Rod Cameron has a pair of leading ladies in San Antone, a post Civil War western whose characters have their motivations dating from the years prior to the Civil War. There's Katy Jurado who is sister to Rudolfo Acosta who usually is a villain in westerns. He's not in this case, he's a Mexican peon who gets good and teased by vixen Arleen Whelan and has to be saved by Cameron whom Acosta now owes big time.Forrest Tucker plays a Confederate cavalry officer who murders Cameron's father who was trying to stay out of Civil War politics. That's someone else Cameron owes.So when he hears that Tucker is being held by Acosta in Mexico who is now a Juarista chief what does Cameron do. He decides to pay the ransom of cattle demanded by the Juaristas, but save Tucker for his own pleasure. Best part of this film is Arleen Whelan who plays a southern belle vixen who makes Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind and Bette Davis in Jezebel look like convent girls. Too bad her character was not in a better film.San Antone is a kind of disjointed film off the Republic Pictures assembly line and everyone here has done better work. Except for Whelan, she is "Cherce".

"San Antone" is essentially a cattle drive western from Republic Pictures and Director Joe Kane.The story takes place during and following the American Civil War. At the outbreak of the war, cattleman Carl Miller (Rod Cameron) takes command of a cattle drive intended to feed the Confederate soldiers. However, The drive is ambushed by the Union and Miller and his wranglers (Bob Steele, Harry Carey Jr. and James Lilburn) are imprisoned. You've gotta see the four with long scraggly beards but with normal length hair while in the prison.After the war, Miller takes on a cattle drive from Texas to Mexico. The cattle form the ransom demanded by Mexican revolutionary Chino (Rodolfo Acosta) to free 50 ex-rebel soldiers, one of which is Brian Cutler (Forrest Tucker) with whom Miller has a past.Along for the drive are former Southern Belle Julia Allenby (Arlene Whelan) a scheming seductress who has designs on Miller. Miller on the other hand is in love with the fiery Mistania (Katy Jurado) the sister of Chino.Director Kane gives us plenty of action in the form of Civil War and French/Mexican battle scenes (most of which are likely stock footage) and a rousing battle with the Apache. There's a knife fight between the two female stars as well as one between Cameron and Tucker.Curiously, there's no real villain in the picture. Tucker appears at the beginning and end but is off screen for the middle two thirds of the story. The whole cattle drive centers on Cameron trying to get to Tucker even though he is absent from the screen.It's worth the price of admission just to see and hear Steele of all people, along with Carey and Lilburn singing to the cattle and around the camp fire.Others in the cast include Richard Hale as Abraham Lincoln, Roy Roberts as John Chisum, George Cleveland as Whelan's father and Douglas Kennedy as a Union Lieutenant.Not the best western from Republic but a competent and entertaining 90 minutes nonetheless.

After the Civil War, a group of cowboys take a herd of cattle to Mexico in exchange for 50 prisoners. They must battle heat, lack of water, each other, and a tribe of ornery, warlike redskins to reach their destination. Good shoot-em-up.

Probably considered epic, by Republic Studios proportions, this is the story of a Texas cattleman(Cameron)who travels to Mexico to settle the score with the Confederate officer(Tucker)that double crossed him. A good supporting cast, and some lively cowboy tunes make this a much more pleasurable journey than the tired plot would allow.