bsmith5552 "Tumbleweed" is one of several little 80 minute westerns that star Audie Murphy turned out for Universal in the 1950s and early 1960s. Most were in color and were enjoyable to watch and contained plenty of action.In this one, Murphy plays Jim Harvey a guide who hires on with a small wagon train headed by Seth Blanden (Ross Elliott). On his way to the job, Harvey saves the life of Tigre (Eugene Iglesias) the son of Chief Aguila (Ralph Moody). Harvey meets Laura Saunders (Lori Nelson) who is travelling with the train along with Blanden's wife Sarah (Madge Meredith). The two become attracted to each other.The wagon train is attacked by Aguila and his braves. Harvey under a white flag, goes to Agulia to negotiate the train's release. Unfortunately, Tigre is away and cannot back up Harvey's claim of having saved him. Harvey is taken prisoner and the train is massacred except for the two ladies and the Blandon's baby who were hidden away by Harvey before he went to Aguila.Later when Harvey returns to town he is attacked by the towns folk for having abandoned the wagons. Sheriff Murchoree (Chill Wills) intercedes and though he agrees with the town, takes Harvey into custody for his protection. Tigre hearing of Harvey's plight breaks into the jail and helps him to escape. Tigre takes a fatal bullet but gives Harvey a personal item to help him out with Agulia.Harvey, wounded, comes upon the ranch of Nick Buckley (Roy Roberts). Harvey intends to steal a horse but is stopped by Buckley's foreman (King Donovan) who brings him to his boss. Buckley and his wife (K.T. Stevens) tend to Harvey's wounds and aid in his escape on what he thinks is a broken down horse named (you guessed it), Tumbleweed.The horse proves valuable in Harvey's flight from the law even finding a water hole along the way. Finally the sheriff's posse catches up to Harvey. Harvey has learned in the meantime that the raid on the wagon train was orchestrated by an unknown white man. Aguila attacks the group and................................................................Also in the cast are Russell Johnson as Laura's other suitor and Lee Van Cleef and I.Stanford Jolley as deputies.

zardoz-13 Audie Murphy finds himself in desperate trouble in "Land Raiders" director Nathan Juran's exciting western "Tumbleweed" when he tangles with hostile Yaqui Indians and treacherous whites. Murphy gets himself mired deeper into danger to clear himself as this adventurous 79-minute oater winds down to its finale. What sets this Murphy horse opera apart is "Red Mountain" scenarist John Meredyth Lucas' audacious screenplay based on Kenneth Perkins' novel "Three Were Renegades." Appearances are not always what they appear; this serves the overarching theme of this entertaining dust-raiser. Added elements that bolster this horse opera are some bits of humor involving the eponymous animal and some mystery surrounding the development of the narrative.Initially, our resourceful hero displays benevolence when he comes to the aid of a wounded Yaqui brave in the desert. Apparently, an unknown white gunman shot the Yaqui in the left shoulder and left him for dead. Jim Harvey (Audie Murphy of "The Kid from Texas") digs a bullet out of Tigre (Eugene Iglesias of "Apache Rifles"), the son of Yaqui chieftain Aguila (Ralph Moody of "Reprisal!") who abhors whites with a passion. At one point, a hateful Tigre tries to stab Harvey, but our hero manages to deflect this futile effort. After saving Tigre's life, our hero accepts a job as a guide for a group of pioneers. At first, when he meets Harvey in the town of Mile High, wagon train master Seth Blanden (Ross Elliot of "Never So Few") thinks Harvey is too young to provide them with adequate guidance. Attractive Laura Saunders (Lori Nelson) is the sister-in-law traveling with relatives. She likes the sight of Harvey, but Seth's wife Sarah (Madge Meredith of "Trail Street") disapproves of a drifter like Harvey. Sarah wanted Laura to marry Seth's brother Lam (Russell Johnson of "Gilligan's Island") because he is a stable individual. Harvey does a good job as a guide until the Yaquis box them in and try to burn their wagons. Harvey sends the two women into hiding, and then he rides under a white flag of truce to parley with Aguila. As it turns out, Aguila doesn't believe that his son would befriend a white man. The Yaqui chief ties Jim down between two spears and promises to carve his eyelids so he can watch the sun burn out his vision at dawn. Tigre's mother (Belle Mitchell of "Soylent Green") lets Jim escape. Afterward, Jim catches a ride back into the town of Borax. He discovers that he is a persona non grata because the Yaquis scalped and killed the men, but the two women and a baby in the wagon train survived.Ironically, Sheriff Murchoree (Chill Wills of "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid") keeps the townspeople from lynching Harvey when he shows up in town and generates controversy with his unaccounted for presence. The citizens have a noose around Harvey's neck and they have Murchoree crowded, so he cannot get to Harvey until one of his deputies, Marv (Lee Van Cleef of "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly"), armed with a Winchester intervenes, and Murchoree can extract his six-gun from his shoulder holster. Murchoree puts Harvey into protective custody. Later, during the night, Tigre breaks into the jail where Harvey is being held, stabs the guard that Murchoree left in charge, and the Yaqui explains that the guards were going to let the townspeople into lynch him. Not long afterward, they are pursued by the townspeople and Tigre takes a bullet and dies. Before the Yaqui dies, he informs Harvey that a white man had a hand into the massacre. Eventually, a posse pursues Harvey. Meantime, he finds himself afoot again when his horse goes lame. Initially, he tries to steal a horse from a rancher, Nick Buckley (Roy Roberts of "Kid Galahad"), but Buckley's ranch hand catches him before he can. Harvey meets Buckley and his wife Louella (K.T. Stevens of "Vice Squad") and explains his awful predicament. Buckley takes sympathy on him and loads him calls the decrepit looking horse called 'Tumbleweed.' An incredulous Harvey is surprised when the animal displays amazing mountain sense and enables him to elude the posse. At one point, when Harvey is about to die of thirst, 'Tumbleweed' scrapes a hole into the dirt that yields water. Murchoree catches up with Harvey, but he is dying from thirst, too, when our hero finds him. Strangely enough, Harvey wants to find Aguila because he is the only man who can clear him. The revelation as to the identity of the white man who worked with the Indians is a surprise. Our hero and the villain battle it out with their fists and the fight progresses from the desert floor up atop a mountain where the villain tries to crush Harvey with a rock. Lee Van Cleef has a bigger than usual role and he isn't a slimy villain like he was during his usual 1950s westerns. "Tumbleweed" qualifies not only as an above-average Audie Murphy oater but a welcome departure from his more straightforward routine sagebrushers.

judibee-1 I wish this would come out on DVD. Audie was my first movie-star crush and it lasted from junior high through most of high school until I met my future husband. I saw everything he made in the 50's and Tumbleweed was one of my two top favorites (the other was The Cimarron Kid). I still remember the scene when he and the homely, incredibly smart horse (take that, Trigger!)was in a rocky, arid place with no water. Audie's character was sitting against a rock, waiting to die from thirst while Tumbleweed walked from spot to spot pawing the ground. After weakly telling him to stop, he finally said, "Go ahead, you fool. Dig." And of course the horse pawed up some water. The movie was exciting and funny and I can't believe it's been forgotten or that it's never come out on VHS or DVD. I hope it does. I hope his first one does, too, Bad Boy.

hannahma57 I'm pretty sure this is the movie I saw when I was six years old,with my three sisters that caused my baby heart to go pittypat for Audie Murphy. For years the four of us argued about who would grow up first and marry him. I recall an interesting bondage scene where he has been tied up by the Indians; an old woman takes pity on him and releases him. Why I didn't get warped for life by my keen interest in this, I don't know. All of us eventually grew taller than Murphy and outgrew the crushes too. Murphy's movies are surprisingly suitable for children. He was a fine natural actor and I notice he generally takes a high moral tone. Notice how often there is a message of racial tolerance, with Indians being portrayed as rounded characters with genuine grievances, oppressed by an uncaring or racist white government.