*Spoilers ahead* This is the "Scream" of Westerns!
It starts out like any regular Western. A bunch of reservation-jumping Apaches are almost single-handedly captured by the versatile (as usual) Gregory Peck. But,it soon turns out that ex-captive Eva Marie Saint's mestizo son was fathered by an Apache chief called Salvaje!
*Spanish for "the Savage One?"*
This is where the movie becomes a psychological thriller, as this ninja-like Apache indiscriminately destroys anyone or anything standing between him and the boy. The literally life-or-death duel of wits, between Peck and Salvaje, is made even more suspenseful by that eerie background music! *A zither, perhaps?* It ultimately seems like the only way Peck might be able to win is to out-savage the Savage One.
Minor trivia: Concho, Peck's mestizo sidekick, is played by character actor Robert Forster, who nicely foreshadows his later roles in equally off-beat thrillers like "Alligator" and the "Maniac Cop" films.
It starts out like any regular Western. A bunch of reservation-jumping Apaches are almost single-handedly captured by the versatile (as usual) Gregory Peck. But,it soon turns out that ex-captive Eva Marie Saint's mestizo son was fathered by an Apache chief called Salvaje!
*Spanish for "the Savage One?"*
This is where the movie becomes a psychological thriller, as this ninja-like Apache indiscriminately destroys anyone or anything standing between him and the boy. The literally life-or-death duel of wits, between Peck and Salvaje, is made even more suspenseful by that eerie background music! *A zither, perhaps?* It ultimately seems like the only way Peck might be able to win is to out-savage the Savage One.
Minor trivia: Concho, Peck's mestizo sidekick, is played by character actor Robert Forster, who nicely foreshadows his later roles in equally off-beat thrillers like "Alligator" and the "Maniac Cop" films.