Larry Ward

Hombre -- A white man brought up by the Apache tribe is sympathetic to their plight.

John Russell (Paul Newman), a white man raised by a band of Arizona Apaches, is forced to confront the society he despises when he sells the boarding house his father has left him. While leaving town by stagecoach, several bigoted passengers insist he ride outside with the driver (Martin Balsam). But when outlaws leave them all stranded in the desert, Russell may be their only hope for survival! Diane Cilento, Frederic March, Richard Boone and Barbara Rush co-star in this action-packed Western classic.

Filmed in the mountains of southern Arizona, HOMBRE derives much value from the rugged and authentic locations of this story about a white man brought up by Apaches and sympathetic to them. As a passenger on a stagecoach he is required to ride on the coach rather than in it, because of the bias of an Indian agent. When they are attacked by outlaws, it is the white Apache who proves to be the most courageous of all, as he finally loses his life defending the others. HOMBRE rates as one of the better Westerns, with a good story and excellent acting, but it is also a morality tale pointing up racial bias and hypocrisy.

An Arizona cavalry outpost is disciplined by a new commander in anticipation of an Indian attack. Troy Donahue ("A Summer Place") and Suzanne Pleshette ("The Bob Newhart Show"), who were in real life married at the time, find romance amid the turmoil. Action master Raoul Walsh ("Along The Great Divide," "Captain Horatio Hornblower") completed his directorial career with this reflective Western from the novel by Paul Horgan ("Whitewater").