Duel at Diablo

Plot synopsis:
A frontier scout, Jess Remsberg (James Garner), is searching for the murderer of his Comanche wife. All he knows is that it was done by a white man. While crossing the desert he rescues Ellen Grange (Bibi Andersson) from a pursuing band of Apaches, and returns her to her businessman husband, Willard Grange (Dennis Weaver). The couple has lived apart for most of the previous two years, since Ellen Grange was kidnapped by Apaches. She had been rescued, but then voluntarily returned to the Apaches to live with the son of the chief.
Jess learns from his friend, Lt. "Scotty" McAllister (Bill Travers), an experienced army sergeant anxious for a promotion, that the town marshal at Fort Concho has information about Jess's murdered wife.
Jess agrees to act as a scout for an Army cavalry unit of twenty-five inexperienced soldiers taking horses, ammunition and supplies to that fort. Willard and Ellen are joining them, as is horse breaker Toller (Sidney Poitier), a veteran of the 10th Cavalry (the "Buffalo Soldiers"). Taller has been contracted to provide horses to the army and will accompany the party, taming horses on the way.
The townsfolk treated Ellen Grange as an outcast after her first abduction, and are now even worse. Some men try to rape her, but she is rescued by Jess, aided by Toller. The two had previously had a confrontation in a bar, which, with McAllister's intervention, was resolved without ill feeling. On the morning the supply wagon is to set out it is learned she has again returned voluntarily to the Apaches. Her husband does nothing about it, but Jess goes after her. While rescuing her he discovers she has had a child by the now-dead son of the Apache chief, Chata (John Hoyt). Jess rides off with mother and child to catch up with the expedition.
The supply wagons, however, have been ambushed by Chata and his warriors, with serious losses of men, food and water. McAllister is seriously wounded, but is able to function. The men also look to Toller for leadership. Using the infant as a shield (he is Chata’s grandson), Jess and Ellen get through the Apache attackers encircling the besieged cavalry force.
McAllister devises a plan to break out of their position and take refuge in Diablo Canyon, where there is water and better cover. As part of the plan Jess is to speed to Fort Concho for help. That done, he can resume the search for his wife’s killer.
The plan succeeds. The besieged unit is able to break out and hole up in the canyon, and Jess, though his horse dies and he is parched from thirst, is able to kill his pursuers and get to the fort. Reinforcements are immediately sent to the canyon, where the unit is under constant attack and the defenders are being killed one by one. Willard Grange is captured by the Apaches and is tied upside down over an open flame overnight so that his cries of agony will prevent the others from resting.
At the fort Jess learns that the man he has been hunting for is none other than Willard Grange, who had been out for revenge for what had been done to his wife. Jess races to the canyon, arriving with the army reinforcements just in time to save the last few survivors (including Toller and Ellen Grange). Jess searches for Willard and finds him barely alive. Willard begs Jess to take pity on him and put him out of his misery, so Jess gives him his pistol and leaves. Moments later a single shot is heard.
The Apaches are disarmed and rounded up to be returned to the reservation. Chata is allowed a final embrace of his grandson before joining them. Jess, Toller and Ellen stand by the graves of the dead soldiers (including McAllister).

Tags: cult, revenge, violence

Review:
James Garner plays Jess Remsberg, an Indian scout now out looking for the man or men that raped and killed his Indian wife.
Bill Travers and Bibi Anderson provide the international flavor in the cast, and Dennis Weaver gives the viewer a chance both to detest him and feel some sorrow for his warped prejudices toward those he considers inferior or below his status.The group of troopers heads out across the desert to another fort in the area, but are headed off by a group of Apaches that have jumped their reservation.
Garner does find out the identity of the man who was responsible for the rape/killing of his Indian wife, but in order to extract his revenge, he must first make it to the canyon of Diablo and rescue the beseiged group of Army troopers from being killed by the Apaches.Good, tense story, sweeping vistas of the Utah landscape, and two actors, Garner and Poitier, delivering masterful performances..
The fast pace of the movie, unearthly fates of the dead, anti-heroism of the protagonist (James Garner), and well done scenes of horse-borne combat combine to create a Western-Adventure-Morality Play that I certainly recommend.
Among them the bizarre, scorched desert scenery, Garner's quest for revenge for his dead Indian wife while pining over the married woman disgraced by her captivity with the Apaches, The underlying loyalty of Poitier's former soldier character to his former comrades (despite his overtly self-serving statements) contrasted with the underlying self-promoting purposes of Bill Traver's role as military commander.
Too, I see shades of this one in 1993's Geronimo by Walter Hill (burning vistas, Apaches hidden in the ground, Garner's Remsberg character in Duval's Al Seiber etc.) The musical score is off-beat for standard western fare, but who needs more drum beats, flutes, and rattles?!
Like all Westerns, the plot has its flaws -- with an Indian war party off the reservation they would not have sent a shipment of ammunition through a narrow canyon guarded by only one squad of green recruits on unbroken/partly saddle broken horses.
Also, Sidney Poitier's silver vest remains immaculate throughout the long desert journey and several pitched battles.However, the movie moves so fast that you never really have time to stop and remind yourself that you have to "suspend disbelief" to watch it.Next, the Good.
James Garner's character is looking for the men who raped and killed his (Indian) wife, Dennis Weaver's Will Grange is angry about almost everything, including that his wife was held captive by the Indians, Sidney Poitier's Toller (now a civilian) is mad that circumstances forced him to accompany the cavalry on this mission ....Garner and Poitier give excellent performances and the other actors rise to the occasion, helping us forget that they are, in fact, Scottish or Danish.At the end of the movie the various subplots are tied up and the issues are resolved with (in one case) a very surprising twist.On top of that, you have a wonderful (almost superb, for this movie) Neal Hefti score, which always seems to correctly reflect the mood of the scene.
The underlying issues of prejudice add an interesting touch to the movie as well with James Garner's character struggling with the death of his Indian wife and the  Bibi Andersson character struggling with raising her baby fathered by an Indian brave.As in any good western, the scenery also plays an important part and the southern Utah settings are particularly striking.
Dennis Weaver, Sidney Poitier, and Bill Travers all add to the movie with good supporting performances..
Along for the ride are wrangler & ex-sergeant Toller (Poitier), shopkeeper's wife Ellen (Andersson), a former captive of the Apache who's regarded with disgust by her white neighbors, and her embittered husband (Weaver).
James Garner leaves behind his usual likable rogue that he normally plays for a role in Duel at Diablo as a grim and vengeful scout for the Army who's been told by Lieutenant Bill Travers and graphically shown that his Apache wife has been killed.
If he goes on a mission scouting for Travers delivering ammunition and green troops to another fort, he'll meet up with the man who had the scalp, the marshal there, John Crawford.Garner's not the only who's lived in both the white and Indian world.
And with a whole lot of green troops in the battle, Poitier being around comes in mighty handy.Duel At Diablo is not a western for the squeamish, it gets pretty graphic at times.
There's also a little bit of Stagecoach in Duel At Diablo with Garner like John Wayne on a vengeance quest against the people who murdered his family.Sidney Poitier's part is interesting in that there really is no racial reference as far as his blackness is concerned.
In fact Poitier having been in the army and fought the Apaches has just about the same attitudes towards them as the white characters do.This is a good western, maybe a great one, but not one for the faint hearted..
However McAllister and his small party find themselves trying to survive an Apache onslaught led by Chata, as the lady Ellen Grange that Jess rescued from the Apaches has something of importance to the chief.A competently well-made and satisfying western that's highlighted by the prominent cast and exhilaratingly taut and unsparing action sequences.
Mrs Grange is a distant relative of Christa,the heroine of Nelson's "soldier blue" ;both lived among an Indian tribe ,Mrs Grange had even a child from an Indian man:it's not surprising that the character who welcomes the baby of mixed race with warmth and tenderness is Sidney Poitier's.Besides,both Bibi Anderson and Candice Bergen are blond;it's all the more bewildering to see Anderson in a western since she is primarily an intellectual actress, famous for her roles in Bergman's works.That said ,one can prefer the way John Ford told us about the fate of the white "squaws".In spite of this minor quibble,"duel at Diablo" is an exciting western ,with a lot of subplots and even an unexpected twist (which makes sense),notably concerning Garner's late wife ;violence and cruelty (Indian tortures) are present and predict the final slaughter in the 1971 effort.A great scene shows Garner giving his revolver to a suffering dying man so as to he can finish HIMSELF off.Many interesting supporting parts..
Interesting casting is just one of the assets of this lightning paced, socially relevant Western that features some exhilarating action scenes certain to make the viewer sit up and pay attention.An unlikely bunch of protagonists band together as the Cavalry takes on a mission to deliver some new recruits to a far away fort, while Apache forces are growing very aggressive.
James Garner is the scout determined to find out who violated and butchered his Apache wife, Sidney Poitier is the former officer turned gambler roped into coming along, and Bill Travers is the stoic Cavalry lieutenant supervising the mission.It's great fun to see Mr. Poitier in this kind of setting, and he handles his role with his standard dignity and smoothness, while Garner is likable and charismatic as always, and Travers does well as a basically good man who knows the odds are stacked against his men.
The supporting cast is equally impressive: beautiful Bibi Andersson is Ellen, the wife of bigoted trader Willard Grange (Dennis Weaver), who has her own compelling subplot: she'd once been kidnapped by Apaches, and bore one of the tribe a son, to whom she tries to return, especially as Willard and other townspeople insist on giving her the cold shoulder.
Director Ralph Nelson (who'd previously directed Poitier towards a Best Actor Oscar win for "Lilies of the Field") appears on screen as Col. Foster, using the pseudonym of "Alf Elson", and Richard Farnsworth has an uncredited bit as a wagon driver.Viewers can take note than even while these Indians are portrayed as the antagonists, we can still feel sympathy for the way they are treated, the same way we feel sympathy towards Ellen.
James Garner is charismatic just like he is in "Support Your Local Sheriff" and Sydney Poitier, Dennis Weaver and Bibi Anderson fill their roles adequately.
The main plot has an army scout searching high and low for his Indian wife's killer, and events conspire to have the two men riding with a cavalry troop, although each man is unaware of exactly what drives the other.
James Garner and Sidney Poitier head a good cast, but Poitier's character seems out of place in the film.
It stars James Garner, Sidney Poitier, Bibi Andersson, Dennis Weaver and Bill Travers.
Wheeler.Searching for the man responsible for killing his Comanche wife, Jess Remsberg (Garner) is crossing the desert when he rescues Ellen Grange (Andersson) from the Apache and returns her to her husband Willard (Weaver) at Fort Creel.
And so it proves, where joined by the Granges, secrets will out and Apache will attack.Obviously intended to be driven by a strong racial dynamic between whites and Indians, Duel at Diablo never really follows through on its promise of something more cutting.
The stunt work is top notch and the writing at least allows for some intelligent tactical thinking to be shown by both sides during the Diablo Canyon siege.It's also rich in characterisations: Remsberg is driven by revenge (Garner channelling Randy Scott from the Boetticher movies): Ellen, once captured by the Apache and taken as a bride and a mother to a half-breed baby, she's treated like a disease by the town folk: Willard, her husband, carries that burden, but not with ease: Toller, a black man who has served his time in the army, he now wears dandy clothes and answers to nobody: Lt. Scotty McAllister (Travers), the archetypal hero in waiting officer.
Wheeler expertly photographs the Kanab, Utah, locale to form a beautiful, yet imposing, backdrop, and Hefti's score is very different, a blending of styles, it's part spaghetti, part traditional and part Hippy Woodstock!A ripper of an entertainer that's better than the standard Cavalry v Indians Oater the plot synopsis suggests.
in an age when black actors were confined to black roles, this film shows Poitier in a role that could easily have been played by a white actor-plus he's the coolest dude in the movie.Bill Travers doesn't have to do an American accent.
Nice Western with Indians and soldiers plenty of action and lots of violence.
This exceptionally hard picture deals about Jess (James Garner) who frees Ellen (Bibi Andersson)from Indians, she's married to mean trader (Dennis Weaver).
Meanwhile lieutenant McAllister (Bill Travers) along with Toller (Sidney Poitier) are ordered transport ammunition throughout Apache territory where ravages an Indian chief named Chata (John Hoyt).
Good duo protagonist as James Garner and Sidney Poitier, director's usual.
However after a few characters are set up who say nice things about the Indians, the film then falls into standard fare where Chata's men are murderers, torturers and without any real character to speak of within the script.
Probably remembered for all the wrong reasons, namely the excessive violence and horror of a couple of scenes, DUEL AT DIABLO was a one-off western that attempted to moralise and re-assess the Indian vs white man conflict.
The reference to the "barbecue" above of course will not be missed by those who recall the horrific demise of the staked-out cavalry officers or Dennis Weaver's gruesome come-uppance.Hasn't aged greatly in 36 years and is still a powerful and thought provoking film for anyone interested in thinking!.
I see many reviewers also made mention of the offbeat score by Neal Hefti (whose best known work is the Batman theme for television and his theme for THE ODD COUPLE); it tends to work well, for the most part, with director Ralph Nelson's overall tone in DUEL AT DIABLO.
Along for the ride is ex-scout Jess Remsberg (James Garner) who is trying to track down Ellen Grange (Bibi Andersson) who keeps running off to the Apache and away from her husband Willard Grange (Dennis Weaver).
Also there is Toller (Sidney Poitier) who is breaking in the soldier's wild horses.This is rough and tumble old fashioned western.
Fortunately the soundtrack picks up tremendously along with the pace and action once we're on the way and far in the desert.Good actors are able to bring some greatly needed life and interest into routinely scripted characters and situations.
I found it excellent for its ability to both entertain, provide suspense and also explore the issues instead of just making the "Injuns the bad men" and the "White men the good men." Heroic cavalry lieutenant is ordered to move out green recruits on unbroken horses to get from the fort to the next destination.
Although a black man, he's not at all out-of-place in this yarn (it was apparently a new concept at the time to prominently feature black people in Westerns).Dennis Weaver is also on hand as the made-out-to-be-unlikable merchant who ultimately gets his comeuppance (but who can blame him for how he felt?); Bibi Andersson plays his adulterous wife; and Bill Travers is excellent as the Army commander.Aside from the excellent cast "Duel" is highlighted by magnificent Southern Utah locations and a phenomenal score by Neal Hefti.
It's got several strands of sub-plots going but spends most of its time featuring some action packed shootouts that don't leave much time for character development among the cast.JAMES GARNER is a scout who saves a young woman who is being pursued by Indians.
Another story thread has JAMES GARNER seeking revenge for the man who killed his Indian wife.
With all of these sub-plots merging, there's even more story element tying in SIDNEY POITIER and BILL TRAVERS, both of whom look out of place in this western saga.If it's action you want, you get plenty of it here.
By the time the final skirmish is reached, the viewer will feel almost as exhausted as the players must have been.Gritty all the way with a natural performance by Garner and good support from the others.
Jim & Sid. James Garner and Sidney Poitier western.
The movie tried to depict the Apache as the bad guys....But in the underlying theme was the the story that these were Indians forced to live on a reservation, and dealing with it the best way they knew how.The calvary used force on them...so Chata resorted to using force on the Calvary...the sub plot was a story of a woman whom had been taken by the Apache and borne a son to the son of Chata...After a brutal fight at a box canyon the Apache was defeated...Chata surrendered and was  seen as a broken man with no hope, and no hope of ever seeing his Grandson again.....
This is not shot well, with a script that does not stand out and the action set pieces are obviously cheap, but well ahead of it's time we have no real good and evil here with flaws in both sides and it is here that the film excels.
James Garner is the anti hero who is only persuaded to come along on the quest to see his ex-army colleagues through territory filled with hostile Apache because he is looking for revenge on the man who killed his Indian wife.
Its very hard to see James Garner in a western movie and not remember him in his giant role on television as Bret Maverick on Maverick, If my memory is correct I think he lasted for 2 or 3 years, then had a fight for more money lost and moved on, too bad because the show really turned into his show, not the Brothers Maverick show.
Considering his appearance in one of my favorite films, "In The Heat Of The Night", a classic study of racism and cultural fear, I wondered how he reconciled the role of a former black military officer helping the cavalry protect a supply wagon through Apache territory, with all the attendant characterizations of the red man as a hostile, savage brute.
But Toller (Poitier) did have character, as demonstrated by the apology to Remsberg (James Garner) after learning of his wife's fate, that was an excellent scene.Dennis Weaver surprised me with his portrayal of Will Grange, showing a range of ability that far surpasses my singular impression of him as Matt Dillon's deputy, Chester Goode.
Still, the inclusion of Ellen Grange (Bibi Anderson) as a conflicted white woman with an Apache baby added another layer of intensity to a film already chock full of angst driven characters.
James Garner could be a fine actor when the role was right and Sidney Poitier was one of the most skilled of his generation.
Strong portrayals by Bibi Andersson, as Ellen Grange, and James Gardner work here with skillful director Ralph Nelson to create a well acted, beautifully photographed, entertaining Western, even though some mannered performances by other actors as such Sidney Poitier distract from the natural feel Andersson and Gardner bring to the effort.Utah locations are classic aspects of carefully imitated Western icons and tropes exploited to create a fifties look to this lovely film.
Garner makes for a brilliant "action man" as the rough,tough,hard-as-nails scout Jesse Remsburg, even if the character is a little clichéd.
James Garner broke out of his mild-mannered "Maverick" mold to topline director Ralph Nelson's savage cavalry versus the Indians western saga "Duel At Diablo" that co-starred Sidney Poitier and Dennis Weaver.
Rugged Jess Remsberg (James Garner) has been searching for the man who scalped his Indian wife and he finally catches up with the dastard.
James Garner, finding out that his Comanche wife has been scalped, helps out the Swedish Bibi Anderson who became the mistress of an Apache warrior after being separated by arrogant husband Dennis Weaver.
The presence of Sidney Poitier as a well dressed black man involved in the transfer of weapons is simply star status added to the film because his character has no real impact on the plot line other than to seem to keep pulling Garner out of scrapes.