Duel at Diablo is a 1966 American Western film directed by Ralph Nelson starring James Garner and Sidney Poitier.

The supporting cast includes Bibi Andersson, Bill Travers, Dennis Weaver and John Hoyt.

Frontier scout Jess Remsberg is disgusted by the scene but is quickly distracted by a woman riding an exhausted horse.

He and Ellen get past the Apache siege by holding her baby aloft, knowing Chata will not risk harming his grandson.

Meanwhile, Willard is captured by the Apaches and is tied upside down over hot coals in the same manner as McAllister's scout.

Jess races to the canyon with army reinforcements just in time to save the last four survivors, including Toller and Ellen.

[3] Sidney Poitier had been getting ever more prominent roles and was regularly billed second in films like Duel at Diablo and The Bedford Incident.

[2] Nelson and Poitier based Toller on the descriptions in The Negro Cowboy, an academic book that came out during production.

Previous Westerns had referenced the Native American practice of roasting people alive, but Duel at Diablo begins with a closeup of two burned victims.

It also climaxes with Dennis Weaver tied to a wagon wheel and roasted slowly over hot coals, an impermissibly graphic visual in earlier times.

"[9] In a 2.5-star review, New York Daily News gave the faint praise, "better than the average disaster", and mused that Norman's superb editing and cinematography distracted from the screenplay.

"[10] The Radio Times felt "it doesn't quite succeed, partly because the eclectic casting (including Swede Bibi Andersson and Brit Bill Travers) gets in the way of the authenticity.

"[12] Clifford Mason sniffed that Poitier "did little more than hold James Garner's hat and this after he had won the Academy Award.

[4]: 226 Duel at Diablo is sometimes seen as an early example of American filmmakers adopting traits of the spaghetti western, with its heightened violence, desert setting, and Hefti's guitar-laden score.

[5]: 198–9 Sidney Poitier's Black character is repeatedly shown throughout the film as subservient to white men.