Blood on the Arrow (1964)

Dale Robertson is Wade Cooper, a notorious gunman who escapes from the cavalry only because he’s the lone survivor of an Apache attack.

Nancy Mailer (Martha Hyer) and her jealous husband Clint (Wendell Corey) nurse him back to health.

And he proves handy after the Apache kidnap their son and decide to hold him as ransom for 200 rifles Clint has promised to provide, but has no idea how to acquire.

Cooper, with the help of his old gang, figures to steal them from the Army in return for some of the gold Clint has dug out of a mine on Apache land.

That’s before he realizes he and Nancy Mailer have lots in common. Both have pretty much given up on the future, their hearts broken by long lost loves.

Now they envision a future together, if the Apaches and Clint’s old gang members don’t spoil those plans.

Review:

A promising opening quickly falls prey to a plot that’s an implausible as they come. One of Cooper’s cohorts spells it out: Why would the outlaws go up against the cavalry and the Apache for a portion of the gold hidden in the Mailer home when they could steal it all from him?

Cooper, taken with Nancy Mailer, decides he’ll try to rescue her son, blow up the rifles and forgo the gold. Nancy’s husband, of course, winds up being conveniently killed, though no one seems too broken up about that for more than a few seconds, not even the young boy who considered him a dad. Oh, my.

At the time this film was released, Robertson was between Western series. “Tales of Wells Fargo” had completed a successful run in 1962; “The Iron Horse” wouldn’t debut until 1966.

Directed by:
Sidney Salkow

Cast:
Dale Robertson … Wade Cooper
Martha Hyer … Nancy Mailer
Wendell Corey … Clint Mailer
Dandy Curran … Tim Mailer
Paul Mantee … Segura
Robert Carricart … Kai-La
Ted de Corsia … Jud
Elisha Cook Jr. … Tex
John Matthews … Mike
Tom Reese … Charlie
Boyce Wright … Capt. Stanhope

Runtime: 91 min.

Memorable lines:

Clint Mailer: “You realize I’ll be leaving him here alone with all that gold.”
Wade Cooper: “You’ll also be leaving me here alone with your wife. That would bother some men more.”
Clint: “I’ll expect her to remember she is my wife.”

Kai-La, about Clint: “Only the truth would make him brave enough to come here.”

Clint Mailer: “You need a bath, Jud.”
Jud: “When the master calls, I come. Even when a bath seems preferable.”

Jud, to a fellow gang member: “Charlie, you exerting your brain again. You think better with your muscles.”

Clint to Nancy, talking about hope for the future: “We dug our graves before we were dead.”