Rio Conchos (1964)

A disparate assortment of characters: an Apache hating ex-Confederate soldier (Richard Boone), an Army captain (Stuart Whitman), a Mexican outlaw (Anthony Franciosa), a black Buffalo soldier (Jim Brown in his film debut) and an Apache woman (Wende Wagner, ROSEMARY'S BABY) find themselves thrown together in a perilous journey to Mexico. Their ultimate goal is to find the camp of a renegade former Confederate (an unconvincing Edmond O'Brien) who is selling repeating rifles to the Apaches. This tough and unsentimental western delivers the goods. There's no depth to it but it's a splendid diversion. It's surprisingly brutal, foreshadowing the path the western would soon take with Leone and Peckinpah on the horizon and the inferno climax doesn't leave you cheering but slightly disheartened. The stereotypical portrayal of the Mexican characters varies from offensive (Franciosa's sneaky opportunistic con man) to hilarious (Timothy Carey miscast as a Mexican) to amusing (Vito Scotti channeling J. Carrol Naish). The score, one of the very best written for a western, is by Jerry Goldsmith. Directed by Gordon Douglas and with Warner Anderson, Barry Kelley and Rodolfo Acosta.