Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

grahamchalk2008 in an age when black actors were confined to black roles, this film shows Poitier in a role that could easily have been played by a white actor-plus he's the coolest dude in the movie.Bill Travers doesn't have to do an American accent. this was from a time that people believed that there could be major characters with foreign accents in the USA who weren't villains. Of course the USA at this time, and at any time, had plenty of odd accents. Except in movies.The credits are waaaay more imaginative that you'd normally expect.The music is highly "different" The camera-work is very strange- all those overhead shots.I love this movie, and is a film I can watch again and again. It's very stylised-the lines are delivered like they were from a comic book.You know-the sort of thing Quentin T "discovered"

Robert J. Maxwell Lots of conflict and shooting in this rather routine Western of US cavalry versus Apaches. Bibi Andersson, who practically glowed in Ingmar Bergman's movies, is only a subsidiary character and looks like just another Hollywood blond. James Garner could be a fine actor when the role was right and Sidney Poitier was one of the most skilled of his generation. I have no idea why they dressed him up in a cowboy hat, fancy vest, skin-tight trousers, and black boots,.But what can you do with a B script that's enlivened by a few unusual incidents. Here are two unusual incidents. The Apache are chasing a cook wagon. And what do they do? They SHOOT ONE OF THE HORSE and the wagon has to stop! Hallelujah! Finally, a move script allows the Indians to figure out that if you want to stop a wagon you don't necessarily have to pick off the guy driving it.Here's another incident. Dennis Weaver is a miscreant who finally sides with the good guys. It doesn't save him from being brutally tortured over a fire by the Apache, to the point at which he later begs the cavalry men to kill him. The Apache, by the way, weren't racists. They were indiscriminately brutal, as many other Western tribes were. Weaver may have been roasted alive, but others were de-boned, beginning with their fingertips.But these scenes can't redeem a B script that has a lonesome patrol fighting overwhelming odds and being picked off one by one until the final and inevitable rescue by the rest of the cavalry. Want to know what would have been REALLY innovative? They all die. But then who would have paid to see the movie?Very nice location shooting though, among bluffs that alternate gray strata with rust, and the horses for some reason look beautiful, not like just any old horse.

Scott LeBrun Interesting casting is just one of the assets of this lightning paced, socially relevant Western that features some exhilarating action scenes certain to make the viewer sit up and pay attention.An unlikely bunch of protagonists band together as the Cavalry takes on a mission to deliver some new recruits to a far away fort, while Apache forces are growing very aggressive. James Garner is the scout determined to find out who violated and butchered his Apache wife, Sidney Poitier is the former officer turned gambler roped into coming along, and Bill Travers is the stoic Cavalry lieutenant supervising the mission.It's great fun to see Mr. Poitier in this kind of setting, and he handles his role with his standard dignity and smoothness, while Garner is likable and charismatic as always, and Travers does well as a basically good man who knows the odds are stacked against his men. The supporting cast is equally impressive: beautiful Bibi Andersson is Ellen, the wife of bigoted trader Willard Grange (Dennis Weaver), who has her own compelling subplot: she'd once been kidnapped by Apaches, and bore one of the tribe a son, to whom she tries to return, especially as Willard and other townspeople insist on giving her the cold shoulder. Also appearing are William Redfield as Sgt. Ferguson, Bill Hart as Cpl. Harrington, and John Crawford as Clay Dean. Director Ralph Nelson (who'd previously directed Poitier towards a Best Actor Oscar win for "Lilies of the Field") appears on screen as Col. Foster, using the pseudonym of "Alf Elson", and Richard Farnsworth has an uncredited bit as a wagon driver.Viewers can take note than even while these Indians are portrayed as the antagonists, we can still feel sympathy for the way they are treated, the same way we feel sympathy towards Ellen. Filmed in Southern Utah, this is an absolutely gorgeous film, extremely well shot by Charles F. Wheeler, and given a nicely rousing score by Neal Hefti. Smart and fun at the same time, "Duel at Diablo" does not have one dull moment to speak of, delivering one huge set piece around the midway point and two concurrent showdowns for the big finish. Highly recommended to action and Western fans.Eight out of 10.

mark doyon this is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time. i saw it at the movies in my youth. garner,the grizzled frontier scout, poitier, ex calvaryman, now supposed money hungry civilian, have the biggest parts. they're ably supported by bill Travers, and Dennis weaver. weaver's part is the most complex, as the bigoted freighter, will grange. on one hand, he wants to restart his relationship, but on the other he can't accept what happened to her. yet in the end as terrible as weaver is you still sympathize with him. garner is also sympathetic due to his understanding why the Indian problem exists in the first place. i never was particularly enchanted by Bibi andersson's performance in this movie. however it doesn't detract from the movie. garner and weaver's performances though are better than in their second partnership in A Man Called Sledge.