Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

weezeralfalfa A Civil War Western, the western features mostly confined to an Indian attack on a mid-west army post, and a cavalry unit chasing them off. Actually, it's more a game of hide and seek, with a disassembled Gatling Gun being the object of Union forces seeking after it was stolen by Confederate agents in Ohio. The film was shot in color around Durango, CO and several places around Moab, UT, with the erosion remnants in Castle Valley especially memorable, looking rather like Monument Valley, to the south. Available at YouTube.Van Johnson, surprisingly, plays the chief Confederate agent Jim Farraday, His chief nemesis through most of the film is Pinkerton agent Frank Kelso(Jeff Morrow), until Van changes sides, when Britt Manning(Richard Boone), his former aid, becomes his chief European opponent, along with Chief Yellow Hawk, leader of a multi-tribal confederation in an attack on Fort Smith.Some humor is provided by Van plus Melburne Stone, as Bengi: the traveling snake oil salesman, when they sing an odd ditty called "Tapioca" and sometimes a related song, which signals their contact in that town to give them instructions for their further wanderings toward Confederate territory. Also, Joanne Dru(as Nora) along with Van provide some chuckles when she accidentally gets drunk on Benji's whiskey-fortified Chamomile tea, passes out, and is put to bed by Benji and Van, after removing her dress(not shown). Later, Van and Joanne share a small blanket out on the trail, Van requesting that they stay on their side of 'the Mason-Dixon line' in the middle.At Baxter Springs KS, a chorus girl sings "Tapioca" at the request of their agent in that town, Britt Manning(Richard Boone). She brings them to Manning, who gets involved with their problems. The cases of Gatling Gun parts are moved from Benji's wagon to Joanne's hospital wagon, she being a Yankee nurse who was rescued by Van from being stuck in river sand. The wagon searchers decide to let her through without inspection. Benji's wagon is inspected, but no longer contains the Gatling Gun. Manning later kills Benje on the road, gets the Gatling gun from Joanne's wagon, and decides to try to sell it to Chief Yellow Hawk, after finding the instructions on how to assemble and operate the gun. The chief is impressed and buys it, planning to use it in an attack on Fort Smith, in which warriors from various tribes will unite. Van and Joanne flirted after he rescued her. But she changed her attitude when the question of why he wasn't in a Union uniform came up. He stated that he didn't want to fight as a soldier, so he paid a substitute $300. to take his place. She wanted to disown him as cowardly. But, he changed sides on the Fort Smith attack, fighting Manning, who was manning the gun for the Indians. He changed after learning that many women and children were included in the fort. After this, Joanne warmed up to him again, and there was a suggested union between them after the war was over(an imminent occurrence).Joanne certainly lite up the screen with her beauty and personality. She had already costarred in a variety of westerns, including "Red River", "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon", "Wagon Master" ,"Vengeance Valley", and "Southwest Passage". In contrast, I believe this was Van's only western, he being known for musical comedies, sitcoms, and war pictures.A few mentionings of relevant historical facts are in order. There was a historic Sioux chief called Yellow Hawk, but Sioux are unlikely to have been involved in a fight in future Oklahoma. There was a real town called Baxter Springs, located in the extreme SE corner of Kansas, right next to Indian Territory, to become Oklahoma. But, historic Fort Smith was located on the central western border of Arkansas, far from Baxter Springs. "The 5 Civilized Nations", which had been moved to Indian Territory did align themselves with the Confederates. Dr. Gatling Only tried to sell his gun to the Union, unsuccessfully until after the war. However, several Union commanders involved in the siege of Petersburg individually bought a gun for their command. The gun was often used in the subsequent Indian Wars, as well as by various European countries. Strangely, Dr. Gatling was a member of the Order of American Knights": a secret pro-Confederacy organization.

bkoganbing Siege At Red River is a Civil War western which casts Van Johnson and Milburn Stone as a couple of Confederate spies who steal a prototype new Gatling Gun from the Union Army and hope to get it south so that their army can get it in the field and turn the war's tide. Students of history will note that there is a scene shortly after they accomplish the heist showing that Lincoln has been safely re-elected and that was on the heels of Sherman taking Atlanta. We know if Van and Milburn don't that they're fighting a lost cause.But we can't have loose Gatling Guns around and Army Intelligence Officer Jeff Morrow is on the trail of the thieves. Johnson and Stone are a wily pair and con Union Army nurse Joanne Dru into innocently transporting the weapon with her medical supplies. But another guy who they use for aid, outlaw renegade Richard Boone has an agenda all his own and it involves the Indians.I don't think I have to go any farther, anyone who's seen enough films and knows off history knows how this will end generally. How it ends for the principal cast members you see the film for.What I liked about Siege At Red River is that Van Johnson and Milburn Stone in their guise as medicine show hucksters got to do a little snappy patter and song in the film. Johnson started out as a chorus boy on Broadway and he was brought to Hollywood after a bit part on Broadway in Too Many Girls. Occasionally he did do some singing and dancing, but not enough in my humble opinion. Peggy Maley also does a nice number in the saloon and she was great also.Maley is Richard Boone's girl and when Richard Boone is mean on the screen there ain't nobody meaner. His villains are usually quite irredeemable creatures with no decent characteristics.The final attack of the Indians and the soldiers counterattack is staged very well. Nice location cinematography for this, it was not the kind of sequence that could reasonably been done on a studio back lot any longer. Definitely a good western and I believe the only one Van Johnson ever did in his career.

johnnyboyz Siege at Red River is a good, clean, honest and highly enjoyable adventure film which happens to unfold in the old west at what appears to be somewhat of a height during the American Civil War. Throughout, there are numerous items which open up and contribute to the grubby, generally downcast nature of the film to do with shots at redemption on top of a heist sub-plot meshing in with a revenge tale neatly blending enough to make it a good crack. It's a fair old romp through some often hard material covering the pratfalls of a bunch of both male and female lowlifes cheating, stealing and charming their way through some rather inhospitable territories in aid of themselves. The film is an engaging and pleasing enough rollick, its effectiveness somewhat masked by its own simplicity and surprisingly tense overall demeanour as it rolls its leads from situation to situation with a great deal at stake looming.The film will cover that of two confederate soldiers deep into Union army, and thus enemy, territory whom pose as travelling salesmen ridding their waggon of muscle tonic and dumping such goods onto the unsuspecting locals with a catchy tune; a smirk and a wink in the process. They are charmers, operating amorally out of a front but whose presence there is much more broadly linked to that of a recently stolen, state-of-the-art Union army produced Gatling gun. Such a gun, and the catalyst of which kicks off its ambling journey around the houses, is foretold during the film's opening; a daring robbery of the train upon which this gun was being transported seeing the perpetrators initially hidden away in the mail waggon with their target granted as much secrecy as it lies hidden away from public view on account of the top Union army officials whom have denied its existence in the newspapers. The thieves, however, know about its presence and the manner in which they infiltrate the train on top of this hints at a sly professionalism very few might be able to match.It is those very salesperson's, a certain Jim Farraday played by Van Johnson and his accomplice Benjy Guderman (Stone) whom stole and are now in possession of the gun; the bedding down in a nearby town of which leads to complication that see it near impossible to get out of there without being found by the enemy whom litter the area, predominantly down to a Union army captain and his crew scouring for all of the bits and pieces which will lead them to the merchandise he's aware is around. Thank heavens, then, for the shining beacon of light that is Richard Boone's Brett Manning; a rough talking, sleazy, fist-fighting tough guy whom offers them a way out of there - then again, maybe not. Manning plays a sly and seedy customer; a womanising, gambling lout whom, it would seem, mingles around and plays guardian to a performing girl whom specialises in that of playing on-stage burlesque as he sits in the office back-stage doing what-not and probably getting a cut of her earnings to boot.The aura, or the reputation that the Gatling gun seemingly has, is highlighted by some character officials speaking of said item. The concerns raised about the gun, in that it is so advanced and so powerful, sees one official doubt that it even exists in this still feeble, pre-modern world, or if it is indeed only a rumour that such a paramount armament exists. Its presence, however, is something another man confirms is true before going on to speak of notions that it would indeed be "terrible" if it were to "fall into the wrong hands", something the film enjoys in a very basic sense of building up an off-screen MacGuffin before having the aforementioned clinical bandits make off with it – when they do, we fear the worst. Farraday and Guderman venture onwards and uncover young Nora (Dru), a nurse at a local manor house she owns whose cart is stuck in a river, Jim's somewhat displeasing attempts at getting to know her seeing him use, again, a false persona as he does with the travelling store to charm her; the bumps in the road as he transports her back seeing her invite the interaction, and despite hearing some different truths about Jim from Gunderman, she appears unperturbed and will continue on as is.The film dares us not to particularly like its leads, Farraday and Guderman; something that is indeed linked to the fact they are thieves and con-men but is more broadly linked to that of a long history of Confederate demonisation embedded within the genre of the American western. In contrast to the rather monstrous Manning, these two are fairly decent folk and it is again to the film's credit that it even attempts to go anywhere near the places it ventures toward come the finale, when ideas of redemption and men seeing the errors of their ways unfold; the film providing us with a chance to reverse prior perception and yet maintain a dramatic edge whilst weaving newfound territory naturally into the proceedings. But the film's sole joy remains observing these scuzzy lowlifes whilst in the throngs of their existence try to outsmart and manoeuvre their way out of trouble, the savage elements linked to that of the overall representation of the Native Americans uneasy in hindsight, but everything else blending well and most of it working rather expertly in the long run.

swanningaround I think this film is highly underrated. I cannot believe it has only been given a rating 4.9. There are many inferior films with much higher rating, which are not half as good as this film, and not as well acted. The film covers all sorts of new themes for a 1954 movie. There is espionage, love, civil war, patriotism, gallantry, Indian wars, state of the art weaponry and of course great acting. The film flows nicely and there is always a feeling of mystery and suspense. Van Johnson is a great actor in any movie, and Richard Boone is the archetypal bad guy. The film ends up with a theme of reconciliation and chivalry. It is a theme which does not appear in modern day movies, where bad and treachery always seems to triumph.