ma-cortes
This is an outlandish and muddled American/Spanish Western starred by the great Lee Van Cleef. A native-American Captain Apache (Lee Van Cleef in the title role) is investigating a murder , some words : ¨April Morning¨ hold a special key about its solution. He deals with a suspect gunrunner (Stuart Whitman) and a gorgeous saloon girl (Carrol Baker). Meanwhile the captain is pursued by some cutthroats ( Percy Herbert, Tony Vogel) and uncovers an assassination scheme.This offbeat Western packs shootouts, action Western, violence, some touches of humor and strange images about witchery and necromancy. Packs a cynic and ironic portrayal of a rough captain Indian and his exploits in Old West gunning down enemies with one-dimensional roles and dozens of stereotypes who cross his path. The picture turns out to be another Spaghetti Western which during the 60s and early the 70 were ordinarily shot in Spain. Numerous support cast full of secondaries from Spanish/Italian Western as Jose Bodalo,Ricardo Palacios, Dan Van Husen,Charly Bravo, Milo Quesada, among others. The tale is filmed in Texas Hollywood,(Almeria,Andalucia, Spain) and partially in the fortress built for ¨El Condor¨(John Guillermin also with Cleef) by the production designer Julio Molina . Nevertheless, today the fort has been crumbled and only remains some ruins. Rare musical score and songs are played by Lee Van Cleef. Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by John Cabrera. The movie is produced by Milton Sperling (¨Battle of Bulge¨), Irving Lerner(¨Royal hunt of sun¨) and the prestigious screenwriter Philip Jordan (the classic ¨Johnny Guitar¨ and ¨Bad man's river¨ again with Van Cleef). The motion picture is regularly directed by Alexander Singer. The flick will appeal to S.W. buffs and Lee Van Cleef fans .
MovieWiz66
...or the pop culture that defined the late 60's and early 70's,then you will get a kick out of Van Cleef crooning and,of course,kicking butt. If you watch this film looking for a deep,meaningful,thought-provoking film then you will obviously be in for a let down. However,if you are a fan of all things 60's and 70's including Spaghetti Westerns and Italian/Spanish cinema in general,then you will find this a delightful romp. While the plot is pretty much standard fare,it is a fun ride that will make you wonder just who will turn out to be the culprit in the end. Van Cleef could take the worst of scripts and make them workable. I think you could tell that Lee had fun with this movie and,according to an earlier comment,the whole cast seemed to join in the fun. I found an interview with Van Cleef online a while back and he mentioned Captain Apache as one of the films that he actually had a blast making. I had not seen the film then and after finally viewing it online...I could see the enjoyment in Van Cleef as he soaked up this character while not taking it all too seriously. As I said before,if you are like me and a fan of anything from that time period and spaghetti westerns in particular..you will love this film,if not,you will probably want to skip this one. I give in 9 stars because I understand what the film is intended to do..entertain,and it does that quite well. You can find it now at a site called tv4u for free(legal too).
marc-366
"Ah aha aha ahaaaa - they call him Captain Apache"."Well any film that provides you with an opportunity to hear Lee Van Cleef singing not just once, but twice has got to be worth a viewing" I thought to myself. "I'm sure it can't be as bad as I've been told". Well in truth it IS that bad. But it doesn't make it unwatchable! Lee Van Cleef plays an Apache Captain within the Army that is sent to investigate the murder of a Commissioner, and discover the meaning of the dying man's last words "April Morning".It plays like a murder mystery in a western setting, with numerous characters introduced throughout that appear to have heard the phrase "April Morning", but are either attempting to solve the riddle themselves, or are shot before they can speak. These include gunrunner Griffin (Stuart Whitman), the blonde temptress Maude (Caroll Baker) and the equally teasing Rosita (Elisa Montes). And from a plot perspective, that is pretty much it (well, without solving the mystery that is!). Yes, it sounds very simple, but in actual fact the story is quite convoluted.The soundtrack is hysterical - the title track in particular being so bad that you just love it - with Lee Van Cleef narrating to a tune so catchy that it would put professional purveyors of pop to shame! And you still get his rendition "April Morning" at the end of the film to look forward to. Whilst it is quite poor Spaghetti Western fare, and a perfect example of the deterioration of the genre during the seventies, it does have three main factors that make it quite watchable : 1 - Lee Van Cleef himself - although this is a real LVC by numbers effort, the man has a screen presence that can rescue even the worst of films.2 - The afore-mentioned theme tune.3 - Caroll Baker and Elisa Montes (thats just the male hormones working! And anyway ladies, you get the bonus of a near naked Lee Van Cleef, so no accusing me of gawping!).Aside from this, there are some really good moments (Captain Apache insulting the two twins, the death of the Mexican General (played by Jose Bodalo) and a handful of other scenes that I chuckled at at the time but have since left my mind). At times the editing between scenes was quite poor (at one point jumping from Captain Apache in bed with Maude, to them discovering the hanging body of the key witness). Well hung! Don't let me put you off watching it, because it is an example of a film being so bad its good. I would never have imagined however that Lee Van Cleef crooning would be the highlight of a film!
wb-11
One of the numerous westerns Lee Van Cleef made in the 70s, this one is pretty poor!Cleef plays the title character, a Native American Indian who is also a US army captain (though how he got to be one is unexplained). He is investigating the murder of the Indian Commissioner, and attempting to find out the meaning of his dying phrase 'April Morning.' During his hunt for the baddies, he encounters numerous obstacles, including gunrunner Stuart Whitman and two heavies who give him hallucination inducing drugs.
The soundtrack is very dated (electric guitar during one fight) but the main and end titles are reason enought to watch-Lee Van Cleef sings! Well, on the title track of 'Captain Apache' he talks, but the end titles song 'April Morning' finds him singing! Couldn't they get anybody else? Or where they just having a laugh?
Some moments are fairly effective, but it's mostly rubbish, albeit unintentionally funny rubbish! The 'romance' with Carroll Baker is probably the worst point, although the unimaginably silly storyline should be named and shamed as well! So, watch this if you either:a) want to have a laughb) are a spaghetti western nutc) want to hear lee van cleef sing!