War Drums

In the Arizona Territory of the early 1860s, an Apache chief captures a young Mexican woman while pursuing horse thieves and decides to keep her as his intended wife. A white trader who wants to buy her freedom falls in love with her instead, and the friendship between the two men is strained as both pursue the same woman amid growing conflict between the Apaches and the incoming settlers and soldiers.

War Drums is a 1957 American Western directed by Reginald Le Borg, working from a screenplay by Gerald Drayson Adams, with Howard W. Koch producing for Schenck-Koch Productions and Bel-Air Productions. It runs 75 minutes. Lex Barker plays the Apache leader, Joan Taylor plays the captured woman, and Ben Johnson plays the trader, with supporting turns from Larry Chance, Richard H. Cutting and John Pickard.

The film was released on 21 March 1957. It sits between Jungle Woman, which Le Borg directed in 1944, and Deadly Duo, which he directed in 1962. On TMDB it holds a rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 12 votes, a small sample that suggests limited attention rather than a settled verdict.