This is a fully-fledged 90 minutes approximately action Western film , fast moving , tense , rousing scenes and excitement throughout its running time . A young cavalry officer called (Audie Murphy) is assigned the job of bringing in a band of Apaches Miscalero led by Vitorio (Vitale) and his son Red Hawk (Michael Dante) who have been terrorizing the countryside . They have escaped from San Carlos reserve , illustrating the callous disregard with which the government treated the Apaches as the US agency fails to deliver even the meager provisions without proper supplies for survival . But the captain Stanton is caught in the crossfire of passions and greed . There arrives a new Colonel (John Archer) and Stanton turns into second-in-command and he subsequently is dismissed .
The picture packs whirlwinds of manic action , thrills , fights , sustained energy and often commendable results . The film has a slickness and crude vigour , though some scenes are failures . The Indian attacks , shootouts , pyrotechnics , battles , riding pursuits , all of them are spectacular and the film is another passable Hollywood product but of B-series . It contains some vigorous and ingeniously done action scenes , but others no-nonsense . The highlights of the movie are the overlong fighting between Stanton and Red Hawk and the final Indian attack to cavalry . Gorgeous outdoors filmed on location in Bronson Canyon , Mojave, California and Red Rock Canyon State Park Cantil, California . It was professionally directed by William Witney who spent his entire career making serials and second-features , one of them is this ¨Apache rifles¨ , providing the screenplay allowed him to keep them thrilling at his own moving and relentless gallop . It has a rigour look , hard-edged scenes , action-packed , wild energy , exciting images that , in the eyes of connoisseurs makes one of the most acceptable of his kind .
This traditional Western was regularly directed by William Witney , though contains some vigorous scenes . Witney was a craftsman who directed 140 titles from the 30s . Oklahoma-born William Witney 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 he followed to work for cinema and was capable of making large-scale movies as ¨Santa Fe Passage¨ involving a wagon train against Indians , ¨The Bonnie Parker story¨about the famous gun-moll , and specially ¨Master of the world¨ an amusing Jules Verne adventure with Vincent Price and Charles Bronson . The motion picture will appeal to Western buffs ; it's an agreeable popcorn story plenty of shots with Indians , soldiers and gunfighters .
