An opening title card stated that this was a true story, but I would certainly hedge my bets on that score. The only accurate take away from the film is the fact that Katawan/Apache Kid (Keith Larsen) once served as a scout in the U.S. Army and for some reason turned renegade against the white man. The movie implies that this occurred after killing his Apache enemy Chato (George Keymas), who earlier had murdered Katawan's brother Chikisin. It certainly looked like self defense in the film, but Katawan refused to speak up for himself and was about to be sent to Yuma Territorial Prison for murder. Escaping his Army guards, he leaves his former partner Ben Ziegler (Jim Davis) for dead, but you'll do a double take when that scene occurs. To make sure Ziegler is dead, Apache Mahteen shoots him after Katawan fires wide feigning a killing shot. Ziegler does a half sit up to see what's going on, and at the same time, Mahteen looks in his direction. Proper editing could have prevented the contradictory looking scene, but instead, the Indians simply rode away.
The movie leaves it entirely unclear as to when the Apache Kid went on his murderous rampage across the Southwest. Presumably it was after Ziegler helped him escape bounty hunters at the end of the picture, but that would have left out a major portion of the Kid's history. I was intrigued enough by this to search out the episode dealing with the Apache Kid on my DVD set of 'Stories Of The Century', with episodes from the 1954 TV series. I wasn't too surprised that the stories didn't match up very closely, except for the basic outline of Apache Kid as an Army scout who went bad. No reason given for the turn, but the episode offered a colorful description of the Kid as 'a stalking werewolf with a blood lust'. His rampage began after escaping from his Yuma bound guards, and over the next few months went on a killing spree totaling over a hundred whites and red men. Although 'Stories Of The Century' purports to be based on actual newspaper accounts of the Old West, the ending of this particular story ends ambiguously as well, with the only three eyewitnesses to Apache Kid's death agreeing to a cover up. So how did they make the story?
Ultimately, "Apache Warrior" is merely an OK Western, with not as much action and suspense that one might expect. You'll probably wonder about that ending too; all those rifle rounds flying and no one getting hit. It almost seemed gratuitous that one of the bounty hunters got shot in the finale. I would like to have heard actor Jim Davis's take on the Apache Kid saga, oddly, he appeared in both the movie and as the lead character, railroad detective Matt Clark, in 'Stories Of The Century'.
The movie leaves it entirely unclear as to when the Apache Kid went on his murderous rampage across the Southwest. Presumably it was after Ziegler helped him escape bounty hunters at the end of the picture, but that would have left out a major portion of the Kid's history. I was intrigued enough by this to search out the episode dealing with the Apache Kid on my DVD set of 'Stories Of The Century', with episodes from the 1954 TV series. I wasn't too surprised that the stories didn't match up very closely, except for the basic outline of Apache Kid as an Army scout who went bad. No reason given for the turn, but the episode offered a colorful description of the Kid as 'a stalking werewolf with a blood lust'. His rampage began after escaping from his Yuma bound guards, and over the next few months went on a killing spree totaling over a hundred whites and red men. Although 'Stories Of The Century' purports to be based on actual newspaper accounts of the Old West, the ending of this particular story ends ambiguously as well, with the only three eyewitnesses to Apache Kid's death agreeing to a cover up. So how did they make the story?
Ultimately, "Apache Warrior" is merely an OK Western, with not as much action and suspense that one might expect. You'll probably wonder about that ending too; all those rifle rounds flying and no one getting hit. It almost seemed gratuitous that one of the bounty hunters got shot in the finale. I would like to have heard actor Jim Davis's take on the Apache Kid saga, oddly, he appeared in both the movie and as the lead character, railroad detective Matt Clark, in 'Stories Of The Century'.
