An extremely weak screenplay and unappealing performances add up to a poor Kraft Suspense segment.
From "The Untouchables" we're used to stories of smuggling booze into America during prohibition, say, from Canada. Here it's 1923 and the odd casting of young Perry Lopez plus Vincent Gardenia are bootleggers from south of the border sneaking liquor into a small Texas town.
Ralph Meeker is the government agent trying to stop them, and he hires an ex-soldier from his command during World War I to help establish law and order.
It's John Gavin, playing a stoic Cherokee, so stoic he seems like a Cigar Store Indian at times. He has a curved "Y" brand on his cheek, something of a precursor of the famous Yellowstone TV brand almost 60 years later!
Sentimental elements include a cute Mexican shoeshine boy Rafael Campos (a bit old for the role) and Linda Lawson, a favorite of mine who's a stretch as a Cantina girl seeking a better life and trying to reconnect with her little brother (Rafael).
Various plot twists all fall with thuds, none of it believable and just pounding away at various stereotypes. Perhaps a Mel Brooks sort of humorous approach (see: "Blazing Saddles") could have saved this.
From "The Untouchables" we're used to stories of smuggling booze into America during prohibition, say, from Canada. Here it's 1923 and the odd casting of young Perry Lopez plus Vincent Gardenia are bootleggers from south of the border sneaking liquor into a small Texas town.
Ralph Meeker is the government agent trying to stop them, and he hires an ex-soldier from his command during World War I to help establish law and order.
It's John Gavin, playing a stoic Cherokee, so stoic he seems like a Cigar Store Indian at times. He has a curved "Y" brand on his cheek, something of a precursor of the famous Yellowstone TV brand almost 60 years later!
Sentimental elements include a cute Mexican shoeshine boy Rafael Campos (a bit old for the role) and Linda Lawson, a favorite of mine who's a stretch as a Cantina girl seeking a better life and trying to reconnect with her little brother (Rafael).
Various plot twists all fall with thuds, none of it believable and just pounding away at various stereotypes. Perhaps a Mel Brooks sort of humorous approach (see: "Blazing Saddles") could have saved this.