The second of three TV movies featuring Christopher Reeve as Alan Johnson and Tony Todd as Britt Johnson, one white, one black, but self-proclaimed brothers.
This time around, Britt is trying to convince his “red” brother, Running Dog (Raoul Trujillo), to live in peace with the whites.
Alan could care less what happens to Running Dog and the rest of the Kiowa. His wife, Sarah, was captured and raped in an Indian raid. A year later, she’s still mentally scarred by the experience.
Meanwhile, Running Dog’s situation is complicated by the presence of his white lover, Delores Holtz, who has taken the Indian named Morningstar.
She’s the very young wife of the much older Ralph Holtz, and he’s planning a Kiowa massacre to get her back.
Meanwhile, a hateful preacher is supplying Holtz and his friends with repeating rifles, while selling older flintlock weapons to the Indians.
Can Britt save the day? Will Alan have a change of heart and help the Kiowa?
This marked the second of three Black Fox telefilms broadcast by CBS and so-named because Tony Todd’s character is given the name Black Fox in the first film.
In that film, he wound up brokering a deal with the Indians that allowed him to win the release of women and children captured during an Indian raid.
A year has passed before this film begins with the U.S. Cavalry still trying to hunt down the renegades while Running Dog’s Kiowa band is committed to peace, unless provoked.
Unfortunately, the second part of the trilogy is marred by an unbelievably contrived ending. And a barely bearable performance from Raoul Trujillo as a smart-alecky Indian hunk.
Reeve starred in the third Black Fox film as well, and these appearances were among the final ones by the former Superman before he was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995.
Directed by:
Steven Hilliard Stern
Cast:
Christopher Reeve … Alan Johnson
Raoul Trujillo … Running Dog
Tony Todd … Britt Johnson
Janet Bailey … Mary Johnson
Nancy Sorel … Sarah Johnson
Chris Wiggins … Ralph Holtz
Cynthia Preston … Delores Holtz
Dale Wilson … Capt. Buck Barry
Rainbow Francks … Frank Johnson
John Blackwood .. The Rev. Thorne
Also with: Don S. Davis, Michael Rhodes, Luc Corbell
Runtime: 96 min.
aka: Blood Horse
Memorable lines:
Capt. Barry: “Do you speak Texan?”
Running Dog: “No, but I speak English. I hope you can understand.”
Mary Johnson: “If he’s a follower of God, I’m a horse’s behind.”
Britt Johnson to Alan: “Man can’t live worryin’ ’bout dyin’, brother.”
Alan Johnson: “What you did last year, bringin’ the captives back after the raid, that’s more than any man could ever thank you for. I just hope it doesn’t make you think you can overcome an eternity of hatred, all by yourself.”