Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

bkoganbing Clint Walker and Virginia Mayo star in Fort Dobbs, a Warner Brothers western that bears more than a passing resemblance to John Wayne's classic Hondo. At the time Walker was starring in the Warner Brothers TV western Cheyenne and Mayo was serving out her contract with the studio.It's a wanted man that Walker is for killing someone who had been trifling with his woman and fleeing his town of Largo he comes upon Mayo and her son Richard Eyer on their ranch. But they all have to flee there as the Comanches are on the warpath.Fort Dobbs is a clean and unpretentious western. Walker had he been born 10 to 20 years earlier would have been a western star in the tradition of Gary Cooper. He certainly fills the screen in Fort Dobbs like Cooper at 6'6" Walker didn't look up to too many people. Far from the glamor parts she did for Sam Goldwyn, Virginia Mayo does well as the frontier wife caught in a real bad situation.Brian Keith is here also as a shady gunrunner who's not got any scruples about whom he sells his wares to. No matter what he does as hero or villain Keith is always interesting to watch on the screen.It's a rather overused plot that Fort Dobbs employs, still it's served up very well with few trimmings.

carolnell OK, up front, I'm a huge westerns fan & I've always loved Clint Walker. A lot of these reviews have focused on a comparison with John Wayne's "Hondo". Well, when "Hondo" was made, Wayne had been starring in films for almost 20yrs, so please - guys - cut Clint some slack, OK? He had been plucked from an everyday life only 3yrs before, with no previous acting experience, & this was his first starring role in films, in the lead no less. I think he carried it off pretty well. It's full of good action sequences, the scenes with Clint & child actor Richard Eyer are sweet & the tension between Clint & Brian Keith is pretty cool. The budding "romance" between Clint & Virginia Mayo doesn't come off so well, but I remember reading elsewhere that she wasn't too happy about being cast opposite a TV actor & that there was some resulting tension on the set. All in all, I found this to be a pretty good entry in the western pantheon; well worth watching. As usual, tho, it's too bad Warner skimped & didn't film in color. What a waste of gorgeous scenery, both landscape & their leading man!

NewEnglandPat This western follows a familiar genre theme of a loner who comes to the aid of a woman and her son and guides them to safety through Indian country. The plot is spare with a twist of mistaken identity thrown in as an innocent man on the run scrambles to escape a hanging posse hot on his trail. Clint Walker is the reformed gunfighter whose reputation places him on the sheriff's wanted poster as fate takes him to a woman's ranch in the midst of an Indian uprising. Virginia Mayo is the widow and reluctant trail companion of Walker along with her son as they make their way to Fort Dobbs. Brian Keith steals the film as an unsavory gun runner whose rifles play a large part in the Indian attack on the fort. The film is not a polished feature but is a straightforward, no-frills drama and is worth watching.

Poseidon-3 A fairly standard western tale is uplifted by the calm, towering presence of Walker. He plays a man on the run from a posse who throws them off his trail and winds up at the ranch of a woman and her son who are waiting for her husband to return. They hardly have time to exchange hellos when a Comanche war party shows up outside. It is now Walker's duty to get the woman (Mayo) and her boy to the title fort despite the fact that she blames him for her husband's failure to return and he risks arrest once he gets there. There are a couple of minor twists and turns in the story to hold interest (along with a lot of now-cliched dialogue....occasionally one can put words in the characters' mouths and like clockwork, out if comes!) Keith shows up in a stock role of friend/foe, but adds a spark of creativity to it through some effective character work. Mayo doesn't get a lot to do besides scowl and get into trouble, but does have one amusing moment when she realizes that Walker has seen her naked. Walker is his usual gorgeous self. His soothing, dulcet voice and his monumental frame add much to the film. He plays a sort of mysterious "yep/nope" character along the lines of something Gary Cooper would have done. He's believed to be a killer, but the audience knows that there's more to the story. His willingness to allow himself to be hunted and disdained is in order to protect the honor, even if undeserved, of others. Walker, a true western star, appears to have done most (if not all) of his own riding and stunts. Also, after one particularly wet scene, he is seen shirtless polishing his rifle....quite a visual treat. Anyone should have felt safe in his care. Indians in the film are nothing but savage, faceless plot devices with no discernible reason given for their behavior. This is pretty typical for the time this film was made. The film is nothing amazing, but is pleasantly brief, has some nice scenery, a Max Steiner score and has its share of action and drama to make it watchable.