A young married woman named Maria, the wife of Manuel Lopez, has been killed by Apache Jack, and Sheriff Bill Cummings (Robert Barrat) takes a posse into the desert in pursuit.
After a long dry ride toward the Dragoons, they reach a water hole and find a mixed blessing — a fortune in silver and two skeletons.
That causes feuding among the small party. Some want to cash in on a once-in-a-lifetime fortune; the sheriff is insisting they carry on with their pursuit of Apache Jack.
Pretty soon, it’s a mute point. The one man who tried to slip off to file claim on the silver find winds up dead, and the Apache have the small party under siege, picking off Cummings’ posse one by one until only he, a tenderfoot named Mulford and a gunman named Rayburn are left alive.
Review:
Well done B film as John Ford’s 1934 film “The Lost Patrol” heads West, benefitting from a smart script and an ensemble cast that includes lots of familiar faces to fans of Westerns, but no major star.
Francis McDonald is Manuel Lopez, who’s been left nearly mad by the death of his wife, but his is actually one of the smaller parts in the film. Douglas Walton turns in a fine performance as Mulford, a man convinced he’s a Jonah to everyone around him.
As for Apache Jack, he doesn’t show up until the film’s final five minutes as the sheriff’s posse is whittled down by an enemy they can’t even see.
Directed by:
Lew Landers
Cast:
Robert Barrat … Sheriff Bill Cummings
Noah Beery Jr. … Chick Lyman
Guinn Williams … Billy Sweet
Andy Clyde … Henry Cluff
Paul Hurst … Curly Tom (Dogface)
Robert Coote … Eaton
Addison Richards … Rayburn
Douglas Walton … Bob Mulford
Francis Ford … Charlie Garth
Francis McDonald … Manuel Lopez
Jack Payne … Apache Jack
Runtime: 71 min.
Memorable lines:
Chick Lyman: “Mulford, let me give you a little advice. Out here, we don’t pry into anyone’s affairs. Just ain’t healthy.”
Mulford: “Well, if my health ain’t threatened by anything more dangerous than you, I won’t worry much.”
Mulford: “Hey, Sweet, what are the Dragoons?”
Sweet: “For a veteran plainsman, you ain’t very smart are you? … They’re sort of a practicing ground for the hereafter. They’re supposed to be mountains, but they’re really the wrong place turned into out.”
Henry: “Sheriff, I’m so thirsty, I could drink my Saturday bath. If I had one.”
Charlie: “One drop would kill the whole posse.”
Charlie, on whether the posse should defy the sheriff and abandon the pursuit of Apache Jack upon having discovered silver: “I’d rather be a live bloodhound than a dead millionaire.”
Sheriff Cummings: “It’s enough to make even a stone man jumpy — trying to hold out against something you can’t even get a look at.”
Rayburn, to a fellow posse member: “Why, you’re just a little choosy how you kick the bucket, ain’t ya? You’re just a-figuring and a-worrying in that head of yours, thinking there will be a miracle… and you don’t have to die at all. Well, I used to josh myself that way once, too. I sleep better now.”
Charlie: “Apaches don’t do night work. It’s against the rules of their God. They prefer the rosy dawn for murder.”
Sheriff Cummings: “Of course, Apache Jack’s influence will be pretty ungodly.”
){kind=link}