How could this possibly fail - a western about hidden Apache gold with more stars in the cast than there are twists, swindles and red herrings in the plot? Yet fail it did, and there was nothing that such powerhouse performers as Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Edward G Robinson could do about it. The executives at Columbia must shoulder some of the blame for ordering extensive re-editing. Carl Foreman's script may be cliché ridden, but it is one of the pleasures of a cowboy movie that you know exactly what you're going to get and here you get it in spades, thanks to J Lee Thompson's vigorous direction.

A bandit kidnaps a Marshal who has seen a map showing a gold vein on Indian lands, but other groups are looking for it too, while the Apache try to keep the secret location undisturbed.