Duel at Diablo (1966) on Netflix
Approved19661h 43mDramaThrillerWestern
Lieutenant McAllister must take a supply column through Apache country to Fort Concho. Ex-scout Jess Remsberg hunts his Comanche wife's killer, while Ellen Grange has gone back to the Apaches.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.5/104,964 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
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Plot summary
Lieutenant McAllister is ordered to take a column of ammunition wagons and supplies through Apache territory to Fort Concho, guarded by a small troop of inexperienced soldiers. His horse breaker Toller, a veteran of the 10th Cavalry, rides with the column, and the freighter Willard Grange hauls freight alongside it. The body of McAllister's scout has been found burned in the desert, so the ex-scout Jess Remsberg is hired in his place. Remsberg has his own errand: he is hunting the man who killed his Comanche wife. He is also looking for Ellen Grange, Willard's wife, freed from Apache captivity but gone back to the tribe, whose chief is Chata.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Duel at Diablo (1966)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
The film is notably more violent than earlier Westerns: it opens on a closeup of two burned victims and climaxes with Dennis Weaver tied to a wagon wheel and roasted over hot coals, yet the Production Code Administration's only concern was that the horses were treated humanely.- Sidney Poitier said he took his role in Duel at Diablo because he wanted to expand awareness of the "Negro contribution to the building of the West" and to give "a hero imagery to Negro children to encourage them to love Westerns".
- The character Sidney Poitier plays in Duel at Diablo is not African-American in the source novel; Nelson and Poitier based Toller on descriptions in The Negro Cowboy, an academic book that came out during production.
- Duel at Diablo was James Garner's first Western after leaving the long-running TV series Maverick, and it marked Sidney Poitier's first appearance in a Western; he was re-teaming with Nelson, who had directed him in Lilies of the Field.
