This was based on Paul Horgan's novel about fighting Apaches in the southwest in the 1880s (inspired by the Geronimo War), which had been snapped up for filming very quickly, but took a couple of years to be made. It is best remembered today for being the last film of Raoul Walsh, who is not in good form - the direction is a flabby - but far more problematic is the script and acting.
I got the feeling the script and story was meant to have depth and be a character study but that didn't come across - there was a lot of angsting and scenes of people talking about not much, and the set up to the fighting was clunky. It felt like a project that had been tinkered with far too much for its own good.
Warners assigned lead roles to a bunch of their contract stars - Troy Donahue, Diane McBain, Suzanne Pleshette. It was a change of pace for Donahue, who had worked in melodramas for the studio up until then; he looks uncomfortable in Western garb, being particularly lunky and awkward. He is most relaxed in his love scenes with Pleshette - who is sexy and seems very at home in a Western, particularly in a hot moment where they do it in a cave. But generally he's out of his element as a cavalry officer.
He doesn't give the worst performance though - that honour goes to James Gregory, as Donahue's commanding officer; he's got these fake whiskers and he struts around taking forever to get his (admittedly pompous) dialogue out. It was painful, as if he's sending the whole thing up. And unforgiveable, really - aren't these roles super easy to play? Or at least to get reliable supporting actors to do?
The love triangle between McBain, Donahue and Pleshette didn't work for me: Pleshette is married, but her husband is rarely around, so isn't a threat; I wasn't sure what the point of McBain was - to do her normal rich bitch thing? She's dismissed easily at the end and then Pleshette and Donahue are married because, um, her husband's dead and... anyway it was confusing. This was badly handled with major dramatic pieces missing.
There's some lovely pictures and images, great location work, some pretty battles (it sounds odd but it's true - most of the battles are filmed in long shot, so you are distanced from them). Claude Akins livens things up as a person who sells guns to the Indians. Under all the bad acting and cliched scripting there's an interesting story - Indians fighting for freedom, unsure whether to trust the cavalry, the US government willing to betray them... it is interesting because it's based on truth. But the handling does it in.
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