VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

RanchoTuVu After a vicious Indian attack on a ranch in which the women are raped and killed and a young girl is left in a state of shock, the scene shifts to Fort Canby, under the command of Richard Boone. Unfortunately, this is not one of Boone's better movies. A lot of the blame, almost all of it perhaps, goes to the lines the actors have to somehow make sound real. That task turns out to be virtually impossible. The best part is the debate over which Indians, the Apaches or the Comanches, actually carried out the raid. Luana Patton takes top honors as the center of George Hamilton's and James Douglas's attention. Douglas, the ranking junior officer leads a small squad of soldiers out to track the Indians, setting in motion the central action sequences which culminates in a borderline ridiculous cavalry-Indian fight, somewhat saved by the arrows falling on some of the soldiers. However, life in the fort turns out to be a bit more interesting than the action outside of the walls.

Robert J. Maxwell George Hamilton is an inexperienced lieutenant in the cavalry (!) newly assigned to a post under the command of the somewhat unkempt, but very savvy Captain Richard Boone. Hamilton was born in Comanche territory but is the son of a general and has spent some years in a comfortable post back East. He thinks he knows everything and is anxious to fight.He discovers that his former love, Luana Patton, is about to marry another officer. There are intrigues, involving Hamilton's making out with Patton behind her fiancé's back, and an attempt at blackmail by the uncouth Private Charles Bronson. Others in this pretty good cast include Arthur O'Connell, Slim Pickens, a young Richard Chamberlain, and Casey Tibbs, who may need Googling by those who have never heard of rodeos.There's a good deal of talk, interrupted by action episodes of some interest, and the dialog has the ring of authenticity. A cavalry patrol discovers two women raped and butchered by Indians, and an officer gives the order for "three married men" to dress the women for burial. When the three dismount they are ordered to hand the reins of their horses to the man to the right of them. That's a nicely observed detail. So is the fact that an unpleasant odor accompanies the transport of four dead bodies.Richard Boone, as the commanding officer, knows his business but he's stern and distant too. Nobody really gets close to him without being addressed as "Mister" and formally reprimanded for some minor infraction. Is this beginning to sound a little familiar? One of the sayings attributed to Boone is "never apologize, it's a sign of weakness." Honest.The similarities stem from the fact that the story was written by James Warner Bellah, a pulp writer who also produced the stories for John Ford's "Fort Apache," "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon," and "Rio Grande." James Warner Bellah was a neat writer, with a good deal of military experience behind him. His weakness as a writer was Manicheanism. The white cavalry, whatever its internal conflicts, is superior in every respect to the treacherous and faceless American Indians. It's really a retrograde assumption and has nothing to do with political correctness. The guy was a talented racist. On top of that, the officer corps is superior to the enlisted soldiers who live only to collect their pay and immediately get drunk and pass out.It wouldn't have taken much skill to turn this story into an involving saga of life in a cavalry outpost, with all its tribulations and its little rewards, to show some affection for the community. John Ford was able to do it -- three times. But director Joseph M. Newman opts to forget about a balanced, adult approach and hew to Bellah's dry and severe outline. It's all rather carelessly executed. All the officers except Boone have carefully styled and gelled hair. George Hamilton removes his cavalry hat and his hair is STILL flawlessly laid out across his scalp! The performances are all professional and the basic plot is interesting. It's too bad that so little imagination was invested in its execution. The absence of poetry is pretty nearly startling. What we wind up with is a talky picture about people we don't really care much about.

mhrabovsky6912 This is a very good and mostly forgotten western that made the rounds in 1961. In 1960 MGM paired Luana Patten and a young George Hamilton in the feature film with Robert Mitchum, "Home from the Hill"....figuring on cashing in on the teenage and young adult crowd director Joseph Newman paired them again in this top notch western. Story concerns a desolate, poorly supplied western fort somewhere in the southwest trying to fend off Indian attacks on unsuspecting settlers...The post is ran by Captain Maddocks (Richard Boone), a crusty, worn out, cantankerous old bird whose military career has passed him by and put him in charge of this desolate hole....by coincidence, a fresh young officer (Lt. McQuade) played by George Hamilton arrives at the fort attempting to make a name for himself...problem is he does not have any practical experience like serving at a fort fighting Indians....he has been put in Provost and office jobs by his father, a General.....oddly enough, the very General who basically ended Maddock's career for an oversight. Maddocks immediately runs roughshod over McQuade and makes his life generally miserable since he is considered a greenhorn officer on a fort that needs reliable veterans who know how to fight and outfox Indians. To complicate matters more, McQuade's former girlfriend is ensconced on the fort and engaged to another officer while still loving McQuade (Hamilton)......she is played by the lovely Luana Patten. Tensions get worse between Patten, McQuade's fellow officers at the fort and Captain Maddocks. McQuade is torn between his duty, his hatred of Captain Maddocks, and his hidden passion for Patten. Fireworks explode when Hamilton is seen embracing Patten by her fiancé. Oddly enough things start to work out for Hamilton as Maddocks is forced to send him out on patrol.....McQuade shows his mettle and leadership and impresses most of the soldiers. Charles Bronson plays a meddling, snaky private who tries to show up Hamilton's affair with the lovely Tracy. A big fight erupts and Hamilton holds his own.... In the end Hamilton becomes Maddock's favorite officer and a strange friendship starts to bloom. Patten, realizing that her love for Hamilton will never work out soon departs the fort and leaves for good. A top notch cast, including Arthur O'Connell, Charles Bronson, Richard Chamberlin, Boone and Hamilton.....a mute girl in the film is played by Tammi Marihugh. It is hard to figure out why this film has never been released on DVD or rarely seen on television.....it is one of the top westerns of the 60s, but not given much recognition. Richard Boone was perfectly cast as the cantankerous Captain Maddocks....this is a western you would want to see.

thesimpsons2222 Joey's comments above are spot on. And you should also notice the visual style of the film: scenes in the fort tend to be in tones of grey or blue, cavalry colours, but most scenes throughout the film have a detail picked out in bright red - clothing, books, drinks,and, finally blood. Compositions are also distinctive: two shots often have one figure closer to the camera, some medium shots have an over-the-shoulder angle. For those who like that kind of thing, there is an interesting Oedipal theme, and the film centres on the rite of passage of the central figure,played by George Hamilton, appropriately vain and self-regarding. Women are sacrificed and marginalised ruthlessly, and there is a further theme about children which I couldn't quite work out.The cavalry/Indians structure is the peg on which a thoughtful narrative has been hung; even the killing scenes avoid the some of current excesses, and there are hints that the Indians have their own culture which the cavalry officers learn to recognise - and exploit. The inferior technology of the Indians is clearly a factor in their defeat.It will be a shocking day when the US Cavalry meet an indigenous population which is tactically and technologically their equal, won't it?