40 Guns to Apache Pass
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
In the Arizona Territory 1868,the Apaches, led by Cochise (Michael Keep), are on the warpath. Army Captain Bruce Coburn (Audie Murphy) is tasked with escorting homesteaders to Apache Wells where they can concentrate their defense against the Apache. But there is dissension in the ranks as some of the men under Coburn’s command feel they are being driven too hard. Coburn has to discipline corporal Bodine (Kenneth Tobey) for stealing rationed water. In an attack at Apache Wells, one of the homesteaders, Harry Malone (Kenneth MacDonald), is killed. His two sons, Mike (Michael Blodgett) and Doug (Michael Burns), then join the Army.
In order to defend themselves at Apache Wells, they need guns. Coburn is sent to bring in a consignment of repeating rifles that is on its way, or least prevent them getting into the hands of the Apache. En route, Coburn and his men are attacked. The inexperienced Malone brothers are left to guard the horses, but Mike disobeys orders and goes off to fight the Indians. He is last seen alive screaming for his brother's help, but Doug is a coward who lets his brother die.
The survivors of the patrol manage to rendezvous with the consignment of guns. On the way back to Apache Wells, Bodine and four other soldiers decide to take the guns and desert to Mexico, leaving Coburn and the wounded First Sergeant Walker (Robert Brubaker) tied up. In a moment of indecision, Doug throws his lot in with Bodine.
Coburn and Walker manage to make it back to Apache Wells. He wants to go back and retrieve the rifles, but the commander says he cannot spare any men and orders Coburn to stay. He disobeys and sets off after Bodine. Meanwhile, Bodine has decided to try to sell the rifles to Cochise. Under a flag of truce, Bodine meets Cochise and takes him to where the rifles were hidden. But Coburn, with the help of Doug, has killed the other deserters. Coburn welcomes Doug back, and the two of them take the rifles.
Cochise and Bodine pursue and catch up with Coburn. In a delaying tactic, Coburn distributes five repeating rifles in positions where he can fight off a number of Apache while he orders Doug to get the rifles back to Apache Wells. At Apache Wells, the soldiers are issued with the rifles, and Doug leads them to rescue Coburn, arriving just as he runs out of ammunition. The Apache are chased off and Bodine flees. In a final shootout, Coburn kills Bodine. Doug arrives on the scene and escorts Coburn to Apache Wells, where he is welcomed by the commander and Doug by his family.

Review: Audie Murphy's last starring western proves a disappointment.
40 GUNS TO APACHE PASS (1966) was the last starring western for war hero-turned-western star Audie Murphy, who had ended his fruitful 15-year association with Universal Pictures the previous year.
Released by Columbia Pictures, it turned out to be an unfitting send-off, undercut by an extremely low budget, a talky script, and an undistinguished no-name cast (aside from Murphy and screen vet Kenneth Tobey).The plot might have made a good western had it been accorded a bigger budget and a stronger cast.
A beleaguered Arizona cavalry division harassed by Cochise and his Apache warriors is expecting a shipment of repeating rifles, which could mean the difference between life and death for Apache Wells, an outpost housing the army and surviving settlers.
Murphy plays Captain Coburn, a no-nonsense type who romances a settler's daughter (Laraine Stephens) and agrees to take her two younger brothers (Michael Blodgett, Michael Burns) into the undermanned regiment after their father is killed in an attack.
A display of cowardice by the youngest brother (Burns) has dire consequences, resulting in a meandering subplot requiring his redemption.The production values here are far less polished than one would find in a typical TV western of the time, such as "Wagon Train" or "The Virginian." The no-name performers overact and are given reams of unnecessary dialogue in order to pad out the film's running time.
All this is especially disappointing given the participation of director William Witney, a one-time action specialist at Republic Pictures, who'd been directing for 30 years at this point.Things pick up, however, in the film's final third when Corporal Bodine (Kenneth Tobey), a vengeful ex-sergeant with a grudge against Murphy, decides he has other plans for the 40 rifles and convinces four of the remaining soldiers from the escort to accompany him.
Murphy, who'd been left for dead, has to get the rifles back while Burns, the cowardly brother, has to prove himself a man.
This section of the film was shot in more remote California locations which actually pass for Arizona and features a larger band of Apaches on the prowl as Murphy undertakes a holding action, guarding a pass alone with a stack of fully loaded repeating rifles.
Composer Richard LaSalle pumps things up with a rousing, if clichéd, scoreAudie Murphy only appeared in two more films, both little-seen.
First was the international thriller, TRUNK TO CAIRO (1966), directed by future Cannon Films mogul Menahem Golan, while his final film was the Budd Boetticher western, A TIME FOR DYING (1969), which Murphy produced and appeared in briefly as Jesse James..
40 Guns to Apache Pass is directed by William Witney and written by Willard and Mary Willingham.
It stars Audie Murphy and Kenneth Tobey.
Marquette photographs it in Pathe Color with location work coming at Lovejoy Buttes, Red Rock Canyon and North Ranch in California.The Apaches, led by Cochise (Michael Keep), are on the warpath and vowing to kill all whites they come across.
Captain Bruce Coburn (Murphy) is in charge of leading homesteaders out of harms way.
But there is unrest in the band of men under his charge and mutiny is afoot.This was the last but one film Murphy made before retiring, you feel that he hoped this would be a fitting swan song to his career.
Saddled with a weak script and surrounded by wooden supporting actors, Murphy alone can't make this lacklustre, cliché riddled, Western work.
It would be easy to blame director Witney, a man more than capable of stringing together an action based movie, but asking him to try and make this particular screenplay stretch to over an hour and half was asking for the impossible.3/10 for Murphy's manful efforts to carry such a low-budget, routine and forgettable piece..
Audie Murphy plays a tough, by-the-book Cavalry officer in Apache territory who's hard on his men.
This is one of those very routine minor movies that Murphy kept turning up in after the end of his Universal contract.
And the music is hit or miss, sometimes appropriate to what's being shown, and sometimes seriously off, sounding like merry go round music when major action is happening.If those things were corrected, then the rest of the film's flaws are lesser and could have been put up with.
The story is OK and has some thrilling bits in the last half.If you're an Audie Murphy fan, then you may want to watch this, but it's not as good as some of his earlier films.So sad, why didn't he change over to modern action films..
Audie Murphy is a Cavalry captain who must get "40 Guns to Apache Pass" so that White settlers can defend themselves against savage Apache Indians; he enlists a questionable group to assist in the mission.
The men include young Michael Burns and Michael Blodgett (as Mike and Doug Malone), and old Confederate-with-a-grudge Kenneth Tobey (as Bodine).
Laraine Stephens adds more blonde femininity to the cast, as the Malone boys' sister (Ellen).This is a tired and formulaic Western, with tired and formulaic being enhanced by comparison to more successful 1960s films in the genre.
This film's redeeming feature might have been the pairing of veteran Audie Murphy and newcomer Michael Burns - however, Mr. Burns never achieved Mr. Murphy's star status.Burns plays a "sissy" coward who, according to his sister, "can't stand the sight of blood." Watch for Burns' little glance at his own brow blood for a sign he's becoming brave!
Murphy is no sissy; he learned the thrill of fighting at age nine, and joined the Army when he was fifteen.
One of the film's more important scenes involves Burns showing cowardice as his brother is attacked by Apaches; the scene is unbelievably ludicrous, and perfectly illustrates the film's point - and pointlessness.
** 40 Guns to Apache Pass (1967) William Witney ~ Audie Murphy, Michael Burns, Kenneth Tobey.
Lame 40's style bad indians, good settlers movie....
1st watched 11/23/2006 - 2 out of 10(Dir-William Witney): Lame 40's style bad indians, good settlers movie made in the late 60's(believe it or not).
This movie definitely takes us back in time when westerns were one-sided and badly acted(these were not good times) and why this movie had to take us back there I don't know.
Portrayed as a harsh captain(played by Audie Murphy), his men dessert him in the desert as they are trying to bring 40 repeating rifles back to the settler's base to defend themselves against Cochese's Apache Indians who vow to not leave one white man alive in their Arizona Territory shortly after the civil war.
What the rest of the movie consists of is gun battles occurring after the Captain tries to regain the rifles on his own, goofy romance, estranged alliances and of course, the good guys coming out rosy in the end(at least as is portrayed in this movie).
There's hardly a western movie cliché that's left out.
I should say that I've enjoyed quite a few Audie Murphy movies, but when the movie is otherwise bad, he comes across very unconvincingly.
What is interesting and museum-worthy is the basic premise of the story, namely that the natives are the bad guys for trying to stop the European settlers taking over their land.
Times were of course achangin' : "Little Big Man", one of America's greatest movies,was made only 4 years later in 1970..
Murphy does all the right things but they are the same heroics and " it's okay I'm just shot in the chest so I ain't gonna flinch" routine as westerns had ten and twenty years before.
I laughed when the opening line was " there were only a few brave men stopping the whole Territory of Arizona being overrun".they meant of course a few brave settlers from the east.
Overall it's workmanlike effort but nothing really distinguished this film from any production line western from the 50's.
Audie Murphy did a great job in the lonely outpost fighting Apaches.
Laraine Stephens's sons getting in on the action is another great sub-plot that all fits in very well.
But it's doubtful that even the great Ford could have done anything with this lame western which has possibly one of the dullest screenplays ever written.Saddled with bad material, it's no wonder that AUDIE MURPHY finds himself floundering about in a role that's so poorly written, he never has a chance.
The only other respectable performance in the film is given by KENNETH TOBEY, usually Mr. Nice, here cast as the bad guy who wants to sell rifles to the Indians and ends up in a heap of trouble when Audie decides to single-handedly take care of the situation and put Tobey and his cronies out of business.
It takes more than an hour to get to this situation and by that time it's doubtful whether anyone was left watching.Filmed in muddy color with some interesting background scenery the only thing to dwell on during long stretches of dull dialog, it's no wonder Murphy's career was in decline by the time he did this film away from his home studio, Universal.
Terrible Movie Made Me Laugh During an Actual War. This joke of a movie -- with terrible acting, a thin plot and cheap production values -- at least gave me a laugh once when I badly needed one.
For some unaccountable reason, they sent us this movie about the cavalry to see when we were serving in the actual 1st Cavalry (Airmobile) in Vietnam.These guys couldn't shoot straight, except for the few times when a single shot felled multiple Indians, but they also could not be wounded, even when taking cover behind the flimsiest rail fence.So little thought went into this movie that it deserves to be ranked among the worst of all time.
Typical Western movie errors all over the place..
How unrealistic.It's a good thing they're making a movie and the horses get breaks along with the actors or they would keel over dead from all that running.
I can never understand why a movie producer or director will go to all the trouble and spend mucho dollars and end up with a film with so many obvious errors..
Anachronistic Audie Murphy Western.
Audie Murphy, the Most Decorated WWII Soldier, Including the Medal of Honor, had a Long and Successful Run in mostly Moderate Budgeted Westerns, and was a Household Name.
Always Quick to Point Out that being a Good Actor was an ongoing Fight He Never Won but Never Gave Up trying, managed 44 Films, some to Box Office Glory.
His Autobiographical Film, "To Hell and Back"(1955) Broke Box Office Records and Wasn't Topped for 20 Years.In this, His Last Major Role, was Characteristic of His Real Life and Screen Persona, but the Movie itself was Anachronistic.
The "Whites are the Good Guys", "Indians are the Savages", Cliché was No Longer Sell-Able and the Film Suffers from a Story-Line Best Suited in a more "Unenlightened" Time.Murph, looking as Young as Ever but showing Signs of Body Sprawl, Delivers a Dutiful Performance.
He is "Helped" by Kenneth Tobey giving a Good-Bad Guy Role and He makes the most of it and is the Film's only Interesting Element.
Audie looks more Hesitant, perhaps Sensing that His Time On the Screen had Passed.Rather than trying to Pursue other Ranging Roles Audie Murphy Retired from the Screen but Never Retired from the Hearts of Grateful Americans and Remained a Real Hero for the Rest of His Short Life.
Weaker than average Audie Murphy western.
Set in 1868 when the Apaches under Chief Cochise go on the warpath with the intention of driving out every white settler in southern Arizona; Captain Bruce Coburn must take a small group of soldiers deep into Apache territory to take delivery of a consignment of forty new repeating rifles being delivered from the east.
Things badly fairly quickly and several members of the squad are killed in an engagement with Cochise's braves; including one of the recruits who died because of his brother's cowardice.
After taking delivery of the rifles things get even worse when the belligerent Cpl. Bodine mutinies and persuades the rest of the men to join him; telling them they will get rich selling the rifles in Mexico.
he intends to sell them to the Apache!One of this film's key weaknesses is the narration that tells us things that are blindingly obvious and only seems to detract from the action and is delivered in a tone that adds nothing the film.
The acting is fairly mixed; Murphy puts in a solid performance as Coburn and Kenneth Tobey is great as Cpl. Bodine, creating a delightfully unpleasant character.
The desert locations look impressive but the 'fort' at Apache Wells looked nothing like a military outpost.
The main reason to watch this is to see Murphy's last starring role; apart from that it passes the time well enough on a rainy afternoon..
40 Guns To Apache Pass involves Captain Audie Murphy's commanding officer Byron Morrow sending him on two missions for the cavalry.
The second is as the title says to bring 40 repeating rifles to the army stockade at Apache Pass, the better to fend off an attack from Cochise with.It's sad that Audie Murphy who made such a good string for the most part of really competent B westerns even long after that genre had moved to television petered out that string with this film with an improbable almost laughable plot.
On that second mission he takes some of the prizes in the garrison, two green recruits in Michael Blodgett and Michael Burns and some of the worst disciplined including Kenneth Tobey, a corporal with a mean and larcenous streak in him that Murphy had to bludgeon into submission on the first mission.
Why he would take him again on a more dangerous assignment is beyond me.Given the idiocy in picking this particular patrol certain things that one with half a brain could have foreseen, do happen.Watching the film I believe Murphy was supposed to die, but the producers tacked on a ridiculous happy ending with Murphy going back to Laraine Stephens whose brothers were Blodgett and Burns.
It's really rather obvious.Best in the film and I'm sure he knew it was a turkey was Kenneth Tobey.
Audie looked good as the officer although he always looked young(but just remember what in did in WW2 23 years earlier).
In westerns it's often the supporting cast of heavies that make a film & Kenneth Tobey is great as the bad guy.
The indians looked like how i would expect apaches to look.
But always remember that while there's thousands of westerns that have been made not that many have the big three ACTION SCENERY & SUPPORTING CAST.
One of Audie Murphy's last movies is nothing to really brag about.
Harsh Captain Bruce Coburn(Murphy)leads a group of the Cavalry to accept a shipment of forty valuable rifles: and hopes to avoid Cochise(Michael Keep)and the Apaches.
Corporal Bodine(Kenneth Tobey)starts a mutiny against the much hated Cpt. Coburn and intends to sell the rifles to Cochise instead of going to Mexico to trade them.
In his next to last film Audie Murphy had almost outgrown his boyish good looks enough to pass for a reasonably convincing hard case.
His character Bruce Coburn is a no nonsense Cavalry Captain with orders to escort settlers out of Apache Indian Territory and later, to bring in a shipment of repeating rifles to the Army outpost at Apache Wells.
Corporal Bodine (Kenneth Tobey) was a former Confederate who still hates the Union enough to desert in the middle of the mission and drag along a handful of soldiers, including the younger Malone brother Doug (Michael Burns).
By this point, Doug had already witnessed older brother Mike (Michael Blodgett) attacked and dragged off by the Apaches, unwilling and unable to come to his aid by reason of cowardice.
Except for Murphy's own autobiographical film "To Hell and Back" and his 1959 Western "No Name on the Bullet", I found this to be one of the better ones starring the real life war hero.
Part of that reverts back to my opening comment regarding Murphy's 'look'; in virtually every other Western I've seen him in, he doesn't look the part whether he's playing a hero OR a villain.If I had to nit pick though, what didn't seem convincing to me was how handily Captain Coburn picked off all those charging Indians once he got his hands on the rifle cache.
A little like John Wayne winning all those war and Western battles all by himself.
But if you're an Audie Murphy fan, and by now I guess I'm in that camp, this is a decent send off in his last feature role..
I've read several other reviews and I must ask if those who call this a cheapie have ever watched a 'western' where 90% of the film takes place in a town or in a confined location where they talk each other to death.
The on-location photography and camera-work in '40 Guns...' was pretty impressive; not filmed as a quickie would be 2 miles from LA or on a backlot.
And as for the plot being well- worn and tired, how many films can they make where the guy's girl and best buddy fall in love?
How many action films can they make where the thief, spy, driver, detective, hit man 'comes out of retirement'......???
A Wonderful Bad Film.
Audie Murphy that most likable of unconvincing heroic actors.
A real life super hero, Murphy compares badly against Randolph Scott who towered above every cheap western he ever made with total conviction as a granite hard hero that you believe totally, that's the movies.In this late western before Murphy's untimely death he is again the all American hero saving the west in a plot about 40 missing guns.