Santa Fe Passage (1955)

Simply Perfect

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is a Republic Pictures production, filmed in Trucolor, mainly in various parts of AZ and UT, with mostly dry rocky backgrounds, supposedly on the Santa Fe trail, which crossed the plains of Kansas, to NM. It concerns a wagon train scout(John Payne as Kirby) and his partner Sam(Slim Pickens), who are responsible for protecting two wagon trains, which are in grave danger of being attacked by Kiowa, lead by Chief Satank(Sitting Bear)(George Keymas). Incidentally, Satank was a famous historical Kiowa chief, famed as a fierce warrior in battles with various surrounding tribes early in his career, later switching mostly to fighting white settlers, wagon trains, and even army posts. before being arrested for murder.Aside from interactions between the wagon trains and Kiowa , the plot emphasizes a developing love triangle between Kirby, a woman called Aurelie(Faith Domergue) and the organizer of the wagon train(Rod Cameron, as Jess Griswold). Initially, Aurelie was opposed to choosing the duo as their scouts, because the last wagon they scouted for was ambushed and annihilated by Kiowa, while Kirby was negotiating with Santank elsewhere. However, when Kirby saved her from sever burns when her skirt caught fire, by smothering it, she changed her attitude toward him, and they began a romantic relationship. However, Griswold, who also had a romantic interest in her, threw cold water on their relationship by telling Kirby that she was a Kiowa half breed. Kirby had previously said that he hated all Indians, and especially half breeds. Thus, Kirby was cool toward Aurelie for a while. But, especially after her mother saved his life in a knife fight with Satank, he warmed up again. He came to understand that not all Kiowa were murdering madmen. Meanwhile, Griswold had asked Aurelie to be his wife. She gave him a non-committal answer each time. Not apparent why. Kirby and Griswold have a physical fight over Aurelie, rolling down a steep slope, until Griswold drops off a short ledge, breaking his leg. This would prove fatal, as the Kiowa warriors swarmed over him after Kirby and Aurelia rode off, as he requested. Aside from the climactic battle between the Kiowa and wagoneers, perhaps the most exciting episode is the stampeding horses the Kiowa drove toward the wagon train, in a draw. Kirby directs the wagons and pack animals to get out of the way of the probable path of the horses, so that only minor damaged resulted.Available in color at YouTube.

Disgraced Indian scout and his sidekick lead a wagon train carrying freight through Kiowa country to Mexico. John Payne is the scout, Slim Pickens is his sidekick and Rod Cameron and Faith Domergue are the wagon train "bosses". Director William Witney was an expert at making tight, fast-moving westerns, but he had a bad day here. Except for a well-handled wild-horse stampede and a couple of slightly less well-handled Indian attacks, this picture moves like molasses, with performances ranging from enjoyable (Pickens) to stiff (Cameron) to indifferent (Domergue) to awful (Irene Tedrow as a Kiowa "squaw" accompanying Domergue on the train). Payne looks like he'd rather be somewhere else and doesn't connect at all with Domergue, his ostensible love interest. Only Pickens and Leo Gordon as a villainous (what else?) trail boss manage to breathe any life into their characters, and the script holds no surprises for anyone (especially the "twist" ending). An OK time-waster, that's about all.

A strikingly photographed but also strikingly ordinary western. Payne leads a cattle drive through 'Injun' territory. Do you reckon they're going to let him through peacefully? It's admittedly never short on action, but such trifle now seems more than a bit outré considering the contemporarily modish spate of 'be nice to Indians' Westerns. Fair to say though, that even though 'Broken Arrow' had set such a trend 5 year back, traditional Western audiences regarded the concept with less-than macromolecular significance. With Faith Domergue being typically insipid (This Island Earth was still one year off), but looking as if she thinks she deserves to be paid like Barbara Stanwyck.

A scout with a questionable reputation guides a wagon train through hostile Indian country in an okay but predictable western. John Payne and Rod Cameron are the top cast names and their main interest here is a half-breed girl as the train makes its way to Santa Fe. Good support is given by Slim Pickens, Anthony Caruso and Leo Gordon, old hands in the western genre, and Faith Domergue does what she can with a one-dimensional role. The action is decent and a wild horse stampede adds excitement to the film but otherwise there's nothing about the movie that separates it from dozens of others of its type. The picture has beautiful camera work and displays pretty Utah landscapes to good advantage. The film was based on a novel by Clay Fisher who had some of his other works made into excellent westerns.