Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

utgard14 Marshal James Stewart and cavalry lieutenant Richard Widmark go searching for white captives of Comanches. OK western is not among Ford's or Stewart's bests. It's watchable and enjoyable enough for western fans, however. Stewart offers the best performance in the film. His character is cynical and mercenary. Widmark is fine. Woody Strode plays a militant young Comanche warrior named Stone Calf. There are several similarities with Ford's masterpiece The Searchers. There's the plot, of course, about two men going after white people held by Comanches. The Comanche leader in the Searchers is played by Henry Brandon, who also plays a Comanche leader here. John Qualen, Olive Carey, and Harry Carey, Jr. appear in both films, although with significantly bigger parts in The Searchers. Ken Curtis plays a very similar comic relief character in this film as he did in The Searchers and even has a comedic fight over a woman as he did in that film. Obviously this movie is nowhere near the level of The Searchers. This is an OK western but nothing extraordinary. The Searchers is one of the greatest films ever made. Sadly, all of this just serves to remind you that you're watching a movie that really could have been directed by anybody. Ford only did this for the payday and hated it by all accounts. He reportedly took his frustrations out on the cast and crew, particularly Jimmy Stewart. Ford would make only one more great film in his career after this, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Robert J. Maxwell It carries the mark of Ford. Two young men are competing for the same girl. There is a rambunctious fight in which someone has to knock the wooden chip from his opponent's shoulder. Somebody gets drunk There's a pretty girl in jeans and plaid shirt who emerges as a butterfly at the officer's dance. Two men make a long journey to visit a Comanche camp and bring back white captives.The cast features names like Carey, Carey Jr., Roberson, Hayward, Whitehead, Curtis, Lee, Devine, Bouchey, Brandon, Qualen, Pennick, and Strode. It not only suggests John Ford but it suggests "The Searchers" in particular.It's not "The Searchers" though; it's "Two Rode Together" with James Stewart and Richard Widmark in the leads and Shirley Jones and Linda Crystal as their ladies fair.The first half hour or so is entirely successful as a comic Western. Stewart is a cheerfully corrupt marshal in Tascosa, Texas, and Widmark is a captain in the US Cavalry. The film really depends on Stewart's portrayal of an utter scoundrel and he delivers. He flatly turns down the Army's request to visit the Comanche camp for humane reasons but on his way to the door, the major asks if money would make any difference. Stewart turns thoughtfully around. "Waall, ye -- yes. Yeah, money would make a difference." One of the best scenes has Stewart and Widmark sitting on a log next to a wide and shallow stream. Ford had the camerman and crew set up in icy waters up to their knees to get this long and unvarying shot of the two having a casually hilarious conversation.There are amusing moments later in the film as well, as Stewart tries to suggest ways that Linda Crystal can stop looking like an Indian and get all gussied up for the dance that night. Lamentably, Stewart knows nothing about women's fashions. "Why don't you -- you -- try -- wait a minute." And he takes Crystal's two long thick pigtails and twists them this way and that around her face and head while she stares up at him pitifully.When Ford gets serious, the movie falls apart, a pale shadow of "The Searchers." Confronted by a bare-chested Woody Strode -- a Comanche! -- who has come to reclaim his wife, knife in hand, Stewart whips out a pistol and shoots him to death where he stands. Linda Crystal is at least a docile recaptured captive. The other one they bring back -- a seventeen-year-old boy -- is not only ugly but must be listed among the world's worst actors. Not that he has much to do but kick and scream, but then many of the actors is small parts overact.When it's funny, it's funny. And when it's sad, it's REALLY sad.

davidjanuzbrown Is this best of Stewart, Widmark or Ford? No it is not. But this is still an excellent film, and there are two big reasons. First, is the character of Elena de la Madriaga (Linda Cristal). She is a person who has a tremendous amount of honor, decency and faith. As First Lt. Jim Gary (Widmark) pointed out when there were people asking "Why she did not kill herself?" and he said "Her faith." Quite often you see Mexicans (Portrayed as peasants and other people basically inferior), and in this case, Elena is not (Despite being Stone Calf's (Woody Strode) woman, she never forgot who she was and where she came from). In addition, you have an interesting performance by Shirley Jones (Marty Purcell). I really think of the scene (Spoilers)where her brother (Who was kidnapped by the Comanchee) kills a woman, and remembered the music box and said "Mine" before he was hung, and the horror on her face, when he was hung. The other reason to watch is Stewart. Although this is NOT his best film (He makes anything that is NOT "No Time For Comedy" or a musical worth watching). People who reviewed this film are obviously not big Stewart films, because they would have known his character( Marshal Guthrie McCabe (Also known as "Old Gus)) is not the only time he played a less than honorable character. "The Far Country" (Jeff Webster) & "The Naked Spur" (Glyn McLyntock) are two that come to mind where he is not an outright bad guy, but not too nice either. If anyone sees the "Naked Spur" they will remember a bounty scene involving Janet Leigh, they will not soon forget. What you see is a man who in the beginning, plays on the desperation of others (Trying to get loved ones back from the Indians at any price), and who changes to such a degree that Jim says to his former employer Belle Aragon (Annelle Hayes), that "Old Gus finally found something he wants more than money." (Elena). The only reasons I did not give this film a 10/10 are Andy Devine's character (Sgt. Darius P. Posey) who was absolutely cringe worthy when he knocked people in the river with his stomach, and the outcome of the relationship between Jim and Marty. Although they will be married, Jim will not sacrifice the Army for Marty (Keep in mind, she blamed herself for her brother's kidnapping in the first place, then saw him hanged, so she needed a major change of scenery), like Gus did for Elena. So I give it 9/10.

Turtle Heart As a child I loved these old John Ford Films. Many years later, because of all the new releases to DVD and Blue Ray, we get to revisit some of these great classics. Watching this film, now, I found I could not finish it. Quannah Parker, a Commanche American Indian is so revered by his people. He was a really important figure, considered one of the great American Indian leaders of his time. In this film he is reduced to being a scalp-hunting, white child-rapist terrorist. I realize now that this vehement and terrible hatred of the American Indian is the central theme of John Ford's many films which touch this subject. I am an American Indian. Looking at this film is really painful because it fantasizes about a history that never happened. Of course, a good fiction adventure needs its enemy to work in Hollywood. That is the problem. Where can we go to find an enemy worthy of the adventures of our hero? I believe this fim should come with a warning label about its depiction of violent racism against the American Indian. This was really such a dark time for this minority in film. Maybe many in the Middle East have this same feeling when watching how Arabian people are depicted in film in this age. Seeing Quannah Parker portrayed in this way, by this horrible actor, is really tragic and emotionally painful to any reasonable American Indian. Clearly, at some point the life and character of John Ford needs to be examined more closely. There is a disturbingly violent hatred of the American Indian in these films.