Duel At Diablo (1966)

A frontier scout (James Garner) finds a woman (Bibi Andersson, PERSONA) on the run in the desert and rescues her from a band of Apaches. But when he returns her to her husband (Dennis Weaver), he seems less than pleased as she has been living as an Apache squaw for several years. Things get worse when all three of them accompany an Army cavalry unit through hostile Apache country on their way to deliver horses to a fort. Directed by Ralph Nelson (LILIES OF THE FIELD), this is a gripping above average western that moves beyond the standard oater. Besides the white squaw narrative, there's Garner's vengeance storyline as he looks for the man who killed his Indian wife, there's the black cowboy (Sidney Poitier) though there's no mention of race and the ambitious Lieutenant (Bill Travers, BORN FREE) struggling to keep a grip on an impossible situation. Tough and brutal, it should please the most demanding of western fans. The striking Utah locations were shot by Charles F. Wheeler and the score by Neal Hefti is a mixed bag, the main title is terrific but some of the score is so anachronistic as to be jarring. With William Redfield and John Hoyt.