How sad is this?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Western star Lee Van Cleef is cast here in the title role, an Indian (!) officer in the Union Army. Clean shaven, wearing a toupee, and caked under more makeup than usual, Van Cleef is on the case when an Indian agent (Luis Induni) is killed. The agents' dying words are "April morning", and Van Cleef must solve the mystery behind this phrase. Among the characters he encounters are Griffin (Stuart Whitman), a gun runner, Griffins' fiancée Maude (ever lovely Carroll Baker), and a pair of thugs, Moon (Percy Herbert) & Snake (Tony Vogel).The prospect of Van Cleef playing an Indian is the main drawing card of this decent enough but unremarkable film. It's adequately directed by Alexander Singer, a veteran of mostly TV, and scored well enough, by Dolores Claman, but it's also choppily edited, and the story (based on a novel by S.E. Whitman), isn't told in a particularly interesting way (despite the presence of top screenwriter Philip Yordan). What does help, to a degree, is a certain irreverence at times, and vivid location shooting in Spain. More squeamish viewers may appreciate the fact that it's violent without being particularly gory.The mostly European cast is entertaining enough to watch. Whitman and Baker are fine, but "Captain Apache" is first and foremost a Van Cleef vehicle. He offers a typically stylish and charismatic performance, and, in one hilariously absurd scene, must suck in his gut when he's made to disrobe in front of an Indian chief.Unmemorable overall, but it's still recommended if one is a fan of the star.Six out of 10.

Captain Apache also known as Deathwork & the Guns of April Morning wasn't a good movie! Directed by Alexander Singer, Captain Apache, tells the story of a Native American US army officer, Cullah "Apache" Burnett (Lee Van Cleef), trying to solve the murder of a military commissioner who was investing an assassination plot. The only clue, he got to go on, is the last words of a dead Commissioner, "April morning". Each time he nears discovering the meaning of the phrase, a suspect dies, throwing him off the trail. Can Captain Apache find what April Morning is, or will the assassins get the last laugh? Watch the movie to find out! Without spoiling too much of the film, I really found this movie plot to be made, over complex. Loosely based off, Carlos Castaneda's 1968's novel, Teaching of Don Juan. The book narrates about Castaneda's experiences with a Yaqui shaman, which might have influence and led to the decision to turn Van Cleef's character into an Indian. Both Philip Yordan and Milton Sperling were experienced screenwriters, but you have wonder if they did a few acid trips before writing the script when they thought of that. While, the murder assassination plot seem pretty simple, the movie writers really try to stretch it out themes like social commentary, and government paranoia, that it comes across as way too vague, repetitive and messy. By the end, of the film, you'll really will hate the words, 'Red-ass'. Not, because it's racism, but how annoying, that word, often comes up in the script. It didn't help, that run-time for this movie is very wide, while the script is small and thin. The movie pacing moves in very slow pace. If that wasn't enough; this political thriller was very dull at times. It lacks action. The action scenes, we did see, were just plain awkward. The tavern filled with dead and blind guitarist didn't match, with the audio. It's weird, to see the guitarist's music still playing, while he's clearly not, playing anymore, toward the end. Then you got the outside shots of the tavern, where the upper right corner of the screen, you can see some sort modern day, flashing neon sign or billboard in the distance. Talk about a big anachronism mistake. Another problem with this film is the location, where it's shot. The movie fails to use the beautiful Spanish landscapes. Instead, it felt like, shooting at night, or in a dim-lit set. The train shootout is a good example of this. It was so badly shot, that you couldn't tell, what's going on, due to how pitch dark, that screen is. The movie is also nearly often impossible to follow, due to awful temporary editing, jumps. One minute, you're in a romantic settling, and then it cuts awkwardly to a suicide. There is no rhyme or rhythm to the flow of these scene. Clearly, you don't need any more smoke signals to know that this film is horrible. If you need, another point; just look at who is the actor playing Captain Apache! Lee Van Cleef! While, Cleef is great, at playing a beloved villain or hero, within movies westerns. I felt that, he was grossly miscast, here as a Native American. While, the movie is very pro-Native American and anti-racist. Lee Van Cleef's portray a Native American understandably raise concern within some viewers, when seeing this movie. Most of them, found the role, he was playing, still kinda offensive. Yes, I know that such practices, was a normal part of the Euro-Western genre at the time, with dark Spanish playing the Native-Americans, type roles, but Lee Van Cleef, clearly doesn't have to the skills or looks to pull this, off. Lines, like 'Teach me, the ways of the white man!" to his lady-lead, really got under my skin in how stupid, they were delivered. I found his performance to be very cringe worthy, because how dumb, his character was. For a case, that seems, pretty simple to solve. It takes him, forever to solve it. It was very laughable, seeing his character go on an acid trip, half way, through the movie, just to help him, solve the mystery. Its way more laugh out loud when Lee Van Cleef get down to his undies just to talk to his tribe-men. I know, that most of those scenes, he was in, are supposed to be taken seriously, but clearly, there was something, not right, about his performance. It came across, as funny unintentional, most of the time. It didn't help that Lee Van Cleef wore a fake weird looking wig, and a funky looking coat, during most of the film. The rest of the casting is as offbeat as the main actor, with Stuart Whitman, Elisa Montes & Carroll Baker making surprise appearances as the shady business man, Griffin, the teasing Rosita, and the seductive saloon lady, Maude. Stuart Whitman was alright as the man with a plan, while Carol Baker and Elisa Montes were beautiful, but tempting in their roles. I just wish, their characters weren't negatively viewed. My favorite bad actor, had to go to Jose Bodalo as a Mexican General. His over the top dramatic death scene, was a chuckle. Not only was the acting, pretty mediocre, but the music. Lee Van Cleef perform no less than two songs, 'April Morning' and 'Captain Apache'. He only tries singing only one, while the second, the title song, is a sort of slow rap, with him reading the words. It was so-off-key. The acid rock trip music between those two songs, was so bad and out of place. You would wish to be tomahawk to death, so you can't heard it. Overall: This movie was a misfire. Besides the opening credits prologue that was kinda funny. This movie was mostly unintentional funny. Don't expect too much. It's watchable, but surely no enjoyable.

This is an outlandish and muddled American/Spanish Western starred by the great Lee Van Cleef. A native-American Captain Apache (Lee Van Cleef in the title role) is investigating a murder , some words : ¨April Morning¨ hold a special key about its solution. He deals with a suspect gunrunner (Stuart Whitman) and a gorgeous saloon girl (Carrol Baker). Meanwhile the captain is pursued by some cutthroats ( Percy Herbert, Tony Vogel) and uncovers an assassination scheme.This offbeat Western packs shootouts, action Western, violence, some touches of humor and strange images about witchery and necromancy. Packs a cynic and ironic portrayal of a rough captain Indian and his exploits in Old West gunning down enemies with one-dimensional roles and dozens of stereotypes who cross his path. The picture turns out to be another Spaghetti Western which during the 60s and early the 70 were ordinarily shot in Spain. Numerous support cast full of secondaries from Spanish/Italian Western as Jose Bodalo,Ricardo Palacios, Dan Van Husen,Charly Bravo, Milo Quesada, among others. The tale is filmed in Texas Hollywood,(Almeria,Andalucia, Spain) and partially in the fortress built for ¨El Condor¨(John Guillermin also with Cleef) by the production designer Julio Molina . Nevertheless, today the fort has been crumbled and only remains some ruins. Rare musical score and songs are played by Lee Van Cleef. Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by John Cabrera. The movie is produced by Milton Sperling (¨Battle of Bulge¨), Irving Lerner(¨Royal hunt of sun¨) and the prestigious screenwriter Philip Jordan (the classic ¨Johnny Guitar¨ and ¨Bad man's river¨ again with Van Cleef). The motion picture is regularly directed by Alexander Singer. The flick will appeal to S.W. buffs and Lee Van Cleef fans .

this western is so bad that it sends it into the realms of an awesome cult classic. the best scene is when lee van cleef gets captured by the bad guys. he's held in a cave, where bizarrely he ends up doing magic mushrooms and beats the bad guys up, around a campfire, to psychedelic imagery. it also has lee van cleef singing the main vocal track for the theme tune. this alone makes it intriguing viewing for any movie fan.