Watch Apache Drums For Free

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The acting in this movie is really good.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

After gunning down two people in a saloon a gambler by the name of "Sam Leeds" (Stephen McNally) is told to leave the town of "Spanish Boot" at noon by the local mayor "Joe Madden" (Willard Parker). Although Joe believes that Sam's presence is bad for the town there is also a woman named "Sally" (Coleen Gray) who both men are attracted to that might have also factored into this decision. However, since he has little choice he sets out into the desert only to discover that the Apaches are on the warpath and rushes back to Spanish Boot to tell them of the news. At first they don't believe him but when a small cavalry unit arrives they realize that they will need every gun they can get—and even then it might not be enough. At any rate, rather than disclose any more of the film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a pretty good grade-B western movie for this particular time. It certainly would have been a fine picture to show at the local drive-in. Slightly above average.

This is an excellent B-Western. I first saw it as a child and found it hugely exciting and gripping - and I have seen no reason to change my mind in around four subsequent viewings!I am puzzled when I hear people saying that they can't see the influence of producer Val Lewton in it. To me it is very clear. His expertise in building tension and providing visual shocks (from his many horror films) is clearly in evidence, especially in the climactic attack on the church. I bet he helped director Hugo Fregonese a fair bit! The action scenes are all well shot and exciting, but one of the best bits doesn't have any action. It is the scene where Stephen McNally comes across the Indian massacre in the canyon. Now we've all seen many Westerns where someone, usually the leading man, comes across a massacre, whether by Indians or whites. Usually however, whilst they may look sad or occasionally even upset, they are completely blasé about any ongoing danger. This is always rather unrealistic: Who is to say that the perpetrators of the massacre aren't still around, just over the next ridge, or laying in wait behind a nearby group of rocks? However, here, McNally looks genuinely scared, looking nervously around him in case the Indians are still close by, and in case he's next. At last, some realism! It is also one of the many gripping moments.The rousing singing of 'Men of Harlech' by the defenders of the church works well for me, despite the criticism by another reviewer. However, I agree with him that that is almost certainly where the makers of 'Zulu' got the idea from! I gave 'Apache Drums' a 10, as it remains one of my very favourite B-Westerns.

As I watched this film I could not understand why they kept referring to Arthur Shields as Welsh. This is an actor who has specialised in Irish doctors and priests and who made no attempt to change his accent to play a Welsh preacher. And then came the song, Men of Harlech, in Welsh ! To watch everyone desperately trying to mime to the song was one of the silliest things I've seen in a very long time. Everyone has since seen how well this song can work in Zulu but to drop it into this average Western was decidedly odd. It was as if some one had a song to use and a someone else a script and the two were simply rammed together regardless of the fit.

There are moments of genius in this movie, though, as the other reviewer says, it is let down by a talky script - and the lamest "the cavalry arrives and that's the end of the movie" in B western history - because that's what happens; after a long drawn out, interestingly shot siege in the church, the cavalry arrives and the movie ends. Just like that. No denouement. The movie just ends. Everyone leaves the church without a backward glance for all the dead and dying loved ones within and there's a cutesy shot of a little donkey trotting up to its mother. It's so weirdly sudden after all the long drawn out, moody, tense, heightened tension that preceded it that it completely whips the metaphorical carpet out from underneath you.The moments of genius though, make what is, after all, a pretty short film worth watching. And a textbook example, like all Lewton's movies, on how less is more, and how to make a small budget go a long way. The scene in the desert where the gun-less anti-hero is riding on to (as he thinks) safety after promising to warn the town is nicely edgy and unsettling. And the low angle shot in the church where the town is burnt casting beams of brilliant red light across the ceiling was great. That one shot was worth the admission price for me.The lighting is terrific, the direction, art direction, and cinematography great - but it's a pity about the script. With a better script - there are no sub-plots or parallel action in the movie - this would have been a classic up there with the likes of Shane, High Noon, and 3:10 to Yuma.Interesting.