The great cult filmmaker and producer Roger Corman made his directing debut in April 1955 with the low-budget independent western Five Guns West. In September of that year the American Releasing Corporation released his second film as director, Apache Woman. While Fives Guns West, the result of a nine-day shoot, remains a tightly-made little gem, Apache Woman can only really be considered a failure. The acting is wooden, the screenplay is weak, and the unexpectedly effective pace of Corman’s first film simply does not exist in his second. This is, quite simply, a bad movie.

Lloyd Bridges plays Rex Moffett, a government agent dispatched to investigate reports of Apache violence against the local white community. While he undertakes his work, he meets and falls in love with Anne LeBeau (Joan Taylor), a biracial women caught between the indigenous and settler communities.

If there is an overriding trend to the westerns of 1955, it is the rise of films that base themselves in a sympathetic concern of the plight of Native Americans while simultaneously erasing the presence of those Native Americans on screen. There is a lot of talk about the risks facing local Apaches, and yet they are hardly present on-screen. When they do appear, they are played by white actors – including noted Joe Dante favourite Dick Miller in his screen debut.

There is a little suspense generated over precisely who is telling the truth and who is raiding the local town, but any potential is wasted by some truly egregious performances. Whether the result of poor talent, sloppy direction, or a sheer lack of time (likely all three), the acting in Apache Woman is regularly under-par and often actively risible.

Joan Taylor does her best, but the apparently strength of will and general resolve she displays in early scenes pretty much evaporates by the film’s mid-point. The film captures Lloyd Bridges two years before his star-making role on TV’s Sea Hunt, and he simply feels understated and passive when the character demands drive and action. He is not so much bad as transparent – it almost seems easy to forget he is even there.

Visually the film seems a clear step back from Five Guns West. There is unexpectedly poor framing and odd editing jitters. Bridges plays one short scene entirely with his back to the camera. The difference between the two films is striking – and difficult to explain.

Apache Woman exists almost entirely as filler: large, ongoing demand for films to play in cinemas meant that even the most moribund of westerns could find a screening slot for an undemanding audience. 70 years later, and there is little excuse for a modern-day audience to bother with it.

1955 West is a review project to watch as many western features from 1955 as possible, in order to gain a ‘snapshot’ view of the genre at its height. According to Letterboxd, there were 72 westerns released that year; this is the 35th film reviewed. Despite the black and white photograph, it is a colour feature. You can see all of FictionMachine’s 1955 West reviews to date by clicking here.