When a handful of settlers survive an Apache attack on their wagon train they must put their lives into the hands of Comanche Todd, a white man who has lived with the Comanches most of his life and is wanted for the murder of three men.
Acting
Widmark's physicality sells a man caught between two worlds.
Cinematography
Sedona locations look impossibly vast and unforgiving.
Direction
Daves builds tension through silence, not shootouts.
Director
Delmer Daves
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Widmark did most of his own stunts, including the dangerous river crossing sequence.
Delmer Daves, who lived with Hopi and Navajo communities, deliberately complicated the Western's typical Native villain narrative—though modern viewers will still wince at the casting.
US
