Rory Calhoun plays veteran frontiersman Jim Walker, who agrees to ride shotgun on the Butterfield stage from Apache Wells to Lordsburg, even though the Apache are on the warpath.
He’s riding alongside longtime friend Charlie Russell and accompanied by grizzled old-timer Bill Gibson.
Inside the stage are a Butterfield manager, two gunmen with plans to rob the coach of the $80,000 its carrying and pretty Janice McKenzie, who’s being run out of Apache Wells because her reputation caught up with her.
Things go fine until the stage reaches a station where the third member of the outlaw gang, Vance Buckner (John Russell) shows up.
His plan: Murder all the witnesses and make off with the loot.
But is it wise to get rid of potential gunmen with the Apache gathering outside the station?
After all, inside is a wounded chief the stage has picked up along the way.
Rory Calhoun as Jim Walker, the veteran frontiersman who warns of Apache trouble in Apache Uprising (1966)
John Russell as Vance Buckner, planning an $80,000 stage holdup in Apache Uprising (1966)
Review:
Another low-budget B Western from the team of producer A.C. Lyles and director R.G. Springsteen,. This one is a cut above most of their efforts, thanks largely to a deeper than normal supporting cast.
In addition to the always steady Rory Calhoun in the lead role, we have Arthur Hunnicutt as his sidekick, John Russell as the villain and Lon Chaney Jr. providing one of his best performances in a Lyles’ Western.
That helps offset the histrionics of a reckless gunman named Toby Jack, played by DeForest Kelly of future Star Trek fame. Not to mention some downright silliness near the end of the film and too many coincidences in the plot (turns out the characters played by Calhoun and Russell are old enemies).
Corrine Calvet plays the female lead in her last Western. She would continue acting until 1982, when she had a small role in “Sword and the Sorcerer.”
This marked the final screen appearance of former Western series start Johnny Mack Brown. He plays an aging, overweight sheriff accused of promising Calvet’s character that things will go nice for her if she’s nice to him.
Corinne Calvet as Janice McKenzie, run out of town because of a bad reputation in Apache Uprising (1966)
DeForest Kelley as Toby Jack Saunders, the hot-headed fast gun working with Vance in Apache Uprising (1966)
Directed by:
R.G. Springsteen
Cast:
Rory Calhoun … Jim Walker
Corinne Calvet … Janice MacKenzie
John Russell … Vance Buckner
Lon Chaney Jr. … Charlie Russell
Gene Evans … Jess Cooney
Richard Arlen … Capt. Gannon
Arthur Hunnicutt … Bill Gibson
DeForest Kelley … Toby Jack Saunders
Robert H. Harris … Hort Taylor
George Chandler … Jace Asher
Jean Parker … Mrs. Hawks
Johnny Mack Brown … Sheriff Ben Hall
Don “Red” Barry … Henry Belden
Abel Fernandez … Young Apache Chief
Robert Carricart … Chico Lopez
Runtime: 90 min.
Arthur Hunnicutt as Bill Gibson, Jim Walker’s grizzled sidekick in Apache Uprising (1966)
Robert H. Harris as Hort Taylor, the Butterfield man with a secret in Apache Uprising (1966)
Memorable lines:
Jess to Toby Jack: “I don’t plan to end my days feet up with a lance through my gizzard as a tombstone.”
Bill Gibson, as he buries a family of settlers: “Fools. Jug-headed fools. Coming out into Apache country like they was taking a ride down a city street back East. Never learn til they’re dead. Then makes no never-mind.”
Toby Jack: “You better hole up so them big bad injuns don’t scare you no more.”
Jim Walker: “Little man, big mouth.”
Toby Jack: “Big man, big gun. Now, you want to see how big?”
Gene Evans as Jess Cooney, questioning Vance’s plans to kill all the stage passengers in Apache Uprising (1966)
Lon Chaney Jr. as Charlie Russell, the hard-drinking stagecoach driver in Apache Uprising (1966)
Richard Arlen as Capt. Gannon, the cavalry commander who runs into Indian trouble in Apache Uprising (1966)
Johnny Mack Brown as Sheriff Ben Hall, bearing scratch marks after urging Janice to ‘be nice’ to him in Apache Uprising (1966)
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