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. There's a romantic interest in the role of Coburn's fiancé Ellen Malone (Laraine Stephens) but she's not a major factor in the story, basically book-ending her presence by being in one of the families Coburn removes from their homestead. However she has two younger brothers who join the Army to get their hands on some weapons to take it to the Apaches.
Even though the Chiricahua Apaches are a palpable menace in the story, most of the tension is provided by Coburn's nemesis within the ranks. 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. If you've seen enough stories like this, the eventual 'rise to the occasion' moment was being set up here.
I was a little surprised to see most other reviewers on this board lean toward the negative for this flick. 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.
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