Friday, August 09, 2013

What Drive-Inners Enjoyed in 1953 ...


Universal-International Presents The Stand at Apache River (1953)

Characters under apache siege and so confined to interior set for nearly all of 77 minutes, Still, it's fair enough company we keep: Stephen McNally, Julie Adams, Hugh Marlowe, others off Universal contract rolls. Westerns like this proliferated with Uni's decision to go all-color on action output, the better to compete with encroaching television. Showmen by '53 always bitched when B/W was applied to outdoor subjects. Drive-ins in particular wanted color: it showed up better on screens already at brightness disadvantage. Critics would ignore or berate Indian subjects (too many for even close watchers to contemplate) unless they faced politics head-on; Broken Arrow got attention this way. Copycat The Stand At Apache River assails US policy re treaty breakage; by 1953, such had become cliché to continuing boredom of patronage. They could stay home and watch Gene Autry complain of as much on his free-vee program.
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2 comments:

  1. Dave K2:15 PM

    And didn't McNally just do APACHE DRUMS for Universal? Same sort of one set-siege climax?

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  2. Mike Ballew1:34 AM

    "The Stand at Apache River." Hmm. Sounds suspiciously close to a really full-blooded Western released the same year, "The Charge at Feather River." Oh, and guess what. That one was in 3-D!

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