Die Mestizin von Santa Fe

Disgraced Indian scout and his sidekick lead a wagon train carrying freight through Kiowa country to Mexico. John Payne is the scout, Slim Pickens is his sidekick and Rod Cameron and Faith Domergue are the wagon train "bosses". Director William Witney was an expert at making tight, fast-moving westerns, but he had a bad day here. Except for a well-handled wild-horse stampede and a couple of slightly less well-handled Indian attacks, this picture moves like molasses, with performances ranging from enjoyable (Pickens) to stiff (Cameron) to indifferent (Domergue) to awful (Irene Tedrow as a Kiowa "squaw" accompanying Domergue on the train). Payne looks like he'd rather be somewhere else and doesn't connect at all with Domergue, his ostensible love interest. Only Pickens and Leo Gordon as a villainous (what else?) trail boss manage to breathe any life into their characters, and the script holds no surprises for anyone (especially the "twist" ending). An OK time-waster, that's about all.

A scout with a questionable reputation guides a wagon train through hostile Indian country in an okay but predictable western. John Payne and Rod Cameron are the top cast names and their main interest here is a half-breed girl as the train makes its way to Santa Fe. Good support is given by Slim Pickens, Anthony Caruso and Leo Gordon, old hands in the western genre, and Faith Domergue does what she can with a one-dimensional role. The action is decent and a wild horse stampede adds excitement to the film but otherwise there's nothing about the movie that separates it from dozens of others of its type. The picture has beautiful camera work and displays pretty Utah landscapes to good advantage. The film was based on a novel by Clay Fisher who had some of his other works made into excellent westerns.

An unfortunate Indian scout called Kirby (John Payne) and his disgraced partner (Slim Pickens) are excluded by colonists or settlemen , that's why some families were slaughtered by the Indians and neither he nor his colleague Sam Beekman can get jobs . Later on , they are hired to escort a wagonload of guns through Indian territory. Aurelie St. Clair (Faith Domergue) , who owns half of an ammunition shipment for sale in Santa Fe to Mexican insurrectionaries, protests when her pal and lover Jess Griswold (Rod Cameron) hires Kirby and Sam as guides . After that , Kirby and Aurelie fall in love, although Kirby does not realize she is half-Indian . Along the way they have to face off the ruthless Kiowa chief Satank (George Keymas) who instigates a spectacular wild horse stampede . The danger trail that only the daring traveled ! Ablaze with Raging Adventure! afire with Romantic Love! aflame with the Fury of Hate-Crazy Savages!

Run-of-the-mill Republic Picture flick with usual elements, such as noisy action, thrills, crossfire, drama, romance and some spectacular action scenes . Along with a love triangle in which implicates Kirby/Payne and Jess/Cameron who is also in love with Aurelie/Domergue . The plot is plain and simple a wagon train results to be chased and ambushed by the Indians , then the survivors trust on an expert scout despite his ostracism status. A blending of functional main actors with great character players of whom John Payne holds the best role as a brave frontiersman . The hothouse plot drives mercilessly forward with action , thrills , attacks , treason and turns . The tale is strong one and the yarn is wonderfully located against a background of Utah . Well directed by Witney who made a lot of low-budget movies , though he followed to work for cinema and was capable of making large-scale movies as ¨Santa Fe Passage¨ revolving around a wagon train against Indians . Stars John Payne, as a valiant scout and wagon-train guide Kirby Randolph , he delivers a peculiar role as a vengeful explorer who hates all Indians, , whose massacre of an entire wagon-train of settlers led by Kirby to hate really the Indians ; Payne being one of the popular actors of the forties and fifties, today a little forgotten. He starred the classy Miracle in 34th street and performed all kinds of genres as Noir: Slighly scarlet, Kansas City confidential, The vanquished, Adventure: Raiders of seven seas, Crosswinds, Tripoli and Western : Santa Fe passage, Rails into Laramie , Silver lode, Tennessee's partner, The Road to Denver. Payne is well accompanied by a good support cast such as : the always sympathetic Slim Pickens here co-starring , Rod Cameron , the habitual baddie Leo Gordon , Irene Tedrow , George Keymas and Anthony Caruso .

It contains colorful and brilliant cinematography in Trucolor by director of photography Bud Thackery . And thrilling and atmospheric musical scrore by Dale Butts .This classic as well as traditional movie was produced by Herbert J Yates from Republic Pictures and professionally directed by William Witney , containing some vigorous scenes . Witney was a good craftsman who directed 140 titles from the 30s . Oklahoma-born William began his long screen career as a studio messenger in silent days joining Republic Pictures shortly after . By 1936 , he was already script supervisor on serials and his own directorial career started the following year . Witney graduated to director at 21, he was Hollywood's youngest , and he teamed with director John English on many of the period's best serials . He realized many of the era's best serials , most of them highlighted by kinetic fight and chase scenes that helped change the face of action movie-making and from 1956 , he transferred these stirring energies to TV Westerns with prolific and enjoyable results . The favorite shooting was the 1939 serial ¨Zorro's fighting legion¨ . As his pictures were mainly serials , after WWII service with US Marines , he moved on to Roy Rogers Westerns , inserting into them a new tough backbone that offended some Rogers purists . In 1954 he made one of the best films ¨The outcast¨ with John Derek , besides his television work which includes some quite exciting episodes of such series as ¨High Chaparral¨, ¨Bonanza¨, ¨Laramie¨, ¨Zorro¨, ¨The Virginian¨ and ¨Wagon train¨ and ¨The Bonnie Parker story¨about the famous gun-moll , and specially his greatest hit : ¨Master of the world¨ . The motion picture will appeal to Western/adventure buffs ; it's an agreeable popcorn story plenty of breathtaking scenes , thrills , colorful exteriors and many other things . It's a wonderful popcorn story for kids , teens and old people . Rating : Decent Western 6/10

A strikingly photographed but also strikingly ordinary western. Payne leads a cattle drive through 'Injun' territory. Do you reckon they're going to let him through peacefully? It's admittedly never short on action, but such trifle now seems more than a bit outré considering the contemporarily modish spate of 'be nice to Indians' Westerns. Fair to say though, that even though 'Broken Arrow' had set such a trend 5 year back, traditional Western audiences regarded the concept with less-than macromolecular significance. With Faith Domergue being typically insipid (This Island Earth was still one year off), but looking as if she thinks she deserves to be paid like Barbara Stanwyck.

Once again, Republic Studio brings together a great cast in a superior Western tale. Payne is the discredited scout, Pickens his side-kick, hired to guide a wagon full of guns through hostile Indian territory. As the action unfolds, Payne must overcome the hostiles, gun-runners and his own prejudice to win out. There is a lot of suspense here, and never a dull moment. An excellent watch!