Copyright 1956 by Universal. New York opening at the Palace: 7 September 1956. U.S. release: 1 September 1956. U.K. release: 3 September 1956. Australian release: 1 November 1956. Sydney opening on a double bill at the Capitol (ran one week). 7,925 feet. 88 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: John Philip Clum is appointed Indian Agent at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, where he finds the Army using violent means to suppress the Indians. Clum asserts his authority to help the Apaches, thus earning the displeasure of the people of Tucson. In gratitude, the Indians send Tianay to keep house for him. This arouses the jealousy of Clum's fiancée, Mary Dennison.
COMMENT: In the present=day climate of racial tolerance, integration and understanding, it's a big surprise that this screen biography of a true-life Indian agent who blazed this particular trail, is not constantly revived. Admittedly, next to its patent earnestness, the picture's main virtue is its expansive CinemaScope location cinematography.
However, regard for a movie's artistic scope has never stopped TV managers dead in their tracks before. So why now? Maybe the film lacks excitement. That it does, though those who decry Hollywood for distorting reality will certainly have cause to rejoice in this exception. No doubt the nagging wife is pretty close to the essence of what really happened too.
It's a pity that the direction of this worthy script should be so flatly pedestrian. Less than talented directors like Jesse Hibbs (former football star) welcomed CinemaScope because it relieved them of the burden of having to think in terms of visual excitement. Now simply the scope itself is the thing. No dramatic compositions, no effective cutting, no pointed camera movement necessary.
No need to draw fine performances either, because for most of the time the actors are lost in the landscape. When studio scenes take over, why that's a good time for patrons to duck out to the candy bar. Unless of course you're such a rabid fan of Audie Murphy, you don't care a fig what long speeches he gets off his chest, or how stiffly he stands, just so long as his magnified pudgy face is right up there in front of you!
SYNOPSIS: John Philip Clum is appointed Indian Agent at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, where he finds the Army using violent means to suppress the Indians. Clum asserts his authority to help the Apaches, thus earning the displeasure of the people of Tucson. In gratitude, the Indians send Tianay to keep house for him. This arouses the jealousy of Clum's fiancée, Mary Dennison.
COMMENT: In the present=day climate of racial tolerance, integration and understanding, it's a big surprise that this screen biography of a true-life Indian agent who blazed this particular trail, is not constantly revived. Admittedly, next to its patent earnestness, the picture's main virtue is its expansive CinemaScope location cinematography.
However, regard for a movie's artistic scope has never stopped TV managers dead in their tracks before. So why now? Maybe the film lacks excitement. That it does, though those who decry Hollywood for distorting reality will certainly have cause to rejoice in this exception. No doubt the nagging wife is pretty close to the essence of what really happened too.
It's a pity that the direction of this worthy script should be so flatly pedestrian. Less than talented directors like Jesse Hibbs (former football star) welcomed CinemaScope because it relieved them of the burden of having to think in terms of visual excitement. Now simply the scope itself is the thing. No dramatic compositions, no effective cutting, no pointed camera movement necessary.
No need to draw fine performances either, because for most of the time the actors are lost in the landscape. When studio scenes take over, why that's a good time for patrons to duck out to the candy bar. Unless of course you're such a rabid fan of Audie Murphy, you don't care a fig what long speeches he gets off his chest, or how stiffly he stands, just so long as his magnified pudgy face is right up there in front of you!