Cry Blood Apache (1970)

Wonderful character development!

recommended

Lack of good storyline.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

One of the best of Starrett's low budget action-Pictures of the seventies, this intriguing Western was co-produced by its star, Jody (son of Joel)McCrea. Told in flashback by McCrea as an old man (played by Joel) as he reminisces about his past, McGregor's screenplay has McCrea and a bunch of prospectors slaughtering a band of Indians until the last one left, Gahva, promises to tell them the whereabouts of a gold mine and lead them there. On the way they are pursued by Gahva's brother, who murders them one by one (including director Starrett), until Gahva kills him to save McCrea.Ph. H.

I'd heard this was one of the worst movies ever, but it's just cheap and mediocre. (How disappointing.) It's no worse than much of the era's drive-in era genre cheapies, particularly the sexploitation, biker and horror ones--though I guess by this point it was a fairly rare low-budget western, since that genre pretty much dying out (big-budget exceptions like "True Grit" aside). Some 19th-century longhaired white cretins rape and murder a small village of Apaches, taking one woman hostage when she promises to take them to a gold mine. When the a young Apache warrior returns home (he'd been absent during this slaughter), he tracks and methodically kills the brutes.This movie is kinda like a non-graphic version the same time period's porn semi-classic "A Dirty Western"--though what passed for high production values in a porn flick looks pretty low-grade in a mainstream feature. (There's only so much rugged-landscape location shooting can do for an otherwise micro-budgeted movie.) It's all about abduction, loutish behavior and righteous vengeance. Jody McCrea plays the "nice" member of the gang, who tries to save the "squaw" from further rape and violence; his dad Joel cameos as the character many years later, remembering these grim events. You've got to wonder if McCrea Sr. (in his next-to-last role) had any idea just how sordid much of "Cry Blood, Apache" would be, since the sleazy aura early on is so at odds with the wholesome image he'd preserved as a Hollywood star. McCrea Jr., in his sole effort at producing, is OK--but he sure was cuter as Deadhead in those "Beach Party" movies. Nonetheless, this movie isn't so bad. It's got a professional orchestral score, decent technical contributions, adequate pacing, OK stunt work, picturesque high/low-desert locations, and competent direction from Jack Starrett, who played the hypocritically evangelical "Deacon and would go on to direct a fair number of TV episodes ("Starsky & Hutch," "Dukes of Hazard") as well as TV movies and second-rung theatrical ones ("Cleopatra Jones," "The Gravy Train," "Race with the Devil"). Yes, those adjectives are pretty tepid. No stretch of the imagination can make "Cry Blood, Apache" good. But t'ain't THAT bad. It's just drive-in routine, circa 1970, with dialogue largely dubbed in post. Actually, it gets better as it goes on, particularly in late vengeful stretches that reach for tragedy and irony--they don't memorably reach either, but they're effective enough in melodramatic terms. (There's a particularly nasty death by rattlesnake.) Still, the ending is corny.Big bearded "Billy" was the father of child star Dawn Lyn ("My Three Sons") and teen idol Leif Garrett.

I've been intrigued by the title of this 1970 Western for some time, so when I had a chance to pick it up new for just a buck, I thought I'd give it a try. I believe I'm due some change.The film offers a quartet of villainous desperadoes on the hunt for gold, who brutalize an Indian family and expect the lone surviving squaw to deliver them to the goods. It's never made clear why a fifth member of the group, portrayed by Jody McCrae, is along for the ride. He's the only one who appears to have had a bath recently, and comports himself reasonably well, though he does little to mitigate the nasty behavior of his compadres. On the flip side, as he gets cozy with Apache squaw Jemme, (Marie Gahva), the boys generally give it no mind, like he wouldn't even think of double crossing them.The first half of the film plods along rather slowly; the action what there is comes in the second half as an Apache brave picks up the trail of the evil-doers and prepares to exact revenge. His first victim gets the standard arrow in the back treatment, but then the Indian's inventiveness gets you to sit up and take notice. Benji (Don Henley) finds himself the subject of an upside down gravity drowning, screaming for his dying brother and his mama to help. Later, using the old snake in the bag over the head trick, another gang member meets his end. It seems to me though that "Two Card" Charlie must have died of fright; a close up of the snake shows it to be too narrow and without the markings of a rattler. The fate of Bible quoting Deacon (Jack Starrett) is not dealt with on screen, but his skeleton makes a cameo at the end of the movie.One thing about the avenging Apache is intriguing; he's usually shown tracking the gang on entirely different terrain than the bad guys are traveling. For the most part, it appears that a desert setting prevails, but the Indian finds himself careening down rough river rapids, and winding through rocky mountain paths. The bad guys never encountered those obstacles.You'll find veteran actor Joel McCrea's name top billed as a selling point for "Cry Blood, Apache", but don't be fooled. He's shown at the beginning and end of the film as an older and wiser version of the 'good' bad guy Pitcallin, contemplating sardonically on the events of his past life as shown in the movie. Somehow, his final wistful look seems to be saying he's glad it's over, the movie that is.

CRY BLOOD APACHE is without a doubt one of the most dismal and ineptly made American Westerns ever, and is really an exploitation/revenge thriller in disguise. What happens on screen (bunch of slack jawed yokels massacre a Native American family and face ruthless revenge from a surviving Navajo Brave) isn't as interesting as the divergent ideas and cult movie personalities who participated in it's execution.Western legend Joe McCrea was coaxed out of retirement by his son -- who produced & stars the film -- to appear in a three and a half minute wraparound segment that attempts to establish him remembering the events depicted as a flashback. He gets to ride a horse on screen, look thoughtfully into the camera for a spell, and is given headline billing even though his character could easily have been written out with no ill effect to the somewhat nauseating story which unfolds. He is there as a name.The film plays out like a "response" to the vastly superior SOLDIER BLUE, a notorious exercise in degradation and sleaze that still stands as a milestone to Vietnam era liberal aggendized film-making run amok. The horrors shown in CRY BLOOD APACHE do not come close to the carnage in SOLDIER BLUE, which at least had something to say (US military = evil barbaric racist baby killers & rapists), where CRY BLOOD APACHE merely exists to show a series of Injun killings as revenge for a personal score. It is a smaller, filthier movie, with no larger aspirations than to part viewing audiences from their money.With that said, the film has some interest in who is behind it: Writer Sean MacGregor would achieve notoriety of sorts with his cult 1975 thriller DEVIL TIMES FIVE, with the busty Caroline Stellar (birth mother of 70's pin up idol Lief Garrett, who appeared with his mom in that heartwarming film) lending her person to the proceedings. And the film was directed by Jack Starrett (who also plays the Bible quoting Deacon) who would go on to direct & appear in 1975's RACE WITH THE DEVIL.Fortunately, he perfected his craft by then, and I recommend those films over this one in a heartbeat. What CRY BLOOD APACHE has to offer is an ultra-low budget look that lends itself to the form, and some of the killing methods used in the revenge spree (death by hanging into stream, death by snake in bag placed over head) are actually rather chilling without being unduly graphic, and hint at things to come in DEVIL TIMES FIVE and RACE WITH THE DEVIL both. Sadly though, what the genre called for at the time *WAS* unduly graphic & leering barbarity, and while Starrett & MacGregor hint at such the 77 minute version still available doesn't really deliver the goods, and stands as an example of a film that is merely awful rather than the apocalyptic gory trashfest legend may suggest.And if you like Joe McCrea, stick with RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, please. This film will only sully one's memory of what a fabulous presence he had. Here he is used for a name brand draw, which is actually rather despicable.