Pluskylang Great Film overall

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Robert J. Maxwell The Apache are roughly handled in this "lost patrol" cavalry movie. They're faceless savages -- "barbarians, if you like," remarks Captain Gregory Peck. Well, the Apache were generally pretty tough customers, given to intricate forms of torture such as deboning, beginning with the finger tips, but they never bothered with foolish Banzai charges of the sort we see here. They weren't stupid, and they usually fought dismounted. As it is -- this being 1951 -- the plot resembles a movie left over from World War II, only using Indians as the fanatic villains, rather than the Japanese.Gregory Peck picks out six or seven of the least desirable troopers in the small fort to man a deserted outpost guarding a pass through which the Apache must move before they can attack. The young bugler is a coward; as the crazed Arab Lon Chaney's uniform is padded until the is the size of Man Mountain Dean; Ward Bond is a drunk; Neville Brand is a sadistic bully, and so forth. Peck's cavalry captain is of course flawless in every respect. He radiates dignity the way the others glow with terpitude.They are picked off one by one until only three men are left to be rescued by the galloping cavalry at the climax. The rescue detail has brought with them a "Gatling gun" (with a round magazine), which which the good guys slaughter the bad guys by the hundreds.No one distinguishes himself in this film, but Peck and Bond are professionals and bring a kind of relaxed quality to their roles. A triangular romance with Barbara Payton is thrust into the narrative with a shoe horn and is almost entirely dispensable.Yet, for all its weaknesses, it's not a boring movie. The sheer cliff faces provide an impressive outdoor location. The abandoned fort is a maze of adobe passageways twisting this way and that, sometimes resembling a set left over from a movie about Algiers or someplace. The cavalry costumes with their black blouses and trousers are properly accented by canary yellow neckerchiefs and trouser stripes -- or they would be if this weren't in black and white -- and there is abundant action as the story proceeds. Its diverting and lively but it lacks any poetry whatever. The whole production gives the impression of having been over-engineered. I hate to raise the question of what Ford or Hawks would have done with this material but the voices tell me to do it.

ma-cortes The more desperate his fight on the desert's scorching sands , the more adored he was in her arms ¡ . Gregory Peck as captain Lance who gave Fort Invincible his name ¡ . Richard Lance (Peck) is a honorable cavalry officer to roust renegade troopers and a tribe of Indians Apaches . Cavalry captain is saddled not only problems with Native American but irritability among his own undisciplined troops . Lance is wrongfully framed by his girlfriend (Barbara Payton) and underlings of killing lieutenant Holloway (Gig Young) massacred along with a patrol by Indians . Richard Lance eventually puts the bridle on tight and struggles to win his soldiers respect while warding off violent Indians. Richard along with a group of soldiers have to defend a left fort surrounded by Indians until arrival reinforcements who are using a Gatling machine gun . The angry Apaches (led by Michael Ansara, usual in Indian roles) are out on a rampage of killing , seeking vengeance against the white intruders, and with the aim for eliminate them.This is an acceptable , conventional tale with action galore about a hard-bitten officer who goes to hell and back while assembling a detail of misfit cavalrymen to hold-off rampaging Indians and later on regaining the respect of his soldiers and his sweetheart . Gregory Peck and a top-notch all-secondary-star-cast as Ward Bond, Steve Brodie , Warner Anderson , Neville Brand , Jeff Corey and Lon Chaney Jr as the Arab ; all of them shine in this gripping story about a surrounded garrison . Furthermore as protagonist girl appears Barbara Payton ( who acted in important films as Dallas, Drums in the deep South , Kiss Tomorrow) , she turned to be one of the saddest stories from dark chronicle Hollywood . Attractive blonde sexpot and her life eventually disintegrated,mostly by her own doings . She was the subject of a spread in Confidential Magazine in the early 1950s when then fiancé Franchot Tone allegedly caught in bed with Guy Madison . Tone later married her , despite the indiscretion, besides she had a tempestuous relationship with Tom Neal. But happened the downfall , her once enticing countenance now blotchy and once sensational figure now bloated,Barbara sank deeper into the bottle and had several brushes with law , among them public boozy , bad checks and ultimate prostitution . The 39 years former star was found on the bathroom floor. Director takes a fine penned screenplay creating a cavalry-Indians tale that is far from ordinary , exploring the anguish of soldiers and including jarring burst of violence , however it packs a predictable ending . It's the habitual theme about an unit stranded by enemies and their grueling efforts to break the siege, issue imitated many other times . Gritty and passable written Western from Edmund H. North and Harry Brown , based on the novel by Charles Marquis Warren ,also Western filmmaker .The picture contains nice moments though partially unsatisfying and disappointing for the reason of the deeply claustrophobic environment . Well produced by William Cagney , James Cagney's brother , this Western is predictable and conventional but entertaining. Thrilling and stirring musical score by the classic Franz Waxman . Cinematography by Lionel Lindon enhances the dark tones especially on the besieged fort .The motion picture is professionally directed by Gordon Douglas . He's an expert on adventures genre as ¨Black arrow¨ and ¨Fortunes of Captain Blood¨ , both starred by Louis Hayward ; but he's mainly specialist filmmaking Western , his first was ¨ Girl rush (1944)¨ and in the 40s directed ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ and ¨The Nevadan¨ for duo Harry Joe Brown-Randolph Scott . He went on directing Alan Ladd's (as Jim Bowie) vehicles as ¨Iron Mistress¨ and ¨The fiend who walked west¨ which resulted to be a Western rendition to ¨Kiss of death¨. In the 50s he proved his specialty on Western in the films starred by Clint Walker as ¨Fort Dobbs¨ ,¨Yellowstone Kelly¨, ¨Gold of seven Saints¨ and about legendary bandits as ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ and ¨Great Missouri raid¨ . After that , he filmed ¨Chuka(1967)¨ that bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Only the valiant¨ , the remake ¨Stagecoach (1966)¨ , ¨Rio Conchos¨ with Richard Boone and considered the best Western and finally ¨Barquero(1970)¨with Lee Van Cleef and realized in Spaghetti style.

writers_reign Two names, one in front of and one behind the camera, imply a touch of Class that is largely absent here. Gregory Peck was one of the most underrated actors in the history of film and writer Harry Brown had a string of fine credits from A Walk In The Sun onwards. Sadly producer Jimmy Cagney was seemingly reluctant to shell out on a decent budget and may well have manipulated things - Brown, for example, had written Cagney's Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye, the previous year and leading lady (no, I'm not making it up, that's what the billing says) Barbara Payton, had appeared in it and was under contract to Cagney which may explain what she was doing, albeit ineptly, here. Peck himself was railroaded into this but even so he was too good an actor and too much a pro to give anything less than his best and the support is at least interesting; Lon Chaney Jnr, Jeff Corey, Gig Young, Neville Brand, Ward Bond, Steve Brodie, all essentially wasted as was all-around director Gordon Douglas. A curio at best.

zatapatique ...I saw this movie when it first came out in France, in my hometown, 54 years ago, I was nine, and today I still remember each black and white frame, especially the black ones, because it was so tense, scary, those sneaking attacks through that dark pass in the mountain, the two soldiers, prisoners forced to fight each other by their captors, the last battle with the uncovering of the wagon with the Gatling in it firing away, the last fight between Peck and the chief, and the Happy End which let me take back my breath. I haven't seen it since then, and I don't know if it would be a good idea to see it again today, it was such a fabulous moment for the kid I was.