Tumbleweed (1953)

Audie Murphy is scout Jim Harvey, who takes a job guiding a small wagon train through Yaqui territory.

When marauding Yaquis surface, Harvey hides the women, helps fight off one attack, then tries to reason with the Indians under a white flag.

He’s kidnapped, staked out for torture, but later freed by the mother of an Indian brave named Tigre, whose life he once saved.

He manages to make his way back to town, only to learn that everyone in the wagon train except the women were slaughtered.

Oh, and he’s been branded a coward and a traitor. Everyone thinks he abandoned the wagon train to save his own life.

The only person who won’t speak out against him is young Laura Saunders (Lori Nelson), one of the women he saved.

Sheriff Murchoree (Chill Wills) tosses Harvey in jail to keep him from being lynched. Then Tigre shows up, stabs a guard to death and frees Harvey, risking his own life in the process.

What he doesn’t realize is that now Harvey is branded a murderer as well as a coward. He’s on the run, with the help of a friendly rancher who loans him a horse named Tumbleweed.

The horse looks like a nag but proves quite adept at climbing rock faces, finding water and playing dead when the Yaqui show up again.

Audie Murphy as Jim Harvey, branded a coward upon his return to town in Tumbleweed (1953)

Chill Wills as Sheriff Murchoree, locking Jim Harvey behind bars for his safety in Tumbleweed (1963)

Review:

Call this Murphy’s horse Western, though Tumbleweed doesn’t show up until well into the film and Juran seems torn about how much time to devote to the horse and his antics.

Unfortunately, this otherwise enjoyable Western is marred by ridiculous plot twists, most noteably the jailbreak orchestrated by a lone Indian in the middle of a crowded town.

Lori Nelson plays Laura Saunders, who torn between her attraction to Harvey, the sentiment about what’s he done and the advances of Lam Blandom (Russell Johnson), her brother-in-law.

If she marries him, Lam would also offer a secure future for her now widowed sister, Sarah.

Lori Nelson as Laura Saunders, the girl who falls for Jim Harvey in Tumbleweed (1953)

Russell Johnson as Lam Blandon, demanding Harvey pay for the Yaqui massacre in Tumbleweed (1953)

Directed by:
Nathan Juran

Cast:
Audie Murphy … Jim Harvey
Lori Nelson … Laura Saunders
Chill Wills … Sheriff Murchoree
Russell Johnson … Lam Blandon
Madge Meredith … Sarah Blandon
Ross Elliott … Seth Blandon
Roy Roberts … Nick Buckley
K.T. Stevens … Louella Buckley
Lee Van Cleef … Marv
Ralph Moody … Aguila
Eugene Iglesias … Tigre
I. Stanford Jolley … Ted

Runtime: 80 min.

Ralph Moody as Aquile, chief of the Yaqui band responsible for the wagon train massacre in Tumbleweed (1953)

Eugene Iglesias as Tigre, repaying a debt to Jim Harvey in Tumbleweed (1953)

Memorable lines:

JIm Harey to Indian chief: “Look, Aquila, Tigre was killed helping me escape. If you don’t speak, his spirit will be angry.”

Sheriff, trying to keep a mob at bay when Jim Harvey returns to the town of Borax: “Let’s be calm about this.”
Lam Blandon: “I buried my brother yesterday. I don’t feel calm.”

Audie Murphy as Jim Harvey with his borrowed horse Tumbleweed in Tumbleweed (1953)

Madge Meredith as Sarah Blandon, widowed by the Yaqui attack on the wagon train in Tumbleweed (1953)

Roy Roberts as Nick Buckley, the rancher who lets Jim Harvey borrow Tumbleweed in Tumbleweed (1953)

K.T. Stevens as Louelle Buckley, offering advice to Laura Saunders in Tumbleweed (1953)

Lee Van Cleef as Marv, one of Sheriff Murchoree’s deputies in Tumbleweed (1953)

Ross Elliott as Seth Blandon, Madge Meredith as his wife Sarah and Lori Nelson as her sister Laura in Tumbleweed (1953)

Audie Murphy as Jim Harvey gets some nursing from Laura Saunders (Lori Nelson) in Tumbleweed (1953)

Audie Murphy as Jim Harvey and Chill Wills as Sheriff Murchoree preparing for an Indian attack in Tumbleweed (1953)