Set in 1868 when the Apaches under Chief Cochise go on the warpath with the intention of driving out every white settler in southern Arizona; Captain Bruce Coburn must take a small group of soldiers deep into Apache territory to take delivery of a consignment of forty new repeating rifles being delivered from the east. He doesn't have the best of men with him; his squad includes a belligerent corporal who has already been busted down from sergeant and a couple of raw recruits who joined the army when they were forced to abandon their family home. Things badly fairly quickly and several members of the squad are killed in an engagement with Cochise's braves; including one of the recruits who died because of his brother's cowardice. After taking delivery of the rifles things get even worse when the belligerent Cpl. Bodine mutinies and persuades the rest of the men to join him; telling them they will get rich selling the rifles in Mexico. Coburn is left for dead but manages to make it back to the camp at Apache Wells. Here he is relieved of command but disobeys orders to try to get the much needed rifles back. It is vital that he succeeds as Bodine lied about selling the guns in Mexico... he intends to sell them to the Apache!

One of this film's key weaknesses is the narration that tells us things that are blindingly obvious and only seems to detract from the action and is delivered in a tone that adds nothing the film. The acting is fairly mixed; Murphy puts in a solid performance as Coburn and Kenneth Tobey is great as Cpl. Bodine, creating a delightfully unpleasant character. Some of the other actors are decidedly ropey though; in one scene a soldier fighting for his life calls for help in a tone more suited to somebody inviting somebody to join him for a cup of tea! The action, when it comes, is exciting enough although nothing exceptional. The desert locations look impressive but the 'fort' at Apache Wells looked nothing like a military outpost. The main reason to watch this is to see Murphy's last starring role; apart from that it passes the time well enough on a rainy afternoon.

40 Guns to Apache Pass is directed by William Witney and written by Willard and Mary Willingham. It stars Audie Murphy and Kenneth Tobey. Music is by Richard LaShelle and Jaques R. Marquette photographs it in Pathe Color with location work coming at Lovejoy Buttes, Red Rock Canyon and North Ranch in California.

The Apaches, led by Cochise (Michael Keep),are on the warpath and vowing to kill all whites they come across. Captain Bruce Coburn (Murphy) is in charge of leading homesteaders out of harms way. But there is unrest in the band of men under his charge and mutiny is afoot.

This was the last but one film Murphy made before retiring, you feel that he hoped this would be a fitting swan song to his career. It wasn't. Saddled with a weak script and surrounded by wooden supporting actors, Murphy alone can't make this lacklustre, cliché riddled, Western work. There's some nice scenery shot by Witney and Marquette, but with LaShelle scoring it like an episode of Scooby Doo the impact is lost. It would be easy to blame director Witney, a man more than capable of stringing together an action based movie, but asking him to try and make this particular screenplay stretch to over an hour and half was asking for the impossible.

3/10 for Murphy's manful efforts to carry such a low-budget, routine and forgettable piece.

In his next to last film Audie Murphy had almost outgrown his boyish good looks enough to pass for a reasonably convincing hard case. His character Bruce Coburn is a no nonsense Cavalry Captain with orders to escort settlers out of Apache Indian Territory and later, to bring in a shipment of repeating rifles to the Army outpost at Apache Wells. There's a romantic interest in the role of Coburn's fiancé Ellen Malone (Laraine Stephens) but she's not a major factor in the story, basically book-ending her presence by being in one of the families Coburn removes from their homestead. However she has two younger brothers who join the Army to get their hands on some weapons to take it to the Apaches.

Even though the Chiricahua Apaches are a palpable menace in the story, most of the tension is provided by Coburn's nemesis within the ranks. Corporal Bodine (Kenneth Tobey) was a former Confederate who still hates the Union enough to desert in the middle of the mission and drag along a handful of soldiers, including the younger Malone brother Doug (Michael Burns). By this point, Doug had already witnessed older brother Mike (Michael Blodgett) attacked and dragged off by the Apaches, unwilling and unable to come to his aid by reason of cowardice. If you've seen enough stories like this, the eventual 'rise to the occasion' moment was being set up here.

I was a little surprised to see most other reviewers on this board lean toward the negative for this flick. Except for Murphy's own autobiographical film "To Hell and Back" and his 1959 Western "No Name on the Bullet", I found this to be one of the better ones starring the real life war hero. Part of that reverts back to my opening comment regarding Murphy's 'look'; in virtually every other Western I've seen him in, he doesn't look the part whether he's playing a hero OR a villain.

If I had to nit pick though, what didn't seem convincing to me was how handily Captain Coburn picked off all those charging Indians once he got his hands on the rifle cache. A little like John Wayne winning all those war and Western battles all by himself. But if you're an Audie Murphy fan, and by now I guess I'm in that camp, this is a decent send off in his last feature role.