The Stalking Moon (1968) watch online HD

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!

I happened to be searching for this title as I have wanted to collect it for years. It is difficult to find although it has been on cable a number of times.

It is an extraordinary look at life in the west from several important perspectives. I was reading comments and a critic's review of this great film and I would like to make 2 primary comments:

1. If you haven't seen the movie or didn't pay attention, you should not comment on it. You may talk someone out of a memorable entertainment experience. At least get the particulars correct.

2. Nothing could be further from the truth regarding it being a "forgettable" film. On the contrary it is a compelling and "unforgettable film." It's the real thing and very much worth watching!

I rank this film right up there with "The Wild Bunch", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "McCabe and Mrs. Miller", "True Grit", "The Magnificent Seven", "Hombre", "Shane", "Jeremiah Johnson","The Outlaw Josey Wales" and others.

Despite other comments, Robert Forster played the memorable role of "Nick" a "half-breed" scout taught by Sam Varner (Gregory Peck.) It was Nathaniel Narcisse who played the much feared Native American warrior, Salvaje, who tracked Sam and the others in search of his son and only heir.

This film was the quintessential film about scouting and tracking of that era. It was the first and only (serious) western film that was a thriller. The haunting sound track effects, sets, and the stealth and terror created by it's antogonist, Salvaje, was riveting. This "brave" could get in and out of places and kill many, single-handedly, without being heard or seen-like a ghost! He is more stealth and deadly in this film than "Rambo" was in the forest sequence in the movie "First Blood."

The movie is about a retiring army scout, Sam Varner (Gregory Peck) who agrees to transfer a white woman-who had been kidnapped years before by Indians-to someplace other than the reservation. She had a son by a fearsome warrior whom she feared would return to claim that son. On the way Sam (Peck) decided he would offer her and her half-breed son a new start at his ranch where he was headed to in retirement. That is where all of his (Peck's) trouble started. Salvaje wants his son and stops at nothing to find and take him.

This movie has every important element, the scenery and cinematography, full characters you care about, great soundtrack, fantastic acting, and unbelievable drama and terror. And the facts of living in that period are accurate and you live the experience. It is not predictable. It will have you on the edge of your seat!

With the exception of "To Kill a Mockingbird", this may well be Gregory Peck's finest performance. He is in his prime.

The tracking scenes are unforgettable. Whether you are a western buff or not this is a great movie. There will never be another western like this one.

This western was released when Hollywood was about finished with the genre and the film went largely unnoticed. However, the movie is well photographed, with good work by Gregory Peck, although Eva Marie Saint doesn't have much to do in the way of dialogue. Peck is a cavalry scout who quits the military to ranch in New Mexico and takes Saint and her half-breed son with him. Peck and Saint eventually turn up the romantic flames, but her boy is the object of a deadly game of search and destroy. The lad's father, a murderous Apache warrior, wants to reclaim him, and perhaps kill the woman for deserting him. The film has plenty of suspense, creepy shadows, and eerie noises in the dark and at times seems more like a mystery than a western. Most of the action occurs at picture's end, and Fred Karlin's plaintive yet thrilling score builds up the tension as Peck and Salvaje edge towards their showdown.

From the same folks who brought you To Kill a Mockingbird, a good western thriller The Stalking Moon blends old west action with Alfred Hitchcock type suspense.

Gregory Peck is an old army scout who helped rescue captive white woman Eva Marie Saint and her son Noland Clay by one of the Apache chiefs. The father isn't about to give up his son and he pursues Peck all the way to his ranch after he quit the cavalry. The last 40% of the film deals with Peck and his ranch guests being stalked by a clever and dangerous Indian opponent.

The film itself touches on themes used in both The Searchers and Two Rode Together by John Ford and the fine Joel McCrea-Barbara Stanwyck western, Trooper Hook. But director Robert J. Mulligan took his style cues from Alfred Hitchcock.

We don't ever see the opponent except in long shot right up to the very end. We only know him from what is said about Nathaniel Narciso from what is said and the death and destruction in his wake. The anticipation is all the more terrifying.

Western and suspense, The Stalking Moon is a nice blend of film genres and fans of Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint will be pleased.

I found this to be a taut and exciting western. The film builds scene by scene to give the characters depth and to instill a sense of unknown dread. The music soundtrack is superb in enhancing this sense of dread. The film puts to good use the concept that what cannot be seen is sometimes more frightening than what can be seen. This concept is used for terrific effect with the psychotic Indian who is the stalker. Peck, Saint and Forster give outstanding performances and create realistic characters that we can care about. I believe this to be one of the finest westerns made and consider it be a very underappreciated film by critics.

Unusual Western deals with a veteran cavalry scout named Sam Varner( a magnificent Gregory Peck) ready to retire to a farm in New Mexico who takes pity and protects a white woman named Sarah Carver (Eva Marie Saint , the unforgettable starring of ¨On the waterfront¨) and her half-breed son (Clay) recently rescued and have been captives from Indians for ten years . He agrees to help them and learn that the woman 's Indian husband nicknamed ¨Savage¨ is hunting them down . The Savage is an avenger and killer Apache and sooner or later a final grisly confrontation is almost inevitable.

This interesting Western contains action , thrills, intrigue , being ravishingly photographed and carefully made . Sensational performance by Gregory Peck plays a mature army scout attempting to save a women rescued and his Indian son from a marauding and feared father . Enjoyable appearance from Robert Foster as scout friend who teaches the little boy to count by means of the rules of poker . Ample support cast in brief acting as Charles Tyner , Joaquin Martinez , James Olson , Frank Silvera , Richard Bull and uncredited Richard Farnsworth , among others . In its initial exhibition the picture had average reviews , accused as racist and failed at the box office ; however , today is best considered with rave critical . It's an offbeat Western/drama/thriller from same tandem , Alan J Pakula-Alvin Sargent-Robert Mulligan who made ¨To kill a mockingbird¨ . Colorful cinematography showing spectacular outdoors by Charles Lang who long time ago won Oscar for his cinematography on ¨A farewell to arms(1933)¨. This motion picture with skeletal plot is well directed by Robert Mulligan , a filmmaker more specialist in human drama and with sure touch in the interior scenes . Mulligan has been out-stripped in reputation by his one time partner/producer Alan J Pacula . Mulligan directed good dramas as ¨A great impostor¨, ¨Love with the proper stranger¨, ¨Inside Daisy Clover¨ and ¨Summer of 42¨ that was extremely successful . His last works as ¨Blood Brothers¨ , ¨Same time next year¨ , ¨Kiss me goodbye¨ , ¨Clara's heart¨ failed to bring the required response from the cinema-goers public . Rating . Above average , worthwhile watching .

Not even listed as one of Gregory Peck's better films, I consider this to be one of the most exciting Westerns I have ever seen. The Stalking Moon, Jeremiah Johnson, High Noon,.. all three are Western Classics.

The movie begins slowly but the sense of foreboding builds throughout the film as Sam and his adopted family wait for the inevitable. Eva Marie Saint portrays an abused woman with spare dignity and understated grace, the little boy is great and Gregory Peck is a formidable presence, growing stronger in character and determination as his feelings for the woman and her son develop. Nathaniel Narsisco, as the Stalker is realistically and excruciatingly frightening as he silently tracks his prey.

Although almost 40 years old the movie holds up well even when compared to films like Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.I have just read Roger Ebert's condemnation of this film and cannot believe that he and I differ so greatly as to its relative merits. How ever this is the man who loved "over the top" Donald Pleasance in "Will Penny" so one should not be surprised.

It's supposed to be slow initially, this is the Old West in the 1880s. But the climax and ending are very exciting, the Indian moves through the brush with such speed and determination. First time I saw this in the 70s I was on the edge of my seat. Indian renegades were vengeful at losing their homeland and families to the Whites, they used stealth and native wisdom of plants, the terrain to stay alive whilst the U.S. Army chased them down relentlessly into oblivion. The movie is now on DVD since Aug 26, 2008 and fans can buy it in the DVD format, I am happy to say. Greg Peck, in one of his best, Eva Marie Saint, Robert Forster all have credible roles in this adaptation of the story by Theodore Olsen, I have the book too. In a similar vein, Burt Lancaster played a renegade in the movie Apache,surviving the long journey to Florida and back after the surrender of Geronimo at Skeleton Canyon in 1886. Yes, there was a renegade Apache called Massai, and Massai Point is an area within the Chiricahua National Monument, southeast of Tucson AZ. Check it out for authentic feeling of the Apache environment. Terribly Disappointing writes one reviewer, yet he enthuses over his 10 paragraphs of highlights in the movie. So, viewers can disregard any negatives, this is a first rate Western movie, very memorable, now in my Western collection at the front. Comment from Malcolm in Toronto 5th September 2008

This is almost a perfect western, flawed only by uninspired acting by Robert Forster. The strength comes from the inevitable nature of the collision with the force, Salvaje. It is the ONLY time in a movie that an Apache warrior has been shown as what he was - a resourceful, effective and incredibly dangerous adversary. Sure, lots of movies say it. This movie shows it. From the beginning, you are warned that Salvaje is one-man army and you know he will come after Greg Peck. Greg knows it too, but he is trapped by his basic goodness and has to do what he can to help Eva Marie Saint. Watch the main characters and try to ignore the Forster character. All-in-all, I like the movie better than High Noon, Stage Coach and many other highly rated Westerns. This one is the sleeper and in my view, could well be the all-time best.

This is a very exciting, and somewhat unusual western, I suggest. Some have called it a thriller, bit that is a pejorative term for something 'empty", for a too-loud, over-musicked and graphically violent film with comic book level characters--at least most time, an implication of a seeking for sensationalism... This film is unarguably a well-directed "duel" film, whose setting in the U.S. West is justified by two things: first is that the opponent in the film is a powerful Apache warrior with the advantage of surprise and the motivation of trying to steal back his only son; second is that the ethical central character of the film is.a resourceful Westerner himself, a first-rate warrior, one who chooses to risk bringing the Apache warrior down upon him. Veteran author T.V. Olsen's thin-but-serviceable storyline was adapted for the screen by Wendell Mayes and written as a screenplay by Alvin Sargent. If this film's life began, as one might suspect it did, as a vehicle film for usually excellent leading man Gregory Peck, it was certainly made into something more because it was given a first-rate production in every respect. The ecologically minimal Southwest's scenery and the colors and changes of light at different hours of the clock were utilized to bring a sense of immense space to the setting. The director, solid achiever Robert Mulligan, was able to hire Frank Silvera for a small but important role as a Major who advises the star, Gregory Peck; Eva Marie Saint for the near-to-thankless role of a woman rescued from the Apache warrior, "Salvaje" (the Savage in Spanish); and Robert Forster, on the verge of a good little career as the star of TV's ""Banyon" and several films as the man who risks his life to help Peck. Adding Russell Thorson, Lou Frizzell, Richard Bull, long-time supporting actor Henry Beckman, and fine actor Lonny Chapman also helped immensely. The story breaks into four parts, one of the reasons it has such a biting edge, as cold as a wind coming up an arroyo out of the arid land at sunset. The first part is "the set-up", which details the captures of several renegade Apaches by Peck, a veteran scout, thus establishing his coolness, his credentials for the duel to come, and more. The second part I term "the leave-taking"; during this phase as he goes to a lonely post-army life before leaving for his own land, the scout takes along Eva Marie Saint, rescued from Apache hands, along with her son; his reasons are hinted at but not entirely made clear. The third portion of the films I call 'the preparation and waiting", as Peck knows Salvaje, played by Nathaniel Narcisco, is coming after them. And the fourth is the long body of "the duel itself", during which Peck is aided by Forster and proves his own mettle may times over, in strategy, tactics, fighting ability, courage and the stubborn ability that he has learned on the trail for many years to do whatever needs to be done without giving way to fear, doubt or fatigue. Some have commented on the music, supplied by Fred Karlin; it is eerie and lonesome but not in my opinion in any sense overdone. Charles Lang's cinematography is atmospheric everywhere and deserves special mention within this late western. Also, the art direction by Roland Anderson and Jack Poplin,  and the spare but important set decorations by Frank Tuttle add to the authentic feel of the film for me. I have lived in that zone, and I found it to be quite authentic in feel within the narrative. I had seen The Stalking Moon" when it was first released, but this feature I found even better the second time around, because instead of wishing some characters had been given more lines, this time I followed the director's purpose; I do not, as a writer, find this to be a "Cape Fear" type thriller; it is to me more like a number of older adventure films set in many places where the climactic duel is a prolonged one between individuals or groups, usually men fighting for a place of no intrinsic but only of situational or strategic value. In one sense, this film is not about the boy Salvaje wants nor even the mother; it is a film about Peck's accepting the final challenge in a very successful career in order to have what he wants, a sort of victory over the West that will justify his conclusion that he can handle whatever throws against him, natural, human or emotional. This is a powerful film, and one not to be missed in my judgment. This is not noir; there is no law in wilderness territory; and in Sam Varner, the West here serves as the stage for a man worthy of its harsh beauties and of its immense challenges.

A beautiful story, and superb tension, especially the last part of the movie. One of the best movies that Gregory Peck was ever cast. Eva-Marie Saint is excellent as the pleading mother, who desperately wants to leave Arizona. Robert Forester, as Gregory Peck's good friend was also very good in this film.

The marauding Apache, never seen until the last few minutes of the film, leaves a trail of death behind him everywhere he goes.

Great locations, excellent camera work, and a very tight script makes this a very original movie and easy to watch over and over.

This is a stand out film that no one knows. Too bad!!

I saw this movie when it first came out and loved it. For the last few years I've been watching for it on TV but it's never on, so I broke down and bought it. I know it isn't very highly rated, but I think it's one of Gregory Peck's best.

A tense, fairly realistic, and mature western from 1968, when the genre was on the way to near oblivion, only to be saved now and then by the likes of Peckinpah and Eastwood. Unfortunately, this film is not so well known and has been unfairly characterized as plodding and slow. It definitely has a degree of introspectiveness to it, but their is a gem of a pursuit story. The film does its best not to sugarcoat the west. The locales and people are pretty impressive for their gritty primitiveness and overall authenticity. The central story about a fierce Apache warrior who's waging his own brutal campaign to kill as many whites as he can, chasing the white woman who was his wife and the mother of his son, while an ageing army scout does his best to protect them is framed by some pretty awesome photography of blinding sandstorms, thick vegetation, and lots of rocky cliffs and a fine score.

"The Stalking Moon" is perhaps one of the finest roles which Gregory Peck made in his career. Few western films evoke the kind of suspense and drama this film presents. Sam Varner is a U.S. Army scout hunting Apaches in the 1880's. His expertise is so keen, the army tries to insist his Indian knowledge is indispensable and unequaled by any white man. This includes the half breed Indian boy, Nick Tana (Robert Forster) whom Varner hopes will replace him as chief scout for the army. The day he retires from the army, Varner is made aware of the discovery of a white captive Sarah Carver, (Eva Marie Saint) found among the Apaches captured in a round-up. Having been taken hostage ten years prior, all she wants now is to escape to a place where her Indian husband cannot find her. Her insistence becomes apparent when Varner learns her boy, is the son of the most notorious and certainly the most dangerous Apache renegade since Geronimo. The deadly duel begins with the most experienced army scout trying to defend the White mother and her child, against an Apache warrior who's name "Salvaje" (Nathaniel Narcisco) is synonymous with " The Moon's Ghost," with a reputation so ruthless a company of soldiers died in a single night trying to fight him. (Noland Clay) plays the Indian Breed and is torn between his Indian Father and White Mother. The movie is enhanced and made more poignant with the tense dramatic action, skilled acting and haunting melody. One is thoroughly captivated with the film and when it reaches it's climax, it's sure to earn the coveted status of Classic. ****

I chose to see this film because of the always excellent work of Gregory Peck -- however, this being a relatively unknown film, I wasn't expecting so very much in the way of ingenuity, storyline or overall entertainment.

I'm very happy to say that I was very surprised. This is a very very good western. I've seen a lot of westerns and know pretty much what to expect out of your average fare. This is well above average. A couple facets in particular help it excel.

One of the things I really enjoyed was the understated mood of the characters and the film as a whole. The plot and the characters don't slap you in the face with standard western conventions saying "HERE I AM!" The characters and storyline unveil themselves slowly, deliberately, and I think, beautifully.

Some of the other negative comments site lack of character development and slow-moving story as major drawbacks. While each viewer may see the same thing from a number of different perspectives, I believe that these reviewers failed to recognize the subtleties which make this film stand out above others. True, there is not a lot of dialog. But consider how chatty most of the personalities out in the vast western frontier were likely to be. If you were a lover of social engagements and polite small-talk, this was not exactly your home sweet home. The main characters are an army scout and his half-breed friend who he trained; a captured, abused woman living among Indian tribes for the better part of a decade, and a little Indian boy put in circumstances where he is a fish out of water. The dialog of this film is seen the most by the characters' actions and expressions. Not many films dare to do this, and even then, not many succeed at it. It is a credit to this film that they pulled it off beautifully. In essence, the way the characters in this movie were handled came as a surprise and added a genuine sense of realism to the picture.

Also, the cinematography and choice of shooting locations are to be commended. The laconic characters blend seamlessly with the vast landscapes of barren Arizona and the rugged, striking New Mexico ranch. This also added to the realism of the film.

While this film does protrude ahead of many others, it is not perfect. I did find the utter, vast destruction supposedly wreaked by the one-man Apache army more than a little unlikely. Also, some of the cat and mouse between the "Stalking" warrior and our protagonists seemed stretched and a bit beneath the supposed cleverness of the characters. However, these things do not condemn the film, nor do they cancel out it's effectiveness. It's a great western, which lived up to much, if not quite all, of its potential.

It's a shame this film is not more well known. It is wonderful, however, to have an excellent print available on DVD (albeit an absolute bare bones disc). Give it a try -- you might just be surprised too!

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.

Liberated from an Apache tribe 10 years after being abducted, raped and bearing a half-breed son, a white woman (Eva Marie Saint) neglects to mention to her Army rescuers that the boy's father is a fierce, bloodthirsty warrior who will stop at nothing until he gets his son back. Director Robert Mulligan was never a filmmaker of compact means--neither he nor his editors over the years ever shaped any of their projects with energy or excitement--and so, to put a western in Mulligan's hands was suicidal. He dawdles over everything, in much the same way that Saint has been made to dawdle over her dialogue. As the retiring scout who takes on the savage beast, Gregory Peck is amusingly shifty-eyed and granite-jawed, but laughs are not what Mulligan is after (humor is wasted on him). The film has the pomp and circumstance (but not the sweep) of a location-rich epic--one complete with a theme, the eternal struggle between races, guaranteed to be taken as metaphor for the racial divide of the times--but it's a dramatic suspense story that falls flat without interesting characters or tension. *1/2 from ****

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.

*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 film was not worthy of either Peck or Saint. The plot could have resulted in a fine western, but the execution was abysmal. The action scenes were ridiculous, in that the killer was known to so effectively sneak up on his 20-30 previous victims that they never heard him or saw him coming, yet our heroes never seemed concerned that he was around and constantly gave him big targets to shoot at. The dialogue was slow, stilted, and meaningless, with no character development for the child at all, and very little for Saint's character. Even the musical theme was boring and poorly done. If the scenery were not so grandly American, I would have expected that this film had been made in France or Italy.

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.

I am very happy to see this film be released on DVD, because for years all a person could get was a VHS which had several scenes cut from the movie. (There must be a special place in Hell for those who edit great pictures!) Consequently, I threw my tape away, and only watched my homemade copy, which I had fortunately recorded off of TV before it was even released on VHS. This DVD contains the complete film. Hooray!

The plot, the scripting, the casting, the scenery, and the acting were all superb,and the haunting music lends an unforgettable finishing touch. Robert Mulligan lives up to the high standard we have come to expect from him. All in all, a masterful western and a pretty authentic representation of the southwestern frontier.

Prior to the vastly overblown and disappointing Greg Peck western, McKenna's Gold, was this quiet gem of humanity, romance, redemption, and terror. Its two stars, Peck and Eva Marie Saint, carry the film beautifully. There is little dialog, but such fine actors don't really require it to make their parts human and believable. The story is original and timely. There are stunning locations, lushly photographed by the great Charles Lang, and the sure directorial hand of Robert Mulligan (To Kill A Mockingbird.) Fred Karlin's music, like the rest of the movie, is understated and effective. Underscoring it all, is the invisible predator, Salvaje, who carries them all- and us- inexorably, to a hold-your-breath conclusion. Like a good Hitchcock film, The Stalking Moon is rooted in the familiar, juxtaposed with the extraordinary.

Very highly recommended.

Not your common variety of western, not even an action entry but a thoughtful look at the last days of the Indian tribes before the reservations took hold. It's a plausible story of these times that unfolds at a leisurely pace and builds to a suspenseful climax. Moon is a violent renegade Indian, hunting down those who have rescued his forcefully abducted white woman prisoner, along with his young son, as they attempt to move them to the safety of civilisation. Movie making veterans, director Robert Mulligan & director of photography Charles Lang, capture magnificent mountain vistas along with the murderous 'stalking' being performed by this Indian known as the ghost of the moon. Evocative music score by Fred Karlin adds atmosphere to this little remembered film. Should interest patient viewers of the genre & those who follow the careers of Gregory Peck and Eva Marie Saint - the interesting Robert Foster makes an impression as Peck's friend.

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.