Linkshoch Wonderful Movie

Lawbolisted Powerful

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

drystyx A lot of the B Westerns were "fluff", but usually the director or writer would want to add some "sidebar" on for their personal motif.It is the "sidebar" that is usually the message the director and writer want to display. Sometimes, it is "advertising" for products, such as tobacco companies, soda companies, or what have you.Here, either Director Selander, or writers Simmons and Boone, looked to want to add their own flavor to a fairly routine cavalry Western.Like most Westerns of the day, the Indians are depicted as semi good guys with evil white men upsetting the apple cart.The overkill of the evil white men has always been very politically correct, and especially was in the decades that followed this movie.However, the real sidebar here is what happens with the evil corrupt cavalry officer who causes at least two massacres, quite knowingly, quite viciously.Also, a few red herrings come into play here. The fates of a few of the characters you won't guess, as they go against the usual Hollywood propaganda formula. Thus, this particular Western has some surprises by the end.

zardoz-13 Director Lesley Selander's thoroughly routine outdoor yarn "The Yellow Tomahawk" (1954) pits the Cheyenne against the U.S. Cavalry with leathery tough Rory Calhoun in the middle as the seasoned, buckskin-clad Indian scout who has to lead the survivors to safety. This United Artists western was lensed in color but the TV print that Turner Classic Movies aired was inexplicably in black & white.The action opens with Adam Reed (Rory Calhoun of "Black Spurs") eluding several Indians and riding up to palaver with his old friend and Cheyenne chief, Fire Knife (Lee Van Cleef of "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"), who has killing on his mind. Fire Knife warns Adam that his Cheyenne braves are poised to wipe out a nearby cavalry fort under construction because it violates a treaty that the Indians made with the government. On his way to inform stuck-up camp commandant, Major Ives (Warner Anderson of "Objective, Burma!"),about the impending Indian attack, Adam discovers a beautiful wood nymph seductively treading water in a lake. Katherine 'Kate' Bolden (Peggy Castle of "I, Jury") is another of those silly women in westerns that bathe nude in the middle of Indian country without a care in the world. Castle appears to be genuinely nude in her bathing scenes, too, perhaps the most memorable scene of all in this otherwise predictable western. Naturally, Major Ives dismisses Adam's warning from Fire Knife until the commander realizes that somebody has raided his ammunition dump far outside the fort. This is one of the many questions that the Richard Alan Simmons' screenplay leaves unanswered in this trim, 82-minute oater. Why would the cavalry bury their ammunition at a secret spot in the desert rather than keep it on the premises in the fort? No sooner have they made this discovery than the Indians attack, knock out of hero, and leave him as the only survivor. Before this attack, a pair of white prospectors rides into the fort. Sawyer (Peter Graves of "Stalag 17") brings in his partner with an arrow in his chest. While Adam is getting hot water to help in removing the arrow, the greedy Sawyer grinds the shaft in deeper and kills his helpless partner. Later, we learn that Sawyer and his partner had struck gold. The question of the dispersal of the gold is also left unanswered after our heroes survive the ordeal. Adam and Fire Knife have one final pow-wow and Fire Knife demands that Adam hand over Major Ives or everybody will die. Naturally, Adam refuses and the Indians begin to whittle down the whites. James Best in a supporting role as a cavalryman gets an arrow in the back for his efforts. Noah Beery, Jr., plays a aimable Mexican scout pursued by a sexy Indian damsel appropriately named Honey Bear (Oscar-winning actress Rita Moreno of "West Side Story") and Robert Bray of "Lassie" fame is on hand briefly as the ill-fated cavalry officer that Kate had planned to marry. The biggest surprise in this unremarkable western shot on location in Kanab, Utah, is that the evil cavalry officer Ives, who slaughtered Indian men, women, and children at the infamous Sand Creek Massacre, has been keeping a secret that he is a Native American, too! Ironically, the taut bow that Fire Knife gives out of friendship to Adam at the outset of the hostilities is what our heroic scout uses to kill the stalwart Cheyenne warrior after he has run out of bullets. "The Yellow Tomahawk" concludes on an ambiguous note. The survivors reach another outpost, Fort Ellis, where Adam and Ives furnish their respective reports about the issue to an army general, but we never learn the outcome of this meeting. Is this artistic ambiguity or yet another unanswered question. Producer Howard W. Koch is no relation to "Casablanca" scenarist Howard Koch. Ultimately, "The Yellow Tomahawk" is one of many pro-Indian westerns that appeared in the aftermath of "Broken Arrow" (1950) where the Native American is viewed as a noble savage unjustly treated by some but not all whites. Selander, who made dozens of westerns during the 1950s and the 1960s, makes this minor western tolerable despite its thin characters and familiar predicament. Calhoun stands out of an above-average cast as the always serviceable leading man, and good looking Castle is worth watching for her feminine charms. Peter Graves plays a skunk as was usual in most of his early roles. Actually, Lesley Selander did a more satisfactory dramatic version of this movie the year before called "War Paint" (1953) with Robert Stack. Incidentally, Noah Beery Jr. and Rita Moreno both went on to become regulars on "The Rockford Files".

BOB L'ALOGE An Indian scout warns the settlers around the army post they are in danger from Indians and he is proved right. Twenty-seven year old Castle fills out her tight-fitting shirt and jeans and makes her presence known as she breaks her engagement with an army officer and falls for Calhoun--who, as a scout, rescues her and the commander after the raid. But the rescue is only temporarily as, on their way to the nearest fort, they are attacked again by Indians led by Lee Van Cleef. He and his fellow Indians want the commander for what he did at Sand Creek. It was there, in history, that the Federal army slaughtered Indian women and children without giving them a chance to surrender. Calhoun wants to keep him alive and take him to the fort for court-martial so to help stop future slaughter of Indians.It's a typical 50's Western but one of the good ones--perhaps because of Rory Calhoun (who was always good) or Peggy Castle who made cowboys glad they were men. Or both!

bux Calhoun spends much of his time in this film, warning the builders and settlers of a new army outpost, that they will be wiped out by the hostiles. In this decidedly downbeat tale, he is not only snubbed by authority, but mocked and ridiculed...and guess what? The action scenes are done well, and the unusual ending is fresh.