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Cochise in the Movies .    .    .    .    .
  THE DREGS:  A ROGUE'S GALLERY OF COCHISES

      It's of course a matter of opinion as to which actor has managed so far to best depict the historic Cochise.  Not that many have had the chance.  While Geronimo has been portrayed dozens of times over the years in everything from major movies to television series (I remember a patently awful segment of the old television series "Stories of the Century" in which Geronimo is pursued by the show's ace railroad detective, Matt Clark, and his Annie Oakley'ish female counterpart Frankie Adams), Cochise's fame did not come to fruition in the eyes of Hollywood producers and writers until the publication of the book just mentioned, "Blood Brother".  The book was an immediate success and this meant money to movie people so they bought it, hiring its writer to do the screenplay.  Following the success of the movie ("Broken Arrow") Cochise the Apache Chieftain attained a near mythical level of fame, not entirely undeserved.  The popular motion picture spawned a hit TV series with the same title as the movie, which in turn made stars of its main actors, John Lupton (as Tom Jeffords) and Michael Ansara (Cochise).


     But our first gallery is a "rogue's" gallery -- where we will have a look at two or three truly dreadful Cochises.  As you might expect, the screenplays were every bit as unpalatable as the actor's portrayals, often so much so that it was only by sheer force of will that I made it through the videos.  





Mirko

Cochise: Mirko Ellis
aka:  
Mirko Loy Dona Alessandro Korcinsky

 (birth and death data not available)

(Nationality:  Italian)




The Worst of the Worst

El Rojo (Rojo) – 1967 - directed by Leopoldo Savona

One can only hope that the writer or writers of this third class Western did not intend the "Cochise" character in their story to be The Cochise, as this is never really made clear.  However, considering that it is supposedly set in Arizona during the very time Cochise led the Chokonen Chiracahuas it is not a good bet that such was the case.  It is not even a story about Indians.  In fact, if I remember correctly, "Cochise" was the only Indian in it!

He has few words to say (if any) and is never actually referred to as a chief.  In fact I cannot recall the word "Apache" uttered even once.  In this story he teams up with the movie's  "man with no name" character to bring justice to the bad guys . . . a job that would have been better suited for Tonto.

If you're like me, however, you'll want it in your collection just because you'll get to hear the name "Cochise" spoken a few times!


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