Captain Apache Review

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Cast:
  • Lee van Cleef
  • Stuart whitman
  • Carroll Baker

Director:

  • Alexander Singer
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Captain Apache

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In 1971 the spaghetti western was over its peak, but Lee van Cleef, one of the genre's biggest stars, was still very busy trying to convert his fame into hard cash, making more westerns than ever, in different countries, on different continents. The British-Spanish co-production Captain Apache was shot in Spain, scripted and directed by Americans, and starring an ensemble of actors from all over the world. It also offers viewers the opportunity to watch Lee van Cleef wearing one of the most ridiculous wigs in the history of film making and to hear him perform no less than two songs (he sings only one, the second, the title song, is a sort of slow rap, Lee reading the words instead of singing them).


Lee plays the title character, a Native American US army Captain, put on the case of a murdered Indian agent. The victim's last words, "April morning", are his only clue, but like the Captain states, people who know something about them, have a habit of getting shot before his very eyes.


With the lead character investigating a murder and eventually uncovering an intricate scheme of murder and corruption, the film plays more like a thriller than a western; it has in fact a lot in common with the kind of conspiracy thrillers that were popular in the late sixties, early seventies, offering a mix of social comment and paranoia, often with vague but strong references to the Kennedy killings. It's all there: a corrupt business man, a beautiful but shady lady, a couple of homosexual gunmen, an Indian medicine woman preparing a truth serum, Mexicans dressed like Indians, a president, his double, you name it. The only thing missing, is Lee's moustache. It's a well-known fact that Native Americans don't have much facial hair.


Captain Apache is a movie with an ultra-bad reputation, but I've always thought it was kind of enjoyable when watched in the right state of mind. The mystery is played out well enough to keep you guessing what the hell is going on and the far-fetched (and fairly ridiculous) solution perfectly fits the slaphappy storytelling. There's a lot of wild humor - some intentional, some unintentional (1) - and a truly outrageous sequence of Van Cleef having a bad trip after the medicine woman has administered him a brew of hallucinogens. This is obviously a sign of the times too: in those days, it was often thought that drug-induced shamanic techniques led to altered states of consciousness and narcoanalysis (interrogating a witness who's having hallucinations) could provide investigators with viable information (2).


The movie feels like a second-hand spaghetti western, that is: a spaghetti western made by people who didn't really know how to do it. A lot of people are shot, but only one action scene (involving a blind guitar player) breathes this real spaghetti western atmosphere, otherwise it's more like Noir meets the West meets Lee in search of Van Cleef. The director, Alexander Singer, was a man who exclusively worked for television but who apparently also was a good friend of Stanley Kubrick (3). Both Philip Yordan and Milton Sperling were experienced screenwriters and you wonder if they had tasted a few mushrooms too before writing the script.


The casting is as offbeat as the movie, with Stuart Whitman and Carroll Baker making surprise appearances as the shady business man and the seductive saloon lady, and a fine collection of villainous movie faces (Tony Vogel, Charlie Bravo, Percy Herbert, Dan van Husen, Ricardo Palacios) playing a fine collection of muddle-headed morons who keep calling the captain a "redd ass", but fail to put a bullet into the man's body. Luis Undini seems to be the only Italian connection here (he apparently was a political refugee in Francoist Spain): he's plays a mysterious Mormon who came all the way down from Utah to warn people for April Morning. There's also señorita Elisa Montes (lovely as ever) and señor José Bodalo (in his last eurowestern performance). And then there's of course Lee. Without his familiar moustache and with this preposterous wig he surely looks different, and his singing voice is out of the ordinary too, low and slow, Johnny Crash.


Notes:

  • (1) There seems to be a "laugh track" release of the movie, containing two different audio tracks, one 'normal', one 'funny', but according to forum member Autephex the normal track is by far the funnier of the two.
  • (2) Carlos Castaneda had published his (in)famous Teachings of Don Juan in 1968 and the novel was widely read in artistic circles. The book narrates about Castaneda's experiences with a Yaqui shaman. The novel may have been of influence and led to the decision to turn Van Cleef's character into an Indian.
  • (3) See the director's IMDB page
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