Most film buffs love Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon but not this one, the third in the unofficial cavalry trilogy. It's definitely a John Ford movie - it was shot in Monument Valley, is full of the Ford stock company (Victor McLaglen, Harry Carey Jnr, Ben Johnson, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara), they fight Indians, there's some Irish comedy and a plot about a neglectful husband and father. There's no John Agar but there are plenty of carefully composed shots of horses and cavalrymen going past.
The domestic subplot is the most interesting thing about the movie, especially considering it's resonances with Ford's own poor home life. John Wayne hasn't seen his wife since his troops burned down her family's plantation in Shenandoah; his son turns up at the fort determined to make a man of himself.
One of the great things about Ford films is they would subvert expectations. The Indians win at the end of Ford Apache; the climax of Ribbon involves driving off a lot of horses to avoid war. There's none of that here.
I've read Joseph McBride's biography on Ford which points out that the film was influenced by the politics of its right-wing screenwriter, James Warner Bellah. The Indian enemies (Apaches) are savages who kill and kidnap for no reason, and retreat in Mexico. The national border is an annoying thing getting in the way of goddam justice and General Sheridan (J Carroll Naish) gives Wayne the green light to go into Mexico and kick some Indian butt (promising to rig the jury in any court martial so he'll get off). Maureen O'Hara resents her husband but soon learns her lesson and is happily doing his washing by the half way mark. (A massive problem dramatically - their relationship should've remained unresolved until the end). A murder charge (faced by Johnson's character) is justifiable to protect a woman's honour.
Wayne and O'Hara are good value, as are the Ford regulars. Claude Jarman Jnr is okay. I was really intrigued by that soldier with the eyepatch played by Peter Oritz and wish he'd gotten the chance to romance O'Hara more. The singing interludes from the Sons of Pioneers are a drag.
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