Cheap Yuma (Video) (Ted Post) Price

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Customer Reviews of Yuma

Big, tall, calm Clint
This is one of my favorite western movies and was also one of my Dad's. Clint Walker plays a U.S. Marshall who comes to Yuma to clean up the town. Right off the bat, he has to kill (in self defense) the brother of the owner of a large trail herd headed toward the town and quickly gets blamed for the death of another brother. The interesting thing about this movie is Walker's calm easy-going way. There's no bluster and loud show of force here; he just does his job, quietly and well. There's also a lot of cultural diversity as he befriends a homeless Mexican boy and the local Reservation Indians who are being cheated, but learn to trust the new Sheriff and also tangles with the Army. A memorable scene occurs when he goes to the Fort to talk with the Army about some recent occurences. When a soldier refuses to wake his commanding officer, Walker handles things in his own quiet, humorous way. This was a good role for Clint Walker, who handled the part of the sheriff very well.

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Ted Post's Yuma
Aaron Spelling produced this made for television western that gets awfully plotty for a seventy three minute film. It plays like a probable failed series pilot.

Handsome Clint Walker is U.S. Marshal Dave Harmon, who wanders into Yuma, Arizona Territory in time to kill one of the brothers of the local bigwig rancher who is out on a trail drive. Walker takes the other brother to jail. Walker also meets a "cute" homeless Mexican kid who sleeps at the jailhouse. One night, Andres is snoozing when a villain and another man dressed in Army blue take the remaining brother into the street and kill him, pinning the murder on Walker. Not good for your first twenty four hours on the job. Walker visits the local Army fort, and rankles the chains of the commander. The bigwig hears of his brothers' deaths, and rides back to town in time to get his chains rankled as well. The local native population, who get short changed by the Army on their beef, also get rankled in the chains area. With all these chains getting rankled, Walker still has time to woo the local hotel owner. The Army guy involved in the murder ends up dead, the local cattle buyer is implicated, the indians do a lot of hesitant speechifying, and the climax brings about an unlikely showdown as Walker must prove to the town that the villainous cattle buyer had a boss, someone we have suspected as being too helpful all along.

There is a semi-subplot involving the death of Walker's family at the hands of Army raiders, and I think this would have been the force behind the series, had it been picked up. Instead, the film ends abruptly, and I kept waiting for scenes from next week's exciting episode. Because of the fade outs for nonexistent commercial breaks, the pacing is all off on this and its story jumps in fits.

Walker is handsome, rugged, and has a voice deeper than a well. The rest of the cast is full of television actors you have probably seen in other television movies. Much of the action is pretty lame, and the violence is tepid. The first brother killed gets a shotgun blast midtorso, and falls without a scratch on him. I did not expect "Reservoir Dogs," but this is the wrong film to use to teach children about the evil of guns! Speaking of children, the Mexican kid here goes from "cute" to "aneurysm inducing annoyance" very quickly.

If you dislike westerns, then you will dislike "Yuma." If you like westerns, then you will still dislike "Yuma." I cannot recommend it.

This is unrated, but contains physical violence and gun violence.

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A Big Man For a Big Job
This early 70's Western, an Aaron Spelling Production, stars 6'6" Clint Walker as the big, calm, new U.S. Marshall in the territory around Yuma. Like many western towns of the time, Yuma has been having it's troubles. As U.S. Marshall Dave Harmon comes into town, two members of a big ranching outfit are whooping it up with the stagecoach they stole in a fit of drunken revelry. Harmon has trouble with them and his day goes downhill from there.

The cast is excellent, and the plot is very well done, as were several of the westerns made during that general time. There are sub-plots which lend the central character depth and personality that some of the older westerns did not always achieve. And there's enough shoot-em-up to keep it exciting, although Harmon displays a calm control of each situation that many of us would envy today. Very good all-around entertainment, nothing in there the kids couldn't watch, but adults will like it, too...if they like westerns. I've watched this one several times--and will again.