User Reviews

Robert Mulligan, the director, handled this tale of revenge adroitly. It's Indians on the warpath again but this time the motive is reversed. Gregory Peck is a scout for the U. S. Army that has defeated the Apache and liberated one of his white captive wives, Saint, and their son.

Peck's last assignment is to see that Saint and the boy are sent back East. The cavalry rides off, leaving Peck to buy the freed captives a railroad ticket to safety but there are problems. One is that Saint has been a captive so long that she no longer has any family or friends to return to. Another is that Saint and her son have a tendency to sit as still and quietly as a couple of Polynesian tikis. What's a man to do? Peck is a tough, seasoned Westerner himself and not given to sympathy or palaver but he can't bring himself to pack his companions off to nowhere. So he invites them to join him at his cabin in New Mexico, now being tended only by a surly old man. Saint and the boy have learned to do what they're told. They're joined at the cabin by Robert Forster, a fellow ex scout.

There's an amusing scene when Saint has cleaned up the filthy cabin and prepared the first evening meal. She and the boy sit against the wall, watching Peck try to eat, wordlessly and without moving. Uncomfortable in the silence, Peck tells them to sit at the table. They obey but continue to simply sit and watch him. Uneasy, but trying to maintain his dignity, Peck explains to them that it's perfectly alright to speak at the table. In fact, they can say anything they like. He tries to prompt them by giving them examples but all he can think of is, "Pass the peas," and "Gimme the salt." It's funnier than it sounds when I describe it and it's the kind of comedy Peck handles well, with wary understatement. He's no good at pratfalls and wisecracks.

Another problem soon arises. The Apache leader, the father of Saint's son, is a real mean mother and is determined to recapture his son. They know he's coming because he's killing his way across two states.

Mulligan does a fine job of ratcheting up the tension. The Apache, Salvaje, is like a weasel or ferret. The camera can't do more than catch an occasional glimpse of him. He's as much a part of the landscape as the pinion and juniper trees. And the director sometimes undercranks the camera so that Salvaje seems to be leaping about behind rocks like an antelope. He kills an entire neighboring Mexican family. He kills the old man who tended the cabin, and the dog as well. He kills the half-breed Forster, whom we've come to like. It all leads to a final bloody battle between Peck and Salvaje, at the end of which the Apache, perforated numerous times, collapses on top of the exhausted Peck. Salvaje's bear-skin poncho is about all we see of his body -- never his painted face -- so that he like a large brutish animal of the forest.

Nice photography adds to the enjoyment. Fred Karlin's main theme is borrowed from Ennio Morricone, with its whimsical lilt and its whistle. But that's over and done with soon enough and the score that follows is like someone bowing a dissonant chord across brass wires.

Peck wears a queer hat and carries an old Henry repeating rifle. It looks more ominous than it actually was. Happily, they didn't cast a cute, buck-toothed kid as the son of Saint and Salvaje. He has a pinched nose and looks sullen, as he should.

Nicely done, for what it is.

*Spoilers ahead* This is the "Scream" of Westerns!

It starts out like any regular Western. A bunch of reservation-jumping Apaches are almost single-handedly captured by the versatile (as usual) Gregory Peck. But,it soon turns out that ex-captive Eva Marie Saint's mestizo son was fathered by an Apache chief called Salvaje!

*Spanish for "the Savage One?"*

This is where the movie becomes a psychological thriller, as this ninja-like Apache indiscriminately destroys anyone or anything standing between him and the boy. The literally life-or-death duel of wits, between Peck and Salvaje, is made even more suspenseful by that eerie background music! *A zither, perhaps?* It ultimately seems like the only way Peck might be able to win is to out-savage the Savage One.

Minor trivia: Concho, Peck's mestizo sidekick, is played by character actor Robert Forster, who nicely foreshadows his later roles in equally off-beat thrillers like "Alligator" and the "Maniac Cop" films.

This may sound strange, but, in some ways , this reminds me of Gregory Peck's much earlier and better remembered role in "The Yearling". Again, Peck is living in a primitive region, with a largely silent wife or woman companion and her half grown son. Of course, there are major differences. Here, the son is not his, and they don't understand each other's language., and the boy has divided loyalties toward his runaway mother and his brutal Apache father. The challenges are also quite different. Here, it's primarily a sandstorm, then several encounters with the woman's murderous husband, come to reclaim his son and perhaps wife. But, in the end, the family emerges stronger in their commitments to each other, having survived these challenges together....To some extent, this screenplay also reminds me of "Will Penny", as some others have mentioned.

Eva Marie Saint, as Sarah, plays a very atypical European captive of the AZ Apache. She was captured as a married woman, traveling with her husband and several small boys, apparently as a single wagon. The husband and boys were killed, while she was spared, perhaps because of her blond hair and fair complexion. However, evidently she has been treated harshly during the intervening 10 years, causing her to shrink into the background and be minimally conversant when offered a chance at repatriation by a cavalry group, who discover her situation. Historically, she is very unusual, in that usually mature captured European women, especially with children, were raped and killed or occasionally kept for barter, by Native Americans of the Great Plains and Southwest. In contrast, captured children were often treated well, in hopes they would become loyal adult members of the tribe. Sarah is also unusual in that, when presented with the possibility of repatriation into European society after such a long absence, she is hesitantly enthusiastic, rather than fearful, and wants to bring her son with her. Apparently, this is because of the abusive treatment she has received from her husband and perhaps others. Sarah is also unusual in that captives who had spent some years living without contact with Europeans usually had forgotten nearly all their native language. Also, repatriated captives, especially women who had born children, were typically shunned as 'damaged goods'. Her Apache husband, by word of mouth, is portrayed as an unlikely superhuman: killing everyone by himself, at the isolated stage and train stations through which, Peck, Sarah and the boy passed, before trailing them to Peck's cabin in NW New Mexico.(How did he know where they were going or how to get there, especially since they traveled by train part way??.)

Clearly, Sarah knew she was taking a big risk in bringing her son with her. Clearly, her son has divided loyalties toward her and his father, attempting to run away twice, once toward his father when he shows up outside Peck's cabin. She hoped she would obtain sufficient protective transport to some unknown destination beyond the practical reach of her husband. Like Peck's character, I don't understand why she didn't wait a few days to accompany the cavalry, rather than pressuring Peck alone to accompany her on an immediate flight toward public transport. Then, at the stage station, why did she accept Peck's suggestion that she change her destination from Topeka, KS: presumably beyond the range for her husband to find her, to Peck's isolated cabin in nearby NM, which might be within the practical range for her husband to find her? Yes, I understand that she had no idea how she might survive in Topeka or anywhere else, and that Peck seemed a kindly man, who offered an immediate home for her, but at the risk of endangering all their lives.

In contrast to some of the other reviewers here, this film does not generally receive enthusiastic reviews from the professional reviewers, who complain it's too slow paced and lacking in action, except in the last part. Certainly , those who like fast action westerns , with bits of comedy and social gatherings thrown in, are advised to skip this one. On the other hand, Eva does as excellent job portraying a woman in a bad situation, who is confused what to do for her future and that of her son. The relationship between her, her son and Peck is realistically portrayed as initially rocky, but promising. In the parting scene, Peck is suffering from 2 serious gunshot wounds, as well as the loss of his 2 farm hands. In addition, Sarah presumably is still recovering from the severe beating by her husband. Thus, in the short run, they are in bad shape for running the farm/ranch, and Peck may well die soon of his wounds. But the mood implication is that he will recover.

The rugged desert canyon scenery of southern Nevada, and Sonora, Mexico, enhances the feeling of isolation and danger from an unseen lurking enemy, as well as being interesting to the viewer.

This film opens with an intriguing premise with a veteran army scout (Gregory Peck) retiring and then acting as protector to a Caucasian woman (Eva Marie Saint) and her native son after she is freed from 10 years of captivity with a renegade Indian band. We later discover the trio is being tracked by the band's leader, a legendary killer and raider, and that Saint's child is his son. Director Robert Mulligan does an adequate job of cranking up the tension as Peck and his surrogate family await the almost-mythic renegade. But the film disappoints in the characterizations and the confrontation when the killer arrives. Peck's Sam Varner is a certainly courageous man but he shows none of the savvy or cunning of a widely respected scout. He simply waits in his log cabin without a real plan - and then rushes blindly outside where his nemesis waits in cover. The mother-son relationship between Saint and Nolan Clay isn't convincing or satisfying either. The always reliable Robert Forster does bring some life to events as Nick Tana, Varner's long-time friend and protege, but he is also under-used. Finally, Peck gives a very watchable performance given the shortcomings but Alvin Sargent's screenplay isn't smart enough to give us the duel the story had been building up.

Where to begin to describe this debacle?? The dialog is sparse and bad. The plot plods. The characters are two-dimensional and poorly developed. Their motivations are never made very clear.

Mostly this film is lacking in emotion. Eva Marie Saint and her son never seem to be mother and child. She is clueless about where to go, and the audience is pretty clueless about whether she is motivated primarily to extricate herself from the clutches of Salvaje (for whom she has no love) or to remove her child from his Apache father and integrate him into the white man's world. She seems emotionless.

The stoic young child utters no more than a handful of words the entire movie - much of which is in the Apache language. His character, though central to the plot, is an enigmatic, undeveloped non-entity.

The only character in the film with less dialog is the hapless after-thought of a character, Ned. Peck has a relationship of such depth and trust with him that he has been sending him money for many years to buy cattle for his ranch. Yet when Peck gets there, he treats Ned like some passing acquaintance. I expected Ned to sit down at the dinner table with the others, but, instead, he is totally excluded and pretty much ignored.

Peck, as usual, is likable enough, but his motives are never clear. Is he merely being a good Samaritan, or does he love her? Even more to the point - on what basis could he possibly love her? When did they form an emotional bond? In fact, none of these characters demonstrate any appreciable affection for one another, except Robert Forrester. His Nick is easily the most accessible and likable and best developed character in the film.

The barely-glimpsed Salvaje is a ruthless, silent assassin. He is so devastatingly stealthy that he repeatedly overwhelms whole groups of victims as if they were the ones outnumbered, not he. Yet when he finally arrives at Peck's modest "ranch," he seems singularly incompetent. Moreover, his actions do not reflect any coherent plan. Why does he abduct Eva Marie Saint and drag her a few hundred yards into the wilderness to then just dump her? Why does he do so much running around instead of just staking out a good spot on the high ground that overlooks the cabin and picking off his victims as they come out into the open - as they repeatedly do! Why does he not keep the cabin under constant surveillance? Why does he not shoot Peck et al as they stand in the windows of the cabin at night, back-lit by a houseful of brightly shining lanterns?

The script was apparently written by somebody who had only recently learned about the American west. Once Peck and Saint arrive at his "ranch" he spends most of his time afoot. Yet he continually wears spurs - ever tried to creep quietly around the house in boots and spurs? Good cinematic pseudo-suspense; bad plot hole.

The plot is one-dimensional in the extreme. The end is never in doubt. The cycles of stalking and chasing become very repetitious. Suspense is completely eroded by inexplicable plot holes and stupidity. I kept looking at my watch, hoping that the end was drawing near.

Beginning with an okay premise, this film fails to live up to any of its promise. A better script and film-maker might have provided some 3-dimensional characters and developed some relationships. This film might have explored the question of whether the stalker was Salvaje or Peck, et al. Had Salvaje been consistently cunning, the film might have been suspenseful. As it is, we know he and his shenanigans are only supposed to provide the semblance of suspense until he is eliminated and Peck and Saint and the wooden Indian boy live happily ever after. Having never seen any affection among the 3 survivors, their happy ending was a matter of indifference to me. I was disappointed that Nick didn't get to live happily ever after; he was the character that I liked best.

Oh yeah, what does the title have to do with anything? There were a couple of scenes at night, but the the stalking and the chasing around occur as often during daylight as they do at night.

THE STALKING MOON is one of the great "later" Hollywood westerns! Produced in 1968 it came at a time when westerns were losing something of their appeal. The picture had mixed reviews when it was first released but since then it has gained a sort of cult status and is now generally well praised by fans of the genre. I personally think more of it than that! I find it to be one of the finest westerns ever made and rate it among my top ten. So for me this release of the movie on DVD is more than welcome.

From a splendid screenplay by Alvin Sargent and tight direction by Robert Mulligan "The Stalking Moon" is a highly charged suspense drama set in the west. Gregory Peck arguably gives his best performance in a western as the Arizona cavalry scout of 20 years who is now retiring to his newly acquired ranch in New Mexico. To keep house for him at the ranch he reluctantly takes on a woman (Eve Maria Saint) who has just been rescued from the Apaches along with her son - an Indian boy. The Indians had abducted her and was their prisoner for ten years. Peck feels for her plight and offers to hire her unaware that the boy's father, an infamous and murderous Apache by the name of Salvaje, wants his son back and leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake has tracked them to the ranch. Edge of the seat tension and excitement then ensues as the Apache makes effort after effort to retrieve the boy with Peck just about deterring him at every turn but not before the deaths of any help he had mobilized. A game of cat and mouse develops between the two antagonists and excitement reaches fever pitch when finally alone Peck takes on his slippery foe in a fierce and climactic hand to hand fight to the death.

It is all extremely well done especially never seeing what the fearsome Apache really looks like throughout the picture. Phantom-like he is only seen in fleeting glimpses now and then. Nathaniel Narcisco gives a superb performance of authenticity as the tireless Apache as does Noland Clay as the boy. The entire picture has a marvellous authentic thrust to it from its wonderful locations to the great characterisations of the cast. Excellent is Eve Maria Saint who's role is that of a browbeaten, tortured and sorrowful figure. Her performance is heartfelt and sincere! Also playing a good part is Robert Forster (never better) as the ill-fated half-breed friend of Peck who joins forces with him against the Apache and Russell Thorson as the caretaker of the ranch.

This is a nail-biting thrill packed western thanks to a great cast, Mulligan's taut direction, Charles Lang's stylish Panavision/Color cinematography and an excellent atmospheric score by the underrated Fred Karlin who also provides a traditional and haunting whistled theme tune. A winner alright!

Gregory Peck, though not known for his Westerns, has done some of the best films in this genre. THE BIG COUNTRY stands as my favorite Western of all, though THE GUNFIGHTER, YELLOW SKY and THE BRAVADOS are all classics--thanks in no small part to Peck's wonderful performances. Well, unfortunately, this is no classic, though THE STALKING MOON is still a pretty good film.

Part of the reason the film can't be placed in the same league as these other films is because of Peck's character. In these other films, he was a very strong and impressive character--with a lot to say. However, in THE STALKING MOON Peck's character is much more vague and much more like an action hero. There just isn't much in the way of character development or glimpses of who he was exactly supposed to be. Instead, for much of the film he just reacted to situations imposed upon him--in this case, being tracked down by a vengeful Indian who wants his wife and son back after they were rescued. The wife (Eva Marie Saint) was abducted by Indians many years before and the film opens with her being found by the cavalry. Peck comes into the picture because he's escorting the lady and boy to a new life when out of the blue the angry Indian begins attacking White settlers in an attempt to find the two.

While the lack of depth to Peck's character is a bit of a problem, the only serious one is the clichéd way one of the minor characters, Ned, acted in the film--and why does there so often seem to be this suicidal character in movies? At this point in the film, the angry vengeful Indian is lurking outside. Ned's dog is killed and so Ned runs out in the middle of the night with no gun, no knife--nothing to defend himself against an Indian who has already killed about a dozen folks since the film began. No one is THAT stupid--and having him run out "dead meat" style is silly.

Overall, it's a decent enough film that has a very tense and interesting ending--but not much more to it than that.

"The Stalking Moon" is a pretty good, if not terribly significant, little western with great performances all around and some very suspenseful scenarios. The plot focuses on army scout Gregory Peck whose party takes a group of Native Americans into custody and retrieve white woman Eve-Marie Saint, who was kidnapped years earlier, and her young son, who was fathered by one of the Indians. When Saint insists that she and her son must get out of the area immediately, Peck gives in and takes them to his father's ranch. However, they are followed by the boy's father, a silent hunter intent on taking back his son.

The premise is rather original, and it allows for some spine tingling scenarios near the end of the movie. Unfortunately, the film is, up until the last half hour or so, extremely slow- moving and sometimes dull. Much of the time spent leading up to the villain's arrival (which encompasses about two thirds of the film) seems padded out, with nothing truly significant Taking place for stretches at a time. The fact that the set up takes so much longer to play out than it needs to reveal that in the end, as interesting as it may be, the plot is a bit thin.

Although the first section of the film does start to get boring after a while, sitting through it does pay off. After the arrival of the hunter, the movie remains consistently suspenseful, with one particularly memorable sequence in which Peck waits in silence for his approaching foe that manages to build up tension quite well. The final shootout at the end of the film is also quite exciting.

The story behind the film's villain is also instrumental in building up suspense. It becomes clear as the film moves along and Peck's character learns of the crimes of his enemy that he is human killing machine, capable of stalking his prey in total silence. The movie's villain never speaks a line and is seldom seen throughout the course of the film, but is nevertheless extremely menacing because of what he is capable of doing.

Despite its slow pace, "The Stalking Moon" should still be worthy of one's interest both because of its tense scenarios and because of its solid cast. Gregory Peck makes an excellent hero, as always, eve- Marie Saint gives a melancholy performance as the worried mother who, after years of Indian captivity, barely remembers English, and Robert Forster is good as a member of Peck's party who comes to his aid in fending off his enemy. Overall, this is a worthwhile experience for fans of both suspense films and westerns.

I thought that the song goes it's only a paper moon. Just kidding, but this disappointing film may have very well needed paper added to it.

The dialogue is limited. I can understand that because the Eva Marie Saint part calls for a woman who had been kidnapped by the Indians years before and had a child with the chief.

Found by the army and it's scout, Gregory Peck, the wife knows that her husband shall be on her tail and immediately flees with Peck. They are pursued all over and the bodies begin piling up wherever the Indian goes in his pursuit of the Saint character.

The picture eventually comes as a cat and mouse venture between the Indian and Peck. With all that shooting occurring between them in the forest, I thought I was back in "Duel in the Sun."