Geronimo (1962)

Authenticity wasn't high on the check list of early 1960s Hollywood movies and this one is no exception, not least for the casting of Chuck Connors as a cigar-store version of real-life Apache Chief Geronimo in his last stand against the US Army, and even more so in its representation of the Apache women who in the eyes of the makers were apparently not greatly different from middle-American housewives, just a little less well-kempt.

There is as little historical accuracy here much as there was not in the sword-and-sandal epics so popular in the same period but director Arnold Laven, who spent most of his career in television delivers an economical and exciting story which to its credit, however limited and appropriational it may seem today, goes a considerable way in showing how the Native American was sacrificed to the white man's venality and bigotry.

Connors does a credible job as the Indian leader whilst the future television Batman, Adam West, has a support role as an ineffectually sympathetic army officer.

FYI: Connor went on to marry co-star Kamala Devi.

 

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