(1955)
2
Bruce Eder
Apache Woman was only the sixth movie that Roger Corman ever produced, and the fourth that he directed, and it shows -- and that remark is not necessarily meant as a dig. Oh, there are threadbare shots and sets, so bare bones that if you let yourself go it's easy for a moment in some sequences to forget (based on the production design) that you're watching a Western; and Corman was so hard-pressed to fill up the crowd scenes, that he actually used Dick Miller as both a cowboy and an Indian in adjoining scenes and shots. On the other hand, he was also getting very good at moving his stories along quickly, and without any wasted dialogue or footage, and he was developing a sense of visual storytelling that was brisk and uniquely his -- in one great sequence bridging two related scenes separated by a considerable distance, a book thrown across a set by a character on one end of the central conflict is transformed, in a combined swish-pan and jump-cut, into a rock going through a window, thrown by a character on the other side of the same conflict. No, it's not the cleverest thing ever seen on screen, and directors at least as far back as William Dieterle in the denouement of The Devil and Daniel Webster 14 years earlier used similar devices, but considering that Corman had maybe eight days to shoot the movie and not much more time to get it edited and delivered to American International Pictures (then still known as American Releasing Corp.), it is an impressive cinematic touch, in addition to helping establish the brisk storytelling technique and lean visual language necessary for movies such as this. Otherwise, Corman was also showing his resourcefulness as a producer here in getting Lloyd Bridges -- then in the middle of his blacklist ban from working in movies for any of the majors -- and Joan Taylor (but especially Bridges, who was still well-remembered by Western fans for High Noon and Little Big Horn) to head his cast; Corman had previously gotten another big name, John Ireland, to star in The Fast and the Furious, by allowing him to direct, and Bridges' price was low because of his political troubles -- however he did it, this film and his three preceding movies demonstrated his growing ability to get the maximum bang for his buck in casting and shooting; also present is aging former silent funnyman Chester Conklin in a serious dramatic part, and Morgan Jones as a villain very much in the Lyle Bettger manner. Bridges holds the dramatic end together and gets considerable help from Taylor (whom we first meet in the opening shot, having a knife-fight with a cowboy), who is extremely energetic in her role as a half-breed caught between the white and Apache peoples, and is also very good to look at.
Apache Woman on AllMovie
Apache Woman (1955)
