Tumbleweed (film)

Tumbleweed
Film poster by Reynold Brown
Directed by	Nathan Juran
Screenplay by	John Meredyth Lucas
Based on	story "Three Were Renegades" by Kenneth Perkins
Produced by	Ross Hunter
Starring	Audie Murphy Lori Nelson Chill Wills
Cinematography	Russell Metty
Edited by	Virgil W. Vogel
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Universal International Pictures
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	December 1953 (1953-12)
Running time	79 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Tumbleweed is a 1953 American Western film directed by Nathan Juran and starring Audie Murphy, Lori Nelson, and Chill Wills. The film is based on the story "Three Were Renegades" by Kenneth Perkins, originally published in the December 1938 issue of Blue Book. IMDb and other sources ^[1] mistakenly call the film a remake of the 1948 film Relentless, which was based on a similarly named story, "Three Were Thoroughbreds," by Perkins (originally published in the June 1938 issue of Blue Book; published as a hardcover novel in 1939). The later story, "Three Were Renegades," was published as a sort-of sequel to the earlier story, "Three Were Thoroughbreds," and the plotlines of the two films mirror the plotlines of their respective source stories.

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Plot

Jim Harvey (Audie Murphy) is a guide and guard on a wagon train. After he saves the life of a Yaqui Indian warrior named Tigre, the wagon train is attacked. Harvey realizes their only chance of survival is if he can negotiate a truce with Tigre's father, Chief Aguila (Ralph Moody). Aguila orders Harvey to be knocked out, and tortured later, but he is set free by Tigre's mother. He goes to town and discovers the people on the wagon train were massacred, except for two sisters who Harvey insisted hide in the caves. Harvey is falsely accused of cowardice, and the townsfolk threaten to lynch him.^[2] Harvey escapes on a Cayuse horse named Tumbleweed that he borrows from Nick Buckley (Roy Roberts), and tries to prove his innocence. He eventually discovers that a white man had engineered the attack and is exonerated. The titular horse's intelligence, sure-footedness, and instinct save Harvey, and his interaction with the horse drives much of the storyline.^[3]

Cast

Audie Murphy as Jim Harvey
Lori Nelson as Laura
Chill Wills as Sheriff Murchoree
Roy Roberts as Nick Buckley
Russell Johnson as Lam Blandon
K. T. Stevens as Louella Buckley
Madge Meredith as Sarah Blandon
Lee Van Cleef as Marv
I. Stanford Jolley as Ted
Ralph Moody as Aguila
Ross Elliott as Seth Blandon
Eugene Iglesias as Tigre
Phil Chambers as Trapper Ross
Lyle Talbot as Weber
King Donovan as Wrangler
Harry Harvey as Prospector

References

^ Herzberg, Bob (2013). Hang 'Em High: Law and Disorder in Western Films and Literature. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-7864-6838-6.
^ Tumbleweed at Audie Murphy Memorial Site
^ Nott, Robert (2005). Last of the Cowboy Heroes: The Westerns of Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Audie Murphy. McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7864-2261-6.