Breakinger
A Brilliant Conflict
Neive Bellamy
Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Stephanie
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Uriah43
While leading a wagon-train through Indian territory, "Kirby Randolph" (John Payne) attempts to prevent an attack upon his people by negotiating with the Kiowa chief named "Satank" (George Keymas). What he doesn't know is that Satank has already sent his braves to attack the wagon-train and is essentially stringing Kirby along. Not long afterward Kirby is told that all but a very few people on the wagon-train were murdered. To make matters worse Kirby's reputation is completely destroyed and nobody wants to hire him any more. Fortunately, his luck changes for the better when he comes across a wagon-train in desperate need of a scout. What he doesn't know is that this particular wagon-train is carrying rifles to the Mexican Army and that the Kiowas know about it and want them very badly. Complicating matters even further is an attractive woman named "Aurelie St. Clair" (Faith Domergue) in this wagon-train who the wagon master "Jess Griswold" (Rod Cameron) is in love with and begins to get jealous of Kirby the longer the trip to Santa Fe lasts. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that, although there was an obvious "anti-racism message" in this film, it was still enjoyable for the most part. The sad fact is that the 50's had its share of problems and racial injustice was just beginning to become recognized. Be that as it may, I liked this film overall and rate it as slightly above average.
bkoganbing
Some rather questionable character motivations make this particular Republic western something of a mixed bag for me. John Payne's dislike of Indians and his distrust of mixed blood people make it a rough road in courting Faith Domergue who is half Indian. Santa Fe Passage casts John Payne as a frontier scout who lost his last wagon train going to Santa Fe because of some bad judgment he made about the Kiowas and their chief. Now he and sidekick Slim Pickens can't get a job in their profession and have a lot of people ready to shoot them on sight. That is until Domergue and her partner Rod Cameron hire them over the objections of Leo Gordon their trail boss. They're taking a shipment of rifles to Mexico for sale and of course that perks up interest among the Kiowas.There was a little too much doublecrossing and all the males of the cast Payne, Cameron, and Gordon are thinking with their male members and truly beyond reason. Even Slim Pickens gives Domergue more than a second glance. The plot made little sense to me, but the action was pretty good.
Spikeopath
John Payne plays Kirby Randolph, a disgraced Indian scout who along with his trusty side-kick Sam Beekman (Slim Pickens) finally gets hired by Aurelie St. Clair (Faith Domergue) & Jess Griswold (Rod Cameron) to escort a wagon load of guns through Indian territory. With the past hanging over him like a bad smell and the Indians on their trail, the last thing Kirby needs is Aurelie catching his eye. Especially since she's Griswold's girl. This is sure to be one perilous and life changing journey.There's a lot of common words been used in reviews for this William Witney directed film. Routine, different, exciting, boring & unusual, all of which proves just how divisive cinema can be. Adapted by Lillie Hayward from an Esquire Magazine story written by Heck Allen, Santa Fe Passage is out of Republic Pictures and is shot in the Trucolor process on location at St. George, Utah {Bud Thackery photographs}. Personally speaking I found the film something of a chore to get thru, which in a Western that has a high action quota is some what surprising to me. A lot of it can be put down to the wooden acting from the principals and the rather bland screenplay.Payne never convinced in Western's, and here he is showed up by the reliable Pickens. In fact ex-convict Leo Gordon who is also in the piece would probably have been a better choice for the lead role of Kirby! Domergue is a picture of doe eyed sexuality, her engaging features benefiting from one of Republic's better color prints, but she struggles with the meandering script and looks bored in love scenes with old stiff Payne. Worst of the bunch tho is Irene Tedrow as squaw Ptewaquin, if you manage not to laugh then you deserve a medal.The failings in the cast are a shame because Witney manfully does a good job with the action. A horse stampede and two Indian attacks are real entertaining highlights fit to be in some other higher budgeted Western. But then the focus has to revert back to uninteresting characters being given uninteresting portrayals. It's clear what the makers were trying to do. The old Anti-Western/Anti-Racist core to be mixed with action and a potential complex love triangle, looks good on paper. But when you come out of the film only remembering Domergue's green eyes and an unintentional comedy squaw character, well you got problems. A creaky 4/10 from me.
classicsoncall
John Payne's character spouts all the native Indian racist and anti-feminist diatribes he can muster in this wild west actioner taking place on a pack train to Santa Fe. Kirby Randolph (Payne) and his partner Sam (Slim Pickens) look to redeem themselves from a prior scouting job that ended in disaster for settlers on a wagon train passing through Cottonwood Draw. This might be the first time I've seen an Indian tribe actually get drunk on screen, as Randloph's attempt to placate Chief Satank (George Keymas) only gets him fired up for revenge.Credit the film makers with a significant historically accurate scene in which the main street of a Western town consists of about six inches of mud. You get to hear Payne in his role as the wagon scout refer to men required for point, swing, and drag duty. The film also has a great action scene involving a horse stampede that threatens the Griswold party, full of colorful sequences and quite well done.At the center of the story lies a romantic triangle involving Randolph, his boss Griswold (Rod Cameron) and Griwswold's partner and expected future wife Aurelie St. Clair (Faith Domergue). The revelation of St. Clair's heritage as daughter of a Kiowa mother brings out a few more Injun clichés before the story's progress brings Randolph full circle in his thinking about accepting individuals on their own merits. By the time the Kiowa's make their final attack, Randolph can say "I won't have a squaw who won't take orders" with a nod, nod, wink, wink, and have St. Clair accept it with an understanding smile.The one thing that kept distracting me though was the casting of Irene Tedrow as St. Clair's aide Ptewaquin. I never quite caught on that she would figure in one of the story's twist endings, probably because I kept trying to figure out where I'd seen her before. Checking out her career credits, now I know.Best line of the picture - Satank describes the Mexican Chavez (Anthony Caruso), ally of Griswold - "Don't like him, stink too much, like dead buffalo." It conjures up as colorful a picture as the traitor McLawery (Leo Gordon) winding up as buzzard bait.
