Basic Plot: The US Army wants to move some guns into the disputed Texas Territory. They decide to disguise the guns in a wagon train taking settlers west. To make things look truly authentic, though, they need women. The Army recruits five women from a local stockade to act as wives for the men. Overall, Wild Women is harmless enough, but it's not very good. It's all horribly predictable and there's not much to get excited about. The title, Wild Women, is misleading. Sure, all of the women were in prison, but these are hardly hardened criminals. But "Wild Women" sounds more enticing than "Moderately Fun Women" or "Mildly Amusing Women". I suppose the "Wild" part had to be toned down as this was made for television. Also, being made-for-TV means that you know everything's going to be okay in the end. Any hardship they might face – Indian attack, lack of water, or the Mexican Army – is going to be resolved fairly quickly and in our heroes' favor. This isn't Peckinpah. The cast is actually better than it had any right to be. I always enjoy seeing Marie Windsor. She's been a favorite of mine since I first watched Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy about 45 years ago. Wild Women also features the talents of Anne Francis, Huge (yes, I typed it that way on purpose) O'Brian, and Marilyn Maxwell. Not a bad cast for a fairly lame movie.

Five women jailbirds, conveniently housed in a frontier US army fort stockade, are offered eventual freedom if they pose as wives of settlers(actually army surveyors), in an expedition to smuggle rifles and cannon to American forces down near the lower Rio Grande, while mapping a better route through Texas for US troop movements during the imminent war with Mexico over Texas. Throughout the film, in the background and once in the foreground, the very familiar western pioneer ballad "Sweet Betsy from Pike" is heard. Being in the public domain, it offered a cheap, appropriate and endearing accompaniment to the sometimes mundane travel across Texas. Along the way, they have a non-lethal confrontation with some Apaches. Upon reaching the apparently abandoned American settlement, where they are supposed to rendezvous with some Texas Rangers, they instead encounter a nosy Mexican patrol that says the Rangers have been executed. Unfortunately, the patrol commander isn't fooled by the settler deception, recognizing one of the women as the former madam of a bordello he had visited several times. Later, he returns with more troopers. Killian(Hugh O'Brian), a veteran independent frontiersman, who shares command with young Lt. Charring, conceives a plan to lure the Mexican patrol into being boxed in within the settlement by their wagons, where the 'soldiers' and women shoot them to pieces. By now, the women have all become quite attached to their fake husbands, except for Jean, who still fancies handsome swaggering 'fiddlefoot' Killian. The screenwriters presumably flunked US history, substituting 'Hollywood history'. The fact that when this story takes place, in 1845, Texas had been an independent country for nearly a decade, is totally ignored. True, Mexico still didn't fully officially recognize it, even though they had signed a treaty so stating. The real problem was the still disputed southern border. Both sides had been too weak to press a settlement. With the US about to inherit this problem, and with their recent failed attempt to pressure Mexico into selling the New Mexico and California provinces, war seemed imminent. The other glaring historical inaccuracy is the identification of Mescalero Apaches as the Native Americans to be feared during the traverse of Texas. Historically, the mounted warriors to fear in this region, of course, were the Comanche, with the Mescaleros normally confined to New Mexico. True, there were probably still a few Lipan Apaches left near the southern border of Texas, but they aren't usually mentioned in conflicts between settlers and NAs in this region. Interestingly, the young defiant, though repressed, Apache woman(Mit-O-Ne),who is one of the 'wives', says she is a Lipan. She stabbed a trooper who tried to rape her, but has reason(probably, man trouble) not to want to return to her tribe. Although defiantly uncommunicative for most of the trip, she saved everyone from thirst through her knowledge of a secrete Apache spring. But, this angered the small Mescalero Apache patrol that had been shadowing them(why?). This confrontation is resolved by an agreed-upon hand to hand contest been Killian and the Apache leader, within the pond formed from the spring. The unexpected result suggests a rather sympathetic attitude toward NAs by the script.The women include : Mit-O-Ne, paired with Lt. Charring, whom she comes to respect as a gentle and wise man, and eventually proposes marriage. Lottie: 50ish, a former member of a holdup gang, crack shot, and, during the trip, gives shooting lessons to the other women and 'soldiers'. Maude(Marilyn Maxwell): also 50ish, a buxom former famous madam, who recognizes most of the 'soldiers' as former customers. Nancy is a former Virginia belle who shot dead a suitor who tried to go too far with her. She thinks herself above the rest, and has a catfight with Mit-O-Ne when she objects to sharing a covered wagon at night with 'that savage'. Jean(Anne Francis) is a former dancehall girl, who once slept with Killian(whom she usually calls Fiddlefoot, in recognition of his wandering lifestyle). She's clearly still his favorite, as brought out in a night encounter in the stable.At one point, the bored women make an amazingly potent intoxicating brew of horse liniment, lamp whale oil, and lilac water)(doesn't sound promising to me!). They get most of the men drunk, as well, in a farcical episode worthy of the 3 stooges.Hugh O'Brian, whom audiences still remembered from his "Wyatt Earp" TV series, comes across as a laid back, but nauseatingly swaggering, leader: very different from the quite, self effacing, Lt. Charring, who lacks one ounce of O'Brian's natural charisma. Amazingly, Hugh, who was then in his 40s, is still around, as of this writing: a lifelong bachelor until his 80s!Now part of an 8 westerns DVD release.

Five women from an Army stockade are chosen to help transport guns across the country. When the trip goes awry, their pluck and resolve comes in handy. Director Don Taylor, working from a witty script by Richard Carr and Lou Morheim, relates the fun story at a snappy pace, maintains an engaging lighthearted tone throughout, and keeps things buzzing with a nice sense of good-natured humor. Hugh O'Brian delivers a fine and lively performance as rugged trail boss Killian. Richard Kelton likewise registers strongly as the no-nonsense Lt. Charring. This teleflick further benefits from the robust contributions by a bevy of beautiful ladies: Anne Francis as the sassy Jean Marshek, Marilyn Maxwell as the brash Maude Webber, Marie Windsor as the feisty Lottie Clampett, Sherry Jackson as the spoiled and stuck-up Nancy Belacourt, and Cynthia Hull as the proud Mit-O-Ne. A fierce and lengthy fistfight between Killian and a Native American warrior chief rates as a definite exciting highlight. Fred Steiner's jaunty harmonic score hits the stirring and twangy spot. An entertaining oater.

From the sound of the premise of "Wild Women" - five women prisoners promised freedom if they join the military on a mission - one might think that this made-for-TV movie is ripping off "The Dirty Dozen". To its credit, the movie doesn't really come across as a rip-off. The women characters are considered equals and manage to prove themselves at the end. However, there's not much else of interest to be found in the movie. The women are likable, but there's very little development of their characters - they are pretty interchangeable. The movie is a compact 74 minutes long, but still manages to feel mostly slow and largely devoid of action (though there is an okay hand-to-hand combat sequence halfway through.) The movie has a flat and unspectacular look, no doubt to the limited television budget. And there is the glaring fault that a mysterious rider trailing the party is eventually forgotten about and never brought up again! The 1970s had a lot of good made-for-TV movies made, but this effort isn't one of them.