40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Western	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1967
Running Time	95:37
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	William Witney
Studio Distributor	Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Audie Murphy Robert Brubaker Kenneth Torby Laraine Stephens Michael Burns Michael Keep Michael Blodgett
Case	Alpha-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Richard LaSalle

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     1869: Arizona Territory. The Apaches led by Cochise (Michael Keep) are on the warpath, threatening to kill all the whites in the area so the US cavalry send out detachments to bring isolated settler families into Apache Springs where they can be better protected. One detachment led by the tough and unyielding Captain Coburn (Audie Murphy) and Sergeant Walker (Robert Brubaker) stop at the Malone farm to bring in the family, including brothers Mike (Michael Blodgett) and Doug (Michael Burns) and daughter Ellen (Laraine Stephens), whom Coburn is courting. Coburn’s job is made more difficult by the insolent and disobedient Corporal Bodine (Kenneth Torby), who dislikes Coburn and is a troublemaker influencing other soldiers.

     The cavalry at Apache Springs are still equipped with old single shot carbines and their commander, Colonel Reed (Byron Morrow), fears that a determined Apache attack would overwhelm the soldiers. He is allocated a consignment of 40 new repeating rifles and Coburn and his troop, plus Mike and Doug who have enlisted in the army, are sent to pick them up. On the way they are attacked by Apaches; Mike is killed because Doug freezes under fire and does not help his brother and so is labelled a coward. The troop get the rifles but on the way back Bodine catches Coburn with a surprise attack, shoots Walker and with the remaining soldiers, including Doug, leave Coburn for dead and make off with the rifles, intending to sell them to Cochise. Coburn survives and gets the wounded Walker back to Apache Wells. But in disgrace for having lost the guns and spurned by Ellen, Coburn feels he has no choice but to go after Bodine and retrieve the guns before they can be sold to Cochise.

     40 Guns to Apache Pass was directed by veteran William Witney who until 1982 had 142 credits on the IMDb including TV episodes of Bonanza (27 episodes), Wagon Train (7 episodes) and Zorro (11 episodes) as well as numerous B westerns for Republic Pictures in the early 1950s. Released in 1967, 40 Guns to Apache Pass shows no influence of the Sergio Leone “Dollars” films that were released in 1964 and 1965, followed by The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and similar spaghetti westerns that changed the western genre forever; indeed, 40 Guns to Apache Pass remains close in spirit to those 1950s westerns where the Indians were savages bend on scalps and all that stood between them and the peaceful white settlers were a handful of honourable cavalrymen who might have come straight from a John Ford film, although it must be said that the Apache were not really the bad guys in this film, but a traitor cavalryman. The Apaches are only doing what Indians do in these films.

     There is nothing wrong with entertaining B westerns where there is no ambiguity about who are the good guys or the bad guys, the young man branded a coward would of course redeem himself and with an ending where all works out well. Baby faced Audie Murphy, America’s most decorated WW2 war hero turned actor, does not have a wide range but in 40 Guns to Apache Pass, his second last film before his tragic death in a plane crash aged just 46, he is fine as an honourable man and he does certainly have charisma on screen.

     Filmed entirely outdoors amid the buttes, canyons, rocks and desert of California, 40 Guns to Apache Pass is colourful and entertaining; what’s not to enjoy about charging cavalry, galloping Indians, shootouts, a dastardly bad guy and an upright hero. 40 Guns to Apache Pass may be old fashioned, but it is still good fun.

Video

     40 Guns to Apache Pass is presented in the 1.77:1 aspect ratio, NTSC and 16x9 enhanced. The original ratio was 1.85:1.

     Filmed outdoors with Pathe colour and shooting day for night, 40 Guns to Apache Pass is a nice looking film. The colours are natural; the desert, rocks and buttes are dry, brown and dusty, the sky blue, the cavalry uniforms various shades of dusty blue. Among the splashes of colour is red blood and the blue dress worn by Laraine Stephens in one scene. As filming was day for night the couple of night sequences have decent blacks and shadow detail. Skin tones are natural. There were a couple of slight variations in brightness, a few small marks and scratches, minor motion blur against mottled surfaces but nothing distracting.

     No subtitles are provided.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     The audio is English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono at 384 Kbps. The film was shown theatrically with a mono sound.

     Dialogue is clear. The horses’ hooves were reasonably thunderous for a mono audio, gunshots were loud. The score by Richard LaSalle could have come from any number of 1950s westerns.

    Lip synchronisation is fine.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Overall

     Nothing. The programme starts when the DVD loads.

     The only DVDs of 40 Guns to Apache Pass currently listed on Amazon.com are this Australian Region All, NTSC release, plus one from Spain.

     With the advent of the Spaghetti Westerns in the mid-1960s the genre changed, the “heroes” becoming much more morally ambivalent; the American response come at the end of the decade with films like The Wild Bunch (1969). 40 Guns to Apache Pass belongs to an earlier time in westerns where heroes were honourable, bad guys were bad and Indians and cavalry galloped across the desert. Nothing wrong with that for fans: with a likable lead in Audie Murphy, 40 Guns to Apache Pass is good Saturday afternoon entertainment.

    The video and audio are fine. There are no extras.

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