Duel at Diablo

Jesse Remsberg, a scout whose wife was killed by Apaches, rescues a woman in the desert, and it emerges that she had been living among the Apache and has a child. At the same time the army has to move a munitions convoy through a pass, and Toller, a horse trader, sets out with it. Ralph Nelson uses the western template while addressing two subjects directly: racism and the army breaking its agreements. Toller, played by Sidney Poitier, is a character rarely seen in the westerns of the period: a Black man who answers to nobody. James Garner plays the scout. Neal Hefti's score gives the film an unusual tone. The violence is hard for its time and the torture scene caused argument. Who it is for: viewers who like sixties westerns and social criticism inside the genre. Who it is not for: anyone unable to overlook Native people drawn largely as a threat.