The Road to Fort Alamo (1964)

Ken Clark plays Bud Massedy, a rancher who lost everything in the Civil War. He comes across a cavalry patrol that’s been massacred … well, all but one man, who slips him a bank note for an Army payroll before dying.

After a chance encounter with Slim and his not-so-law-abiding friends, Bud decides to use that note and some cavalry uniforms to con the bank in Wagon City out of $150,000. But he and Slim are knocked out in an argument over when the split the loot, then staked out in the sun and left for dead in the middle of the road to Fort Alamo by the Ozark Indians.

That’s when a second cavalry patrol comes along and rescues them. Since he was found still wearing part of a cavalry uniform, Bud pretends to be Lt. John Smith; Slim becomes Private Kincaid. And the patrol eventually rescues Carson, the lone bandit to survive another Indian attack. They also recover the loot.

But is anyone really being rescued? Capt. Hull, who leads the patrol, refuses to budge from his orders, even though the road to Fort Alamo is clearly an Indian ambush waiting to happen. At risk along with the soldiers are children, the colonel’s wife and a pretty girl named Janet (Jany Clair), who’s under arrest for trying to kill a soldier who assaulted her.

Review:

So-so Spaghetti made in the days when the films were more foreign adaptions of typical Hollywood plots than a genre unique unto itself. So there are no flashbacks, no special weapons, no heroes wearing black.

There is a good deal of action, though that might be because the West German print of the film runs just 78 minutes compared to the 90-minute Italian run time.

And it all comes off as a little juvenile. Some of the sillier scenes — skulls laid out in a circle in the middle of the road to signify an Indian burial ground (in the middle of the road?). And, during the final attack, the Indians float money down a stream to lure some of the soldiers out of cover. And it works!

Director:
Mario Bava

Cast:
Ken Clark … Bud Massedy/Lt. John Smith
Jany Clair … Janet
Michel Lemoine … Carson
Adreina Paul … Mrs. Collins
Alberto Cevenini … Slim / Pvt. Jim Kincaid
as Kirk Bert
Antonio Gradoli … Capt. Hull
Gustavo De Nardo … Sgt. Warwick
as Dean Ardow
Gerard Herter … Mr. Silver
Pietro Tordi … Bartender

aka
Arizona Bill
La Strada per Forte Alamo

Score: Piero Umiliani
Song: “The Road to Fort Alamo”
by Tony Wendall

Runtime: 78 min.

Memorable lines:

Lt. Smith to Mrs. Collins: “I’d stay in the coach tonight if I was you. Anything can happen.”
Mrs. Collins: “I do not intend to sit in a coach all night. Besides I’m not you. I’m sleeping as usual, in my bed.”
Capt. Hull: “Lieutenant, Mrs. Collins will sleep where she wants.”
Smith: “OK, but it she wakes up in the morning with some arrows stickin’ in her, don’t blame me.”

Sgt. Warwick: “You’re the only one who can take us to Fort Alamo.”
Lt. Smith: “Yeah, but I don’t aim to be shot when we get there.”
Warwick: “Hanged, you mean. Hanged. Only real soldiers get shot.”

Trivia:

Ken Clark appeared in South Pacific and had small roles in a number of Westerns — “Love Me Tender,” “The Proud Ones” and “The Last Wagon” — before heading to Europe. He was 37 when this film was released. He died in Rome in 2009 at the age of 81.

A trained painter, Mario Bava worked as a cinematographer for well over a decade before he began directing feature films. He made three Spaghettis, but was better known for his horror films, such as “Black Sunday” and “Black Sabbath.”