United Artists. Director Robert Aldrich; Producer Harold Hecht; Writer James R. Webb; Camera Ernest Laszlo Editor Alan Crosland Jr; Music David Raksin Art Nicolai Remisoff
Burt Lancaster
Jean Peters
John McIntire
Charles Bronson
John Dehner
Paul Guilfoyle
This initial Hecht - Lancaster release through United Artists is a rugged action saga in best Burt Lancaster style of muscle-flexing. Production is based on history, re-telling story of a diehard Apache who waged one-man war against United States and thereafter became a tribal legend. While its roots are historic, the James R. Webb screenplay from Paul I. Wellman's novel, Broncho Apache, gives it good old outdoor action punch true to western film tradition.
Main plot switch is viewing Indian from sympathetic angle, even though his knife, arrows, bullets often find their marks among white soldiers.
Lancaster and Jean Peters play their Indian roles understandingly without usual screen stereotyping.
Robert Aldrich, making second start as feature film director, handles cast and action well, waste movement being eliminated and only essentials to best storytelling retained, as attested by comparatively short running time.
(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1954. Running time: 86 MIN.
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