Pass (US 1958) with Hollywood veteran Irving Bacon as Judge Stanfield and Clint Eastwood as Keith Williams. Clint's first major role in a theatrical feature film. He is third billed.

Le Cri des Apaches / Kuolemansola / Dödspasset.
    États-Unis / © 1958 Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. / PC: Regal Films, Inc. P: Herbert E. Mendelson.
    D: Jodie Copelan. SC: Richard G. Taylor & John K. Butler – story: Robert A. Reeds & Robert W. Woods. Cin: John M. Nickolaus, Jr. – b&w – RegalScope 2,35:1. PD: John B. Mansbridge. Makeup: John Chambers. Hair: Fritzy La Bar. Property master: William Sittel. M: Paul Sawtell, Bert Shefter. S: Harold Hanks, Harry M. Leonard. ED: Carl Pierson. Script supervisor: Joan Eremin.
   Avec: Scott Brady (Sgt. Matt Blake), Margia Dean (Teresa Santos), Clint Eastwood (Keith Williams), Irving Bacon (Judge Stanfield), Frank Gerstle (Capt. Sam Prescott), Ray Boyle / Dirk London (Johnny Willows), Baynes Barron (Corbin, the Gunrunner), William Vaughn (Henry, the Scout), Ken Mayer (Cpl. Schwitzer), John Damler (Pvt. Zach), Keith Richards (Pvt. Lasky), John Frederick / John Merrick (Pvt. Nathan), Raven Grey Eagle (Indian), Desmond Slattery (Cobb), Charles Soldani (Indian).
    Loc: Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth.
    Filming dates: 9 September 1957 (IMDb).
    6543 ft / 1994 m / 73 min / Cin. fr.: 67 min.
    US premiere: 11 Feb 1958.
    Finnish premiere: [8 Aug 1958 (IMDb)] 8 Dec 1961 Tuulensuu, distributor: Elokuvatuotanto Oy (Tenho / Elonet).
    ...
    La Cinémathèque française : Fenêtre sur les collections : Le RegalScope.
    Séance présentée par Felicidad Guarda.
    35 mm print from La Cinémathèque française, VOSTF, double surimpression français / arabique.
    La Cinémathèque française, Salle Jean Epstein, vendredi 17 mar 2023 – 18h30

La Cinémathèque française: " Des Yankees et des ex-Confédérés sont forcés de résister ensemble aux attaques des Indiens décidés à récupérer leur dû. Mais ils sont confrontés à la faim, la soif et la chaleur, qui compromettent leur fragile collaboration. "

[last lines] [Sgt. Blake orders the cache of repeating rifles burned to keep them from being captured by Apaches]
Pvt. Zach: We lugged those rifles for a hundred miles... a hundred miles for nothing!
Keith Williams: No, not for nothing. Sometimes you gotta lose before you finally win.

[watchword] Sgt. Matt Blake: A man's gotta take a lot of things he doesn't bargain for, Prescott. Maybe that's what makes him a man. (Quotations from the IMDb.)

AA: Beyond the Western Canon. La Cinémathèque française brought us two late 1950s B Westerns, The Black Whip and Ambush at Cimarron Pass, under the banner Le RegalScope. The second golden age of Western movies was nearing its end. A Westerns were transforming into super-Westerns, post-Westerns, meta-Westerns and Euro-Westerns. In low budget westerns like the ones screened tonight, timeless strengths and traditional virtues were sufficient. The films were not necessarily dumb nor naive. Both tonight's films are set in the Western's favoured timeframe – right after the Civil War – and both bring a sense of ache and wisdom to the treatment. Everybody is gun mad after the collective trauma.

Both were produced by Regal Films but financed, copyrighted and released by Twentieth Century-Fox to satisfy B-movie needs in their double bills. Their production belongs to the context of Robert L. Lippert, a "King of the Bs", who financed, produced or masterminded 300 films in 1945–1969, including the first films directed by Samuel Fuller and early genre films by Monte Hellman. The golden age of B westerns was also coming to an end because of the phenomenal supply of television Westerns. To compete with television, the enterprising Lippert sought distinction, for example by filming in scope. The technology was CinemaScope, but because Twentieth Century-Fox wanted to protect its elite trademark, they had to be labelled RegalScope and shot in black and white.

...

Many Westerns center on a protagonist star, but Ambush at Cimarron Pass is an ensemble piece. Two hostile teams – the remains of a Seventh Cavalry detail transporting a captured gunrunner (Union) and the last men of a Texas cattle drive (Confederates) – meet on a long voyage in the wilderness towards Fort Revelry and reluctantly join forces to survive Apache threat. To distract them and meanwhile steal their horses, the Apache release Teresa Santos. She is the sole survivor of murder, pillage and rape at her home ranch, which was burned to the ground. The goal of the Apache is to retrieve the gunrunner's shipment of repeating rifles confiscated by the cavalry. The gunrunner and a dubious judge endanger the voyage, Teresa Santos introduces a volatile sexual charge, and the unreconstructed spirit of the Confederates threatens to set the Civil War aflame all over again.

A loose cannon during the voyage is the hotheaded Texas cowboy Keith Williams, a gun happy fanatic Confederate, interpreted by Clint Eastwood in his first major role in a theatrical feature film. Eastwood has supposedly called Ambush at Cimarron Pass probably the lousiest Western ever made. It is not, but Eastwood did not make another theatrical film in five years (the next one was A Fistful of Dollars). "A man's got to know his limitations", the quote from Magnum Force, later became Eastwood's motto. In this movie, Eastwood's range is certainly limited, but he has not discovered his strength, either.

The subtext of the tale is the healing of the wounds of the Civil War. The men of the Union and the Confederates must work and fight together in order to survive the dangerous journey. The coolheaded leader of the Cavalry unit, Sgt. Matt Blake (Scott Brady), refuses to be provoked and carries no grudge against Keith whom he has to discipline in a brutal fight. After Sam Prescott (Frank Gerstle), the leader of the Texans, accepts Matt's authority, the rebels mostly stay in line. The gunrunner Corbin (Baynes Barron) and Judge Stanfield (Irving Bacon) remain traitors and troublemakers who put everybody in danger.

Irving Bacon was a Hollywood veteran actor who had started in the movies in 1923. Ambush at Cimarron Pass was one of the last on a career of 500 film performances. He is memorable as the shifty and shady judge, who may not be a judge after all.

Margia Dean, still with us at age 100, had a long career, having started as a child actor in the 1920s. In Hollywood, her longest continuity was as "Queen of Lippert" in various production setups of Robert L. Lippert, from Shep Comes Home (1948) to Moro Witch Doctor (1964) shot in the Philippines. Among others, she appeared in Sam Fuller's first films and the first Hammer horror film, The Quatermass Xperiment, co-financed by Lippert. Of royal Greek descent, the Miss San Francisco and Miss California of 1939, she is a dignified and exciting leading lady, a convincing survivor in the Wild West.

Ambush at Cimarron Pass was the only film of the editor Jodie Copelan as director. It is hard to discover a directorial viewpoint.

The Cinémathèque française print has joins and scratches but they hardly diminish B movie pleasure.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: SYNOPSIS
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: SYNOPSIS

Wikipedia: Plot

"The survivors of a squad of cavalry led by Sergeant Blake (Brady) are escorting a prisoner, Corbin, back to their fort. Corbin had been attempting to sell repeating rifles to the Apache, and the cavalry are now carrying the rifles. They encounter the survivors of a Texas cattle drive, all former Confederate soldiers led by Sam Prescott (Gerstle), who include the young Keith Williams (Eastwood) 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 (Dean), 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 groups' 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. " (Wikipedia)

AFI Catalog Online: "Sgt. Matthew Blake of the Seventh Cavalry, on a detail from Fort Revelry, leads his men through Apache territory during the period of the Indian Wars.

As they come through a pass, they find that a group of former Confederate soldiers have them covered with their rifles. The Southerners are suspicious because Apaches in Union uniforms have attacked them and taken their herd. Blake relates that Apaches have killed all his men except four and their scout; the Union soldiers have been escorting Corbin, a prisoner under arrest for selling guns to the Apaches, to Fort Waverly and are carrying thirty-six repeating rifles that Corbin planned to sell. Blake and the Confederate leader, Capt. Sam Prescott, decide to join forces despite the disapproval of Keith Williams, who hates Yankees because his mother and sister were killed in the war. When Blake taunts him, Keith is about to shoot in response, but Prescott stops him.

At night, Apaches drop a bound woman near the white men, and as the soldiers go to help her, the Indians steal their horses and apprehend Cob, the soldier who was guarding them. The woman, Teresa Santos, a Mexican American, relates that the Apaches burned her rancho, killing her father and brother. After raping and killing her sister, they brought Teresa to the soldiers to give them a message that they can have their horses back in exchange for the rifles.

Although Keith wants to trade, Blake refuses, saying they'll never see Cob again if they give up the rifles. Keith pulls out his gun, but Prescott again prevails. After the whites do not respond to the Apaches' offer, two Indians ride up and leave Cob's body; this proves to Blake that whites cannot deal with Indians.

Blake suggests they walk, even though it will take six or seven days and they don't have enough water, because he knows the Indians will not attack as long as they keep the rifles.

When Blake reprimands Teresa for wearing a low-cut blouse around the men, she bites his hand. As the men head to Cimarron Pass, Keith walks with Teresa.

Judge Stanfield, who has been traveling with the Southerners, encourages Keith to lead a revolt, as the Southerners are carrying sixteen rifles. The judge earlier survived an Indian attack that killed everyone else on his wagon train by cowardly feigning death. After the scout is killed by the Apaches, the judge and Keith plan to take command when it gets dark, with the help of Teresa and Corbin, whom they will free.

At night, Keith is about to shoot Blake when the Indians attack. Blake protects Teresa from danger, and Prescott suffers a head wound. Keith now begins to change his mind about Stanfield's plan, but when Blake orders the group to break camp, Keith stubbornly refuses to leave until he gets his horse back from the Apaches. He hits Blake, who then thrashes him. Teresa comforts Keith, but Prescott angrily rebukes him.

When a corporal, upset that his friend has been killed, attacks an Apache who has been riding near the group, the corporal is killed by a flurry of arrows.

At a waterhole, the men find a dead man hanging upside down in the water from a tree, put there to scare them into giving up the rifles. When the judge balks at drinking the water, Blake fills his canteen and drinks, demonstrating that the water is safe. Keith, who now has begun to respect Blake and is getting annoyed with the judge, hits him when he is about to shoot three Indians in the distance.

At Cimarron Pass, two days from Fort Waverly, Teresa apologizes to Blake for biting his hand and kisses him. When a small raiding party attacks, Blake tells the men to hold their fire, as he knows that the Indians want them to waste ammunition.

The judge cuts Corbin loose, but Corbin kills the judge and gets some rifles to take to the Indians. On his way, he is killed with a spear. Blake kills an Indian who tries to get the rifles, and Prescott kills the next. When the Indians ride off, the rifles are retrieved.

Aware that the Indians will attack again, Blake decides to steal the horses back, a plan which he does not think the Indians will be prepared to stop. During the raid on the Indian camp, a horse's neigh wakens the Indians, who then battle the soldiers.

When Teresa is attacked, Blake rescues her. During the battle, the Indians are driven off and the horses stampede away. Realizing that the rifles are too heavy for the survivors to carry, Blake orders them burned. As they burn, Keith acknowledges that sometimes one has to lose before finally winning, and soon they make it to the fort." (AFI Catalog Online)