Yes, the great outdoors is infinite, but there's very little bit of outdoors that the group of people stuck in a small valley can roam around in. They are at the only slightly shady spot in the area, surrounded by large rocks and dangerous Apaches. The film stars Rory Calhoun as a loner who happens to spot Apaches in the area and warns some other passersby to their presence and as a result, they all get stuck in this area together along with a native American enemy of the Apaches and several calvary men whose troop was attacked by the Apaches and left ten for dead.

This creates a lot of tension for the group as while they do have a little bit of water, but they have run out of food, and they certainly aren't going to cook the silent but scary gila monster that comes into their midst at one point. A bit of the plot surrounds the individuals personalized, with Calhoun being reunited with an old girlfriend, Barbara Bates, who is now engaged to John Dehner.

When Calhoun provides water for the native born Pima, Frank DeKova, it is a subtle hint of his humanity because other members of the group want to kill him and leave his body for the vultures, but it seems that as Calhoun and DeKova are both lone wolves, they understand each other which creates respect. Another story involving young Carolyn Craig's attraction to Tom Pittman, unfortunately, it's not enough to extract from the action of the main story. The fact that Craig witnessed her parents being slain by the Apaches adds to her story as well.

You have to presume based on the fact that other movies have suggested that the Apaches only resorted to killing other natives and white people as a repurcusion over attacks on them because there really is no motivation given here. Calhoun is a very good silent anti-hero, and the veteran actor also took a hand in producing the film as well.

The tense situation is enough to keep you gripped, and the film clocks in at a very comfortable 72 minutes. As far as later studio era B westerns go, it's well made and colorful which makes it a bit more tolerable than many others.

Well it doesn't get any more Cowboys and Indians than this now, does it? Rory Calhoun shifts gears only slightly from his Bill Longley persona in 'The Texan' TV series to head up a group of stranded travelers and Cavalry soldiers to take on the Apaches in this quick paced Western. The standard clichéd characters are all here, like a love interest (Barbara Bates) for the hero, an Apache hating Indian (Frank DeKova),and a know it all Army sergeant (Leo Gordon) who knows better than itinerant drifter Logan Cates (Calhoun) how to get out of the fix they're in. Who would you bet on?

This is actually pretty entertaining in it's own way. Often the romance angle gets in the way of these stories, but this one's OK, in fact there are two of them. The one involving Lonnie Foreman (Tom Pittman) and Junie Hatchett (Carolyn Craig) is actually kind of sweet if you go in for that sort of stuff. As for Logan, he had some trouble figuring out what his drifting was all about by the end of the picture, so that ride off into the sunset was to be expected.

The film had a couple of unexpected pluses if you've watched a lot of Westerns and think you've seen it all. How about soldier Graves getting shot by an Apache fire arrow? That was a first for me, as well as that creepy gila monster staring down Logan in the Apache camp. The picture produced a few minutes of interesting tension with that scene even if it went nowhere, but it was cool enough to mention.

The payoff was a clever concoction as well, as Logan had those canteens rigged with gunpowder and pebbles to take out most of the renegades. I thought for sure we'd get a look at the villain Churupati since he was mentioned more than once, but that was not to be. When it was all over, I just had to ask one rhetorical question - what ever happened to the rest of those soldiers?

In a very tightly constructed and entertaining B Western that he produced as well as starred in, Rory Calhoun collects a motley crew of people to stand off hostile Apaches in Apache Territory. The title speaks for itself, but it begs the question as to what all these people were doing there?

Circumstance bring Calhoun together with a former flame and her new fiancé, Barbara Bates and John Dehner, a young girl played by Carolyn Craig whom Calhoun rescues on the trail, Tom Pittman an amiable young drifting cowboy, Indian prospector Frank DeKova and a patrol of cavalry who are led by a sergeant from the adjutant general's office with no field experience in Frank DeSales. DeSales gladly cedes leadership to Calhoun who knows far more about Indian fighting than he does.

DeSales has some malcontents among his troops, a homesick Myron Healey and a former sergeant in Leo Gordon who thinks he ought to be running things. I think you can see all the inherent conflicts and in the 70 minute running time they're all brought out.

Actually Calhoun does have a plan to get them all out and it depends on the weather. The trick is to see how many of them survive. What it is you'll have to see Apache Territory for.

If you didn't recognize it, Apache Territory is yet another reworking of John Ford's The Lost Patrol which was remade into Sahara and remade again as Last Of The Comanches. The last stand theme is enduringly popular and Columbia Pictures sure got a lot of use out of it.

Two tragedies were in this cast. Both Tom Pittman and Carolyn Craig died way too young and too violently. Pittman in a car crash after this film was completed and Craig several years later by gunshot. In John Mitchum's book Them Ornery Mitchum Boys about he and brother Bob he became friends with Pittman and described him as a nice kid and promising young actor. Pittman was missing for several days before police found the car he had been driving at the bottom of a ravine with Pittman's body.

Apache Territory is a good classic B western the kind that sadly Hollywood does not turn out any more.