Television Review: HONDO: "Hondo and the Apache Trail" (1967)

"Your lives are meaningless compared to HONDO!"

HONDO: "Hondo and the Apache Trail"  (1967 ABC-TV/MGM/Batjac Productions) Episode 16; Original Air Date: December 22, 1967.  Starring Ralph Taeger as Hondo Lane, Noah Beery Jr. as Buffalo Baker, Michael Pate as Chief Vittoro, William Bryant as Colonel Crook, Ed McCready as Sergeant Hurst.  Guest Stars Nick Adams as The Apache Kid, Annette Funicello as Anne Williams, David Nelson as Jeff Williams.  Written by William Froug.  Directed by Michael Caffey.

Series Overview for HONDO: TV's Unlikeliest Cult Hit at this link          

Following the events depicted in Hondo and the Apache Kid, that episode's titular villain is in Fort Lowell's guardhouse awaiting transport to Tucson for trial.   After relatives of the Kid's murder victims infiltrate the jail and narrowly miss taking an eye for an eye, Hondo realizes that the Kid's journey to justice will be fraught with similar danger if promulgated with a large escort.

Lane talks Colonel Crook into a stealthy transfer: two troopers and a buckboard with Hondo trailing them.  Unfortunately, the prisoner escapes, terminating one captor and badly injuring the other.  Hondo sets out to recapture his nemesis before the Apaches learn of the jailbreak, but Vittoro is already aware.  With Buffalo and Sam along for assistance, Lane trails the Kid to a farmhouse where he has taken a newlywed couple hostage.

This second Apache Kid adventure is leaner and meaner than the first.  Free of the social commentary of the prior installment--and along with it, Farley Granger's eventually tiresome reporter--the sequel is wall to wall tension, staying focused on Lane's futile attempt to recapture the serial killer alive.  In keeping with Buffalo Baker's expanded role at this point, the grizzled sidekick joins Hondo in his pursuit, taking the scouts on the road for the fourth consecutive segment.

Michael Caffey (COMBAT) had just begun his career when he helmed this sequel, favorably matching up with the earlier effort from action master William Witney.  On three separate occasions the director utilizes a gunman's POV, with each creating greater unease than the one preceding.  Hondo and the Apache Trail presents a challenge for the most experienced action director: fights through iron bars, brass backboards and in rock-filled rapids are just some of the tasks faced by Caffey.  Somewhat surprisingly, the newcomer is a bit more successful than Witney at masking the disparity in size between Taeger and Adams in their confrontations--having the climactic one in water helps.

To be fair, Caffey gets a script from longtime UCLA professor and one-time TWILIGHT ZONE producer William Froug that is all meat and potatoes and free of the unconvincing child actors that occasionally hindered the prequel.  Some of the credit is due Apache Kid writer Frank Moss, whose coverage of the Lane/Kid backstory made it unnecessary for Froug to retread it.  That said, neither writer nor director enjoys a perfect hour in Apache Trail.  Strangulation scenes were rarely convincing in prime time, and despite the fury of Adams' performance, seeing the diminutive Kid murdering with his bare hands (with multiple weapons available to him) is less plausible than most.

The Dows are M.I.A. for the fourth consecutive segment, and Funicello's rescue potentially sets the stage for future appearances--possibly even as a romantic rival for Angie.  Years later, the BEACH PARTY star indicated in an interview that her character was intended to return as a love interest for Taeger's hero.  Sadly, Apache Trail turned out to be the penultimate HONDO.  David Nelson becomes the second sibling to guest star on the series as Funicello's ill-fated spouse; brother Ricky had the higher-profile role of Jesse James in Hondo and the Judas.

Crook confidently declares the Apache Kid's file closed at the conclusion, but despite ostensibly solving the conflict, Apache Trail's conclusion doesn't quite slam the door on another sequel.  Unfortunately, Nick Adams' death would have.  This would be the next-to-last TV appearance for the REBEL star, whose WILD WILD WEST swan song aired exactly three weeks later on January 12, 1968.  Less than a month after that, Adams was found dead in his Beverly Hills home, only 36.

It's impossible to know for sure, since Hondo and the Apache Trail aired during a Nielsen black week, but it likely improved on the viewership for the initial outing given the ratings HONDO drew for the preceding and following weeks.  It was the ninth and final episode for Michael Pate, whose screen time as Vittoro was reduced once the focus shifted plots taking the two scouts on the road. 

HOW MANY CANS OF WHOOPASS?

Hondo might be with Running Bear in spirit, but subdues Bear and his cohort in the teaser despite their two on one advantage.  The battle inside the Williams' cabin with the Kid is interrupted by Vittoro's arrival, but Hondo tracks down the Kid for the decisive battle in the rapids.

IS THE CANTINA STILL STANDING?

How tense was this episode?  Buffalo didn't even set foot in the cantina!  That's where they were headed at the fade-out.

A DOG'S LIFE:

Buffalo isn't the only sidekick to get nicked up.  After evading several of the Kid's bullets during the farmhouse standoff, Sam gets a stab wound and a limp scuffling with him near the riverbank before Hondo's arrival.  Don't worry, though--he's bandaged up and healing at segment's end, already able to put weight on that injured paw.

Continuing the string of winners in the show's stretch run, Hondo and the Apache Trail is compelling and exciting, effectively concluding the Apache Kid saga.  Despite having a different writer and director, the two installments could easily be fused for a feature, arguably meshing even better than the Hondo and the Eagle Claw/Hondo and the War Cry duo that begat HONDO AND THE APACHES for overseas screens.   Even as a standalone, this one delivers the goods.   (*** out of four)

HONDO airs every Sunday morning at 10:15 A.M. Central time on GetTV.

Television Review: HONDO: "Hondo and the Apache Kid" (1967)

"Your lives are meaningless compared to HONDO!"






HONDO: "Hondo and the Apache Kid"  (1967 ABC-TV/MGM/Batjac Productions) Episode 6; Original Air Date: October 13, 1967.  Starring Ralph Taeger as Hondo Lane, Noah Beery Jr. as Buffalo Baker, Kathie Browne as Angie Dow, Gary Clarke as Captain Richards, Michael Pate as Chief Vittoro, Buddy Foster as Johnny Dow, William Bryant as Colonel Crook.  Guest Stars Nick Adams as The Apache Kid, Farley Granger as Jack Graham, Danielle Rotar as Star Bird, Sofia Marie as Emmy Jo, Stan Barrett as Running Wolf, James Beck as Highton.  Written by Frank L. Moss.  Directed by William Witney.


Series Overview for HONDO: TV's Unlikeliest Cult Hit at this link  

Ace Civil War and Ohio Flood journalist Jack Graham is brought to Arizona territory by his latest cause celebre: the "persecution" of The Apache Kid, childhood friend of Hondo's turned renegade who is wanted for murder (among other crimes).  Graham's articles have already resulted in pressure on Richards to capture the Kid alive.  After Lane is instrumental in doing so, the famed reporter excoriates Hondo in print as a "Judas", putting the scout and all of Fort Lowell under intense scrutiny from coast to coast--and particularly from Washington D.C.

With Graham's unwitting (and unknowing) aid, the Apache Kid soon breaks out of the guardhouse to start a fresh crime spree.  After killing his sentry, the renegade Kid (who is even less welcome on his tribe's land) slays Star Bird's father, kidnapping the bride-to-be and sending her fiancé Running Wolf in pursuit.  With faithful Sam at his side, Hondo gamely tries to track down the escaped prisoner and his badly abused hostage.  Hot on the trail of both is Graham, brandishing a telegraph guaranteeing his "heroic" subject a top attorney.

Like the previous segment, Hondo and the Apache Kid gives us a clueless outsider to the Arizona territory with impressive credentials in his field, but a thoroughly wrongheaded superiority complex.  Jack Graham is hailed as the champion of Pennsylvania coal miners and New England mill workers, but he's out of his element in the southwestern desert--he first "saw an Indian" just three months earlier.

Witnessing the unjust execution of that falsely accused Native American in Texas inspired his current crusade, but unfortunately, Graham's chosen representative is as unworthy a poster boy as he could find: a kidnapper, thief, rapist and murderer.  Hondo gets a terse (ten seconds, tops) soapbox moment, telling the reporter that he's wasting his help on a sociopath hated by his own people that could be used by the numerous Natives who have been wronged and cheated: Delgado (Hondo and the Singing Wire) and especially Ponce Colorados (Hondo and the Savage) come to mind.

Moss avoids some of the pitfalls that befell Frank Chase in that latter teleplay.  Obnoxious Graham threatens to wear out his welcome, but fortunately Moss gives him to us in smaller doses: Graham disappears completely during the episode's middle third while the audience witnesses the treachery that the scribe is oblivious to.  The three Apaches who end up unjustly executed here are all murdered by The Kid, whose every action justifies the jailing (not solitary confinement as embellished by Graham).  An equal opportunity criminal, Moss' Apache Kid also slays a farmer (while raiding the man's home for food) in addition to the aforementioned trooper.

Tarantino favorite William Witney keeps this one moving, staging a badass reveal for Adams and an exciting apprehension of him in the teaser alone.  The director fades in on the collateral damage of the trackdown and doesn't disappoint during the cat and mouse game between Hondo and the Kid.  Lane's frustration at every near miss is palpable as time ticks away for the fugitive's captive--carnal desires after three weeks in the guardhouse are the least of her worries.

Danielle Rotar

One drawback with Hondo and the Apache Kid is the limited depiction of its titular antagonist.  Captain Richards' early assessment of him as just a "bad Indian, that's all" gets some elaboration from Buffalo: the Apache Kid was "like a brother" to Hondo, and the two were trained as Indian scouts by Al Sieber before The Kid broke bad.  It takes a leap of faith to believe that this illiterate, almost mute (he has three words of dialogue, total) Apache Kid could have ever been all that.  There is some historical accuracy in The Kid's presentation here, though the real Apache Kid would have been about ten years old during HONDO's 1870 setting.  The Napoleon complex that Hondo broaches ("Runt of the litter" elicits one of those three words: "Lies!" from the Kid) fits the casting of Nick Adams.

If the Kid's feral manner requires one suspension of disbelief, Adams diminutive stature makes another necessary, particularly in fistfights with Taeger, who is eight inches taller and about 50 pounds heavier.  Fortunately, Adams' trademark intensity helps a great deal towards that end.  The star of Fenady's THE REBEL some six years earlier, Adams is consistently ferocious and elusive.  His Kid also shows a remarkable gift for infiltration time and time again, which helps make it plausible that he learned alongside Lane--"part panther, part Apache" himself--once upon a time.

Jack Graham may seem just as one-note on the surface, but on closer inspection he's broken bad himself.  It's clear from his reputation and past triumphs that he started out as a true champion of underdogs before losing his way.  He states he's there to see that the Kid is treated fairly, but his actions tell us that journalistic objectivity has long fallen by the wayside: Graham is addicted to the power his pen gives him.  Charles Foster Kane's belief that people will think "what I tell them to think" comes to mind.  Any information that contradicts the narrative he's constructing is dismissed as a lie--Graham simply cannot be dissuaded from making his latest "discovery" into a larger than life hero (the Kid appears as tall as the mountains on the newspaper's front page).

After Graham's close call (yes, his muse turns on him), does he seek out any of the numerous Native Americans that (as Lane stated) could "use his help"?  No, the writer only knows one way to apologize, and it's a self serving one--he attempts to make Lane into his next sensationalized hero (after trashing the scout's reputation for weeks).  Of course, the prospect of Graham "repaying his debt" by making Hondo the next protagonist of his "dime novel garbage" gets the reaction you'd expect.  After an hour with this blowhard, it is a satisfying thing to see.

Chief Vittoro adds gravitas as always, another improvement over the prior segment.  The Apache's leader is with Hondo in spirit but unable to assist him since the scout's task involves taking the Kid to "white man's justice".  The Chief would prefer to do away with the murderer the Apache way, and turned out to be right in this instance, since a sequel (Hondo and the Apache Trail) was needed.

HOW MANY CANS OF WHOOPASS?

That pictured punch in the tag aside, Emberato's temper has improved ever since the closure provided in Hondo and the Superstition Massacre.  The inevitable final confrontation with the Kid is Hondo's only other one on one scuffle (the Kid is swarmed in his initial capture) and the scout ends finally ends it with a right cross after the villain's rifle ammunition runs out. 

IS THE CANTINA STILL STANDING?

Proof of just how formidable an adversary we are dealing with: Hondo and Buffalo never get a chance to set foot in their favorite watering hole--a first for the series.

A DOG'S LIFE:

Sam helps with the tracking for two-thirds of Hondo and the Apache Kid, but he spends the final act as a therapy dog for the newly orphaned Emmy Jo.

GUEST CAST NOTES:

Striking Diane Rotar (credited as Danielle), nineteen at the time, was already known as Jennifer Somers on THE VIRGINIAN.  Long-time stunt coordinator Stan Barrett had his first acting credits on HONDO, appearing in three episodes in all.  He too gets to duke it out with The Kid--can't that guy get along with anyone?

THE BOTTOM LINE:

An interesting examination on misuse of the power of the press, Hondo and the Apache Kid also manages to be an exciting chase tale.  In what would end up being one of his final performances, an intense Nick Adams makes a lot out of very little dialogue.  The physical mismatch between the antagonists hurts some, and the script asks for more from Sofia Marie than she can give in a key scene.  More satisfying than not overall, though.  The Kid's return (Hondo and the Apache Trail) is free of the overbearing reporter and the child actors, and is a better overall effort as a result.  (**1/2 out of four)

HONDO airs every Saturday afternoon at 3:30 PM Central on GetTV. Effective July 3rd, 2016, HONDO changes time slots, to Sunday mornings at 6 A.M. Central on GetTV.