Average western stars Killian (Hugh O'Brian) who's assigned by Col. Donahue (Robert F. Simon) to a perilous mission . But he cannot do this alone and needs help , so he goes to a local women's jail and gets the warden to parole a motley bunch of misfit women . As a scout leader Killian defends a heroic expedition plenty of spunky women against a lot of dangers and Indian attackers . As five feisty women convicts , a rag-tag band of all-female (Anne Francis, Marilyn Maxwell, Marie Windsor , Sherry Jackson , Cynthia Hull) have been recruited to secretly transport weapons into Mexican-held Texas in 1840s and along the way threatened by an impending Indian attack . All of them head to Texas , and getting a chilly reception throughout the risked paths , and without water , anxiously desiring to drink , suffering starvation , thirsty , assaults , while being surrounded by Mexican military and rebel Indians . As the tribes on the warpath and the Mexican army is controlling the colonists and invaders on the Texas region.

This fresh but average picture gets Western action , shootouts , agreeable outdoors , a lot of attractive , exuberantly frisky female roles showing a lively aggressiveness and turning to be entertaining enough , but slow-moving . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians, production values and mediocre results . A passable TV Western by the professional and craftsman filmmaker Don Taylor who brought ¨The final of countdown¨and ¨Damien : Omen 2¨ , dealing with an undercover group who's trying to smuggle guns into Texas during the time of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836. Excitement and entertainment but uneventful , relying heavily on the relationship between the touchy women with full of nervous energy and the male heroes , while defending the arms wagon . The main and enjoyable plot line results to be functional about the risked expedition to defend themselves against Indian tribes on the warpath and to repel the Mexican attacks that will eventually come . Exploring the anguish of women , the hard relationship among them and including jarring bursts of action and emotion . This is a thrilling tale of a valiant and a hard-bitten group , assembling a detail of misfit women to hold-off rampaging Indians and avengeful Mexicans . Exploring the distresses and desperation of some fainthearted women . This Western is predictable and conventional but entertaining enough . It is an uneven Western with a plot that several times reminds ¨Westward the Women¨(1951) by William A Wellman and ¨The Guns of Fort Petticoat¨ (1957) by George Marshall . In Wild Women(1970) stands out the beautiful women , some of then veteran actresses , such as : Anne Francis as the appealing Jean Marshek , Marilyn Maxwell as the stubborn Maude Webber, Marie Windsor as the quarrelsome Lottie Clampett, Sherry Jackson as the spoiled , fidgety Nancy Belacourt, and Cynthia Hull as brave Indian Mit-O-Ne.

The motion picture was regularly directed by Don Taylor . He was an actor and director as TV as cinema , he played one of the leads in the Army-Air Force production of Hart's play, "Winged Victory¨ . Returning to civilian life, Taylor resumed his work in pictures with a top role in the trend-setting crime drama ¨The naked city (1948)¨ and played successful films as ¨Destination Gobi , Battleground and Stalag 17¨. In later years Taylor became a film and TV director, being nominated for an Emmy for his direction of an episode of "Night Gallery" (1969). Don met his wife Hazel Court when he directed her in a 1958 episode of "Alfred Hitchcock presents" (1955). Taylor was an expert filmmaker on adventures genre as ¨Adventures of Tom Sawyer¨ , Terror as ¨Damien : Omen 2¨ and science fiction as ¨Island of Dr. Moreau¨, ¨Escape from Planet of Apes¨, and ¨The final of countdown¨. Rating : Average , 4.5/10 . Acceptable and passable , but mediocre. Only for hardcore Western fans.

"Wild Women" is a film shown originally as part of the "ABC Movie of the Week" series. I never saw it when it first aired but found it and many other "ABC Movie" installments on YouTube. They seem to have about half of the films that aired on ABC over these years.

Hugh O'Brian plays Killian, a guy who is trying to smuggle guns into Texas during the time of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836. However, he cannot do this alone and needs help, so he goes to a local women's prison and gets the warden to parole a group of these 'ladies' to his care. Naturally, being a group of misfits, they have some hard times here and there but ultimately pull it all together...which is EXACTLY what you'd expect in such a film.

If you like this sort of plot, you'd love the later "ABC Movie", "The Daughters of Joshua Cabe" which also used this idea...and a bit better.

The acting is fine and I have no major complaints EXCEPT for the complete lack of historical accuracy. Like so many films about this time period, they show folks with repeating pistols...something that really weren't available in any number until the Civil War and post- Civil War period...decades later. So, you see a battle near the end where hundreds and hundreds of shots ring out...though nothing like this could have happened with just a couple dozen folks fighting.

Five women jailbirds, conveniently housed in a frontier US army fort stockade, are offered eventual freedom if they pose as wives of settlers(actually army surveyors),in an expedition to smuggle rifles and cannon to American forces down near the lower Rio Grande, while mapping a better route through Texas for US troop movements during the imminent war with Mexico over Texas. Throughout the film, in the background and once in the foreground, the very familiar western pioneer ballad "Sweet Betsy from Pike" is heard. Being in the public domain, it offered a cheap, appropriate and endearing accompaniment to the sometimes mundane travel across Texas. Along the way, they have a non-lethal confrontation with some Apaches. Upon reaching the apparently abandoned American settlement, where they are supposed to rendezvous with some Texas Rangers, they instead encounter a nosy Mexican patrol that says the Rangers have been executed. Unfortunately, the patrol commander isn't fooled by the settler deception, recognizing one of the women as the former madam of a bordello he had visited several times. Later, he returns with more troopers. Killian(Hugh O'Brian),a veteran independent frontiersman, who shares command with young Lt. Charring, conceives a plan to lure the Mexican patrol into being boxed in within the settlement by their wagons, where the 'soldiers' and women shoot them to pieces. By now, the women have all become quite attached to their fake husbands, except for Jean, who still fancies handsome swaggering 'fiddlefoot' Killian.

The screenwriters presumably flunked US history, substituting 'Hollywood history'. The fact that when this story takes place, in 1845, Texas had been an independent country for nearly a decade, is totally ignored. True, Mexico still didn't fully officially recognize it, even though they had signed a treaty so stating. The real problem was the still disputed southern border. Both sides had been too weak to press a settlement. With the US about to inherit this problem, and with their recent failed attempt to pressure Mexico into selling the New Mexico and California provinces, war seemed imminent. The other glaring historical inaccuracy is the identification of Mescalero Apaches as the Native Americans to be feared during the traverse of Texas. Historically, the mounted warriors to fear in this region, of course, were the Comanche, with the Mescaleros normally confined to New Mexico. True, there were probably still a few Lipan Apaches left near the southern border of Texas, but they aren't usually mentioned in conflicts between settlers and NAs in this region. Interestingly, the young defiant, though repressed, Apache woman(Mit-O-Ne),who is one of the 'wives', says she is a Lipan. She stabbed a trooper who tried to rape her, but has reason(probably, man trouble) not to want to return to her tribe. Although defiantly uncommunicative for most of the trip, she saved everyone from thirst through her knowledge of a secrete Apache spring. But, this angered the small Mescalero Apache patrol that had been shadowing them(why?). This confrontation is resolved by an agreed-upon hand to hand contest been Killian and the Apache leader, within the pond formed from the spring. The unexpected result suggests a rather sympathetic attitude toward NAs by the script.

The women include : Mit-O-Ne, paired with Lt. Charring, whom she comes to respect as a gentle and wise man, and eventually proposes marriage. Lottie: 50ish, a former member of a holdup gang, crack shot, and, during the trip, gives shooting lessons to the other women and 'soldiers'. Maude(Marilyn Maxwell): also 50ish, a buxom former famous madam, who recognizes most of the 'soldiers' as former customers. Nancy is a former Virginia belle who shot dead a suitor who tried to go too far with her. She thinks herself above the rest, and has a catfight with Mit-O-Ne when she objects to sharing a covered wagon at night with 'that savage'. Jean(Anne Francis) is a former dancehall girl, who once slept with Killian(whom she usually calls Fiddlefoot, in recognition of his wandering lifestyle). She's clearly still his favorite, as brought out in a night encounter in the stable.

At one point, the bored women make an amazingly potent intoxicating brew of horse liniment, lamp whale oil, and lilac water)(doesn't sound promising to me!). They get most of the men drunk, as well, in a farcical episode worthy of the 3 stooges.

Hugh O'Brian, whom audiences still remembered from his "Wyatt Earp" TV series, comes across as a laid back, but nauseatingly swaggering, leader: very different from the quite, self effacing, Lt. Charring, who lacks one ounce of O'Brian's natural charisma. Amazingly, Hugh, who was then in his 40s, is still around, as of this writing: a lifelong bachelor until his 80s!

Now part of an 8 westerns DVD release.