Directed by Alexander Singer in 1971, Captain Apache stars none other than Lee Van Cleef in the title role. Although he's a graduate of West Point and a decorated soldier, his Native American heritage makes him a target for racist white folk. He doesn't let this stop him, however, and after an opening montage highlighting some action and a theme song sung by Van Cleef himself, we learn that he's been asked by the government to head into a small town to look into a murder. It seems that the Commissioner who handles Indian affairs has been murdered, his last word was… "April morning." It's really the only clue that Captain Apache has to go on, and any time he gets close to someone who may know what it means that person winds up dead.

As Apache starts poking around, he winds up on the trail of Griffin (Stuart Whitman), a business man who has no qualms about sending his thugs to deal with landowners who don't want to sell to him. Many of those landowners wind up dead, and in one case his widow is taken off to work at Griffin's tavern as a prostitute. Griffin's got an agenda and he's out to throw the local Indian population under the bus to get what he wants… unless Captain Apache has something to say about it! When Apache, not so coincidently, winds up on a train bound for Tucson with Griffin, his secretary Maude (Caroll Baker) and a few other characters aboard, he is able to start putting together the pieces of this puzzle and uncover a plot that reaches all the way from Arizona to Washington D.C.!

Written by Philip Yordan and Milton Sperling based on the novel by S.E. Whitman, Captain Apache may have been directed by American Singer but it was shot in Spain and it has all the trappings of an Italian Spaghetti Western. Van Cleef, best known for The Good, The Bad And The Ugly is a lot of fun to watch here. While he's made up to look like a Native American (the makeup is similar to that applied to Burt Reynolds when he played the lead in Navajo Jo e) and can't really pass for Apache, he's still got that screen presence that made him such an icon. There's no denying it's a politically incorrect casting choice (albeit not uncommon in westerns of this era) but at the same time the movie makes it plenty clear who the good guy is here. Captain Apache not only outfights his foes at every turn but he outsmarts them too and casting choices aside, the story is pretty sympathetic to the plight of our hero's people and none too kind in its take on white imperialism.

Politics aside, the movie is as enjoyable as it is ridiculous. Not only does Van Cleef sing the ridiculous theme song but he struts about in one scene clad in nothing but a leather banana hammock. He's not in bad shape for a guy his age and has nothing to be ashamed of but it's still an odd sight to see. The movie doesn't ask you to take it too seriously though, and much of the comic relief comes from Van Cleef's character as well. He handles this side of the story just as well as he does the more serious parts and the action set pieces. Stuart Whitman is also a lot of fun here and he makes a great, slimy foil to Van Cleef's noble hero. Throw in supporting performances courtesy of Hugh McDermott, Tony Vogel and beautiful actresses Caroll Baker and Elisa Montés and the cast turns out to be a big part of what makes this work.

Don't go into this one expecting a dark, serious film in the vein of Leone, Corbucci or even Sollima, it doesn't even try to deliver on that level of intensity. However, Captain Apache is an entertaining and nicely shot western played with a good sense of humor and style. This is a fun watch, if not a classic of the genre, and Van Cleef fans should enjoy seeing him trouncing about in one of his more unusual lead roles.

Video:

Captain Apache debuts on Blu-ray from Kino in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed in its original aspect ratio of 2.35.1 widescreen. This isn't a reference quality HD transfer by any stretch but it's quite nice looking and the detail is frequently impressive. Sometimes the grain is heavier and thicker in certain scenes than others but color is quite good. Print damage is present throughout but it's not severe nor particularly distracting. Black levels are good and there aren't any compression artifacts to note, nor are there any obvious instances of noise reduction or edge enhancement. Some restoration work would probably have helped here but all in all this one looks quite nice on Blu-ray.