Jeff Morrow is “Hack” Williams, who has the misfortune of riding into Copper Sky just as an Apache is killed. He fires a shot at the killer, and is found holding a rifle over the dead Indians.
Fearing retribution, the good folks of Copper Sky quickly put Williams on trial and sentence him to hang. He’s tossed in jail. But before he can be hanged, the Apaches attack, killing everyone in town. Well, everyone but Williams. They didn’t see him sleeping off a hangover in the jail.
Soon after the massacre, a pretty young schoolteacher — (Coleen Gray) as Nora Haynes — arrives in town. Now the two of them must find their way to safety through a countryside crawling with “redsticks” who would like to lift Nora’s pretty scalp.
It’s an uneasy alliance. Nora hails from Boston, a “lady” unfamiliar with the ways of the West, annoyed by Williams’ fondness for the bottle. Williams, an ex-Cavalryman, would just prefer to be left alone in an alcohol-induced haze.
She jabbers, he barely speaks. She’s quite ladylike; he refuses to stop when her hat blows off. He drinks way too much, so she dumps out his whiskey while he isn’t looking. But as their plight becomes more serious, they come to rely on one another.
Review:
Basically, 1951’s “The African Queen” out West, with Coleen Gray in the role of Katharine Hepburn and Jeff Morrow in the role of Humphrey Bogart. In fact, they’re the only two people on the screen for most of the film.
This version of the story tends to drag in spots and come off as downright inplausible in others. Early in the film, for instance, an entire Apache warband manages to ride into the middle of town without being detected.
There are a few charming moments, like when Colleen — looking very pretty — decides to take a bath and makes Hack promise not to look, on his “one-time sergeant’s honor.” But they seem like an unlikely couple to wind up together. At the time the film was made, Morrow was 50, Gray was 25.
Directed by:
Charles Marquis Warren
Cast:
Jeff Morrow … “Hack” Williams
Coleen Gray … Nora Haynes
Strother Martin … Pokey
Paul Brinegar … Charlie Martin
John Pickard … Trooper Hadley
Patrick O’Moore … Col. Thurston
Runtime: 77 min.
Title tune: Copper Sky
Memorable lines:
Hack Williams, on whiskey: “Good for what ails you. Makes everything hazy. That’s the way I like it.”
Nora Haynes: “You can stop calling me lady.”
Hack Williams: “Aren’t you one?”
Nora Haynes, as she contemplates bathing in a stream: “Can I trust you to stay here?”
Hack Williams, rolling his eyes: “You can trust me.”
Nora: “On your one-time sergeant’s honor.”
Hack, rolling his eyes again. “On my one-time sergeant’s honor.”
Hack: “You’re not a woman. You’re a lady.”
Nora: “I’m a lady because I’m helpless. Because I know good manners when I see them. I’m genteel because I come from Boston. And I’m not a woman because I can’t cook on dirty sand. Because … because I don’t offer myself to you.”
Hack: “No, no, no. It’s because you prattle on and on and on, lady. Because you stick your teacher nose where it’s not wanted. Because you’re just like a green-horned first lieutenant, fresh out of West Point. — short on experience and full of … theory.”
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