Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Steineded How sad is this?

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

bkoganbing Flaming Feather casts Sterling Hayden as a rancher and Forrest Tucker as a cavalry lieutenant who make a bet as to who will catch the notorious outlaw known as the Sidewinder. Hayden whose ranch was recently burned out and cattle stolen is not satisfied with the performance of the army in catching this desperado. The Sidewinder has as his gang a collection renegade Ute Indians which makes him the army business as opposed to civilian law enforcement. Hayden and Tucker have a wager on who will catch him first as no white people know his identity.It wasn't hard to figure it out just look at the casting. Even without IMDb identifying the Sidewinder on Flaming Feather's page it was easy to figure out by the kind of roles this player is usually cast in. The real suspense is whether Hayden or Tucker will wind up with leading ladies Arleen Whelan and Barbara Rush. Another good part is that of Carol Thurston who played many exotic types in her career and is the Indian mistress of The Sidewinder.Flaming Feather is good, but highly predictable.

MartinHafer Often I wish we could give scores like 6.5, as "Flaming Feather" isn't quite good enough to merit a 7 but better than a 6. I also notice that the other reviewers really liked this one. Well, I did too--just not quite as much.The film begins with a rancher (Sterling Hayden) having his homestead attacked by an Indian bandit named 'The Sidewinder'. In the attack, Hayden loses everything but his life and is naturally determined to watch this bandit and punish him. Along the way, he meets up with the Cavalry--and Hayden isn't particularly nice to them. After all, they should have stopped the Sidewinder, as he and his gang have been at it for years and no one STILL has any idea who he is. He and the Commander (Forrest Tucker) make a bet as to who will get the Sidewinder.In town, Sterling meets up with two interesting ladies--a crazy red-head who seems like poison and a gorgeous and nice dark-haired lady (Barbara Rush) who is headed west to marry some guy named 'Lucky'. However, twice folks try to either kill or kidnap her--and both times the hero, Sterling, rescues her. What's next and what the fiancé (Victor Jory) has to do with all this is something you'll need to see for yourself.I think the film's biggest strength is that the plot is unusual--something pretty rare with a western. And, it never hurts to have Sterling Hayden starring in a film. But the film also has a few problems--such as wasting Edgar Buchanan in a support role, a ridiculous fighting scene where tiny little Jory is a match for the hulking Hayden as well as a final scene where the Indian lady runs up and grabs a gun and shoots someone--as Forrest Tucker just sits there and lets her do this. This final complaint is just sloppy and with a better finale, I might have scored this one a bit higher. Worth seeing--just not brilliant.

Marlburian At one time the IMDb cast list did rather spoil things by telling us who the Sidewinder is, but since I wrote this review some years ago it seems to have been amended. So I'm altering what I wrote then.There are several possibilities about who the Sidewinder is, and I had my own suspicions (which eventually proved to be correct) as soon as he appeared. Sterling Hayden was his usual wooden self in the lead role, Forrest Tucker was sufficiently rugged as the army officer, but Edgar Buchanan made an unconvincing sergeant - almost as much so as Andy Devine in "Two Rode Together".In the opening shoot-out at his ranch, Tex seems to have a revolver that never needs reloading; I counted 17 successive shots, though six of these were fired when he was sheltering in the cattle pen; arguably he could have reloaded out of camera, but he then gallops off, firing another 11! And when the stagecoach leaves town it's picturesquely filmed from under a distinctive tree - which features again later in the coach journey after Tex has done his rescue act.The film is redeemed by a good closing fight between the whites and the Utes, with an unusual setting for the inevitable concluding fisticuffs.

helpless_dancer A band of renegade Utes, led by a sneaky, low down, forked tongue white man, burn, loot, and pillage across the southwest. A rugged settler and the Army go after the elusive skunk and his gang of dirty rats and meet in a blazing gun battle in the mountains. Above average western.