Search - Duel at Diablo on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1966 DVD Release: 05/20/2003 Format: DVD - Letterbox for TV - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 44 mins Studio: MGM Members Wishing: 1 Genres: Western, Cavalry Film

Frontier scout Jess Remsberg (James Garner) is crossing the desert when he spots a dead army scout and group of Apaches pursuing someone -- it turns out to be a white woman, Ellen Grange (Bibi Andersson); he gets her away from them and returns her to her home and her husband Willard (Dennis Weaver), who seems much more upset that the horse she was riding when she left is dead than he is glad that she is back. Ellen was kidnapped by the Apaches two years before and rescued a year after that, and had fled a town where her husband and everyone else had treated her as an outcast since her return. Apart from preventing her from being raped by some drunken townsmen, however, Remsberg barely has time to worry over what goes on between them, as he has a mission of his own -- tracking down the men who murdered his wife, a Comanche woman. A key clue is in the hands of the town marshal in Fort Conchos and to get there he has to scout for a cavalry unit bringing horses, ammunition, and fresh recruits to the fort, with Grange and his wife -- and the infant son she had by the Indian chieftain who took her as his squaw -- going along, with ex-buffalo soldier-turned-horse wrangler Toler (Sidney Poitier). Their party ends up under siege by Chata (John Hoyt), the Apache Indian chief and grandfather to Ellen Grange's baby, who has jumped the reservation; he wants his grandson back, and the ammunition the troop was carrying, and also intends on killing Ellen for inadvertently causing the death of his son. They all end up trapped in a box canyon while Remsberg tries to survive to get help from Fort Conchos. If this all sounds complicated, it's not, especially as told by director Nelson, in a straightforward, unpretentious, brisk, and decidedly violent fashion that anticipates his own Soldier Blue, made four years later. Every plot element links up neatly in this script, which quite effectively recalls (and weaves together) elements of the book and the movie Hondo as well as any number of revenge westerns of the 1960's. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

James Garner - Jess Remsberg
Sidney Poitier - Toller
Bibi Andersson - Ellen Grange
Dennis Weaver - Willard Grange
Bill Travers - Lt. McAllister

Ralph Nelson's Duel at Diablo (1966) was once out on laserdisc as part of a double feature with John Sturges's Hour of the Gun, which was an awkward combination -- one movie was an action-filled topical adventure with lots of familiar faces cast against type, while the other was a dour, deeply psychological, character-oriented story that put an awkward spin on a familiar story; James Garner was the reason for the pairing, as he was the star of both. Nelson's movie stands much better on its own, as one of the best movies in its genre to come out of Hollywood in the 1960's. What's more, this DVD is a true jewel, just for restoring the film to its proper luster -- letterboxed to 1.66-to-1, in a deep and detailed transfer, it takes flight from the opening credits, seen over a stunning desert panorama. The letterboxing, though mild, enhances the action scenes by framing them the way that the director and cinematographer intended them to be seen, and that goes double for any shots involving mobile camera work, of which there are plenty here; even the night shots manage to be realistically dark yet contain usable picture information; and one key montage sequence, covering a mad dash to relative safety in the oncoming dawn, is transferred beautifully, capturing the rising level of light with each series of cuts in all of its subtlety. And Charles F. Wheeler's photography (mostly done on location in Utah) isn't the only element enhanced here -- Neal Hefti's score, though a little too modernistic for its time, is also presented cleanly, on a good, loud audio track. The movie itself was years ahead of its time, in both its racial sensibilities and its violence, which is comparable to that of the spaghetti westerns of the period, and it ought to be regarded as one of the jewels of the United Artists western library, right alongside the best parts of the Clint Eastwood collection. Garner was a better actor at this point in his career than Eastwood was; with Sidney Poitier in one of the flashiest, boldest roles of his career -- an ex-buffalo soldier turned horse wrangler and gambler -- also aboard, and Bibi Andersson, Dennis Weaver, Bill Travers, and John Hoyt doing superb work as well, this disc is a no-brainer of a purchase especially as part of MGM's mid-priced "Western Legends" line; this reviewer would have happily paid money to see it in a theater in 1966, but it was too adult for him at the time. The movie comes with only one extra, the original trailer, which condenses some of the more violent action into two minutes. There's also a Spanish language track available, and English captions and French and Spanish subtitles, all accessible through a simple two-layer menu that opens automatically on start-up. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide