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.

BeSummers Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

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

Spikeopath War Paint is directed by Lesley Selander and adapted to screenplay by Richard Alan Simmons and Martin Berkeley. It stars Robert Stack, Charles McGraw, Joan Taylor, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Robert Wilke and Walter Reed. Music is by Arthur Lange and Emil Newman, and cinematography by Gordon Avil.A cavalry patrol trying to deliver a peace treaty to Gray Cloud are being destroyed from within by an Indian brother and sister.Paper of lies!Filmed out of the superb presence of Death Valley, War Paint is as solid as one of that location's rocks. The title hints at some cheapo "B" Oater, the kind that is all hooray and jingoistic as the cavalry mow down the Indians, but that is not the case. Though an air of familiarity exists, with the core of the story about an army unit literally dying out in the desert, with saboteurs operating within, there's a two sides of the coin pinch in the narrative, with dialogue nicely written with thought and sincerity. Opening with a scalping, drama and suspense is never far away, so as the group implode, with suspicions, thirst and gold fever taking a hold, the viewer is always intrigued as to who will survive and will the treaty ever reach its destination? Plus you may find yourself feeling very thirsty during the viewing...Very nicely performed and handled with underrated tidy hands by Selander, this is well worth a look by Western fans. 7/10

gordonl56 WAR PAINT 1953This 1953 western was a Bel Air Production released through United Artists. The cast includes, Robert Stack, Keith Larsen, Charles McGraw, Robert Wilke, Douglas Kennedy, Joan Taylor, Peter Graves, Paul Richards and John Doucette.A Lieutenant in the U.S. Calvary, Robert Stack, is assigned to deliver a peace treaty to a US government official. The official is then to forward the treaty to the chief of an Apache tribe. What Stack does not know is that the Government type and his escort are all dead. The Chief's son, Keith Larsen and daughter, Joan Taylor, have other ideas about the treaty. They have ambushed and killed the Government man and his escort. The pair really want war between the whites and the Apache.Not finding the Government type at the trading post meeting place, Stack decides to deliver the treaty himself. And as it so happens, the Chief's son, Larsen, is there and offers to lead Stack and his small patrol to his father. The treaty is time sensitive and must be delivered within 9 days. Larsen tells Stack that it will take 6 days to reach the native village. Being Death Valley, the Cavalry loads up with full canteens and some pack horses with several casks of extra water. Of course things start to go wrong the further they go into the desert. A rock fall smashes most of the water casks. An important load with their maps is lost over a cliff etc. Stack suspects that the Indian, Larsen might be the guilty party, but he is always in sight when the "accidents" happen. Of course the viewer knows it is really Larsen's sister, Miss Taylor doing the deeds. She is trailing the patrol at a distance during the day and doing a bit of sabotage at night. With their water nearly exhausted, Larsen offers to take then to a water hole, but it will delay the trip to the village by a day. The day is wasted because the water hole is dried up. That night all their horses take off and the group is now on foot. Stack is bound and determined to deliver the treaty. The men now stumble onto a small water hole. The hole however is full of bad water which one of the men drinks. The man, Paul Richards is soon dead. One of troopers now goes of his rocker from lack of water and blows out his brains. Now Stack finds out that the Indian, Larsen has been leading them in a big circle. A sound beating from several of the troopers soon has Larsen coughing up what he has done. He wants a bloody conflict so all the tribes will join in driving the whites out. Another of the troopers now steps up and shoots Larsen dead before Stack can stop him.Stack and his Sgt, Charles McGraw now decide to send one man ahead to deliver the documents. They give the man, Douglas Kennedy all the remaining water and will follow as best they can. Kennedy however is ambushed the next day by Larsen's sister, Taylor. There is brisk exchange of rounds with Kennedy going down for the count. Kennedy though manages to pink Taylor in the forehead knocking her out. Needless to say Stack and the others find Taylor and the dead trooper. Stack quickly puts two and two together and puts Taylor under guard. The men however are all going a tad wacko from lack of water. Several of the men, Wilkie, Graves and Doucette are all for having their way with the woman. Taylor tells Stack that she will take them to some nearby water. She leads them up the hills to an old mine and tells them there is a well inside. Most of the men rush inside for a look. What they find is not water, but piles of gold. The men of course are now overwhelmed with gold lust. They decide to kill Stack and Sgt McGraw, then "force" Taylor to really lead them to water. Then they will load up on gold and disappear.Stack collects a round in the arm before he can talk sense into Graves and company. Miss Taylor now decides it would be in her best interest to really show the men the water spring. The men's thirst for water is slackened, but not their thirst for gold. Rifles and pistols are pulled and shots ring out. The only survivors are Stack, Miss Taylor and Peter Graves. It takes a full-fledged knockdown, drag out fistfight, followed by a battle with knives before Graves is finished off. Miss Taylor has now decided to change teams and helps Stack deliver the treaty to her father. This well-crafted B western was directed by veteran programmer man, Lesley Selander. Between 1936 and1968, Selander worked on 145 diff films and television series. This Pathecoler film was shot on location in Death Valley and is well worth a watch imo. Producers Howard W Koch and Aubrey Schenck would score with a whole series of well-made B western, war and noir films during the 1950's. These include BIGHOUSE USA, FORT YUMA, CANYON CROSSROADS, THREE BAD SISTERS, GHOST TOWN, CRIME AGAINST JOE, HOT CARS, TOMAHAWK TRAIL, WAR DRUMS and HELL BOUND.

David Allen "War Paint" (1953) starring Robert Stack is a good "mission across the desert" movie with good actors, an OK script, and portrays US Army deserters who murder loyal Army soldiers and try to murder their commanding officer, and almost succeed.Very few movies portray this important military discipline problem which has happened often in US and other Army military history.US Army officers are issued sidearms (handguns) to defend themselves against enlisted men they command who may decide to disobey orders and murder the commander who gave them orders they disobey.During the War In Vietnam, the phenomenon of enlisted men murdering officers who commanded them was publicized and often called "fragging." Enlisted men who attack and try to murder officers, and sometimes succeed, is not new to military experience. Leading a military unit is dangerous for many reasons, not only because of enemy fire, but due to "friendly fire" from soldiers part of one's military group, which "friendly fire" is, sadly and tragically, sometimes intentional.Murdered officers killed by their own men is not new in military history.This "War Paint" (1953) movie set in desert country about a small military unit led by a single junior (low level) officer (a Lieutenant) played by Robert Stack shows enlisted men, about a dozen of them, made desperate by harsh no-water desert conditions, and greedy due to a gold mine they come across on their way to delivering a peace treaty to an Indian tribal chief (the mission the military group has in the "old West" of post-Civil War 19th century times in the far west desert country. (This movie was shot entirely in California's "Death Valley," located near the Nevada/ California state border, famous for it's moonscape appearance where almost nothing, plant or animal, can live, or does.) The movie story is very simple, and not a little eerie.It was made the same year Robert Stack starred in the first 3-D movie titled "Bwana Devil," set in Africa.....another Robert Stack adventure movie."War Paint" is a good movie for several reasons, including it's unusual and forthright treatment of bad soldiers doing damage to good soldiers, all in the same Army and supposed to be on the "same team." A single female character is included in the cast, and she is supposed to be an Indian maiden, the daughter of the Indian tribal chief the military group seeks to present with a US Govt. peace treaty.The girl is beautiful, dressed in a form fitting doe-skin dress, has a perfect complexion, lovely thick dark braided hair, every hair neatly in place, a very pretty face, and a great, curvy female figure, including chorus girl legs shown off when she rides horses or wrestles around on the ground when attacked by soldiers or attacking the soldiers on her own.She is not a typical movie Indian girl...not submissive, not inarticulate, not demure. She's smart as hell in every way, and shows off her good mental qualities (which match her dazzling appearance) without apology or restraint.Her physical beauty is a welcome visual relief for movie viewers who must watch the movie story set in the dull and ugly moonscape desert environment which oppresses the struggling soldiers for obvious reasons.The Indian maiden does not join the military group until the movie is 2/3rds over, and then she is their hostile and unpleasant prisoner, outspokenly "anti-White man!" But we see her (the audience does) well before the actor soldiers do, and we see her comely features and great legs.She helps her brother, who opposes the US Govt. treaty his father, the Indian tribal chief wants and supports. The brother murders American soldiers, is taken prisoner by the military group, escapes, attacks the group, and finally is killed, all while the younger adult female sister assists her brother and stays out of sight of the military group....until the last 1/3 of the movie when she shoots a straggling soldier during a rifle battle she initiates, and is caught, taken prisoner, and retained as a hostage to present to the Indian tribal chief.Predictably, she befriends handsome Robert Stack, and at the end of the movie, only the two of them (Stack and the girl) remain....all other soldiers part of the "mission across the desert" have died.....most due to being killed by fellow soldiers.The whole movie is unusual and thought provoking, worth seeing.-----------------Written by Tex Allen, SAG-AFTRA movie actor. Visit WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen for more information about Tex Allen. Tex Allen's email address is TexAllen@Rocketmail.Com.See Tex Allen Movie Credits, Biography, and 2012 photos at WWW.IMDb.Me/TexAllen. See other Tex Allen written movie reviews....almost 100 titles.... at: "http://imdb.com/user/ur15279309/comments" (paste this address into your URL Browser)

dougdoepke Good, solid B-Western, despite some of the critical comments. Story follows cavalry patrol through Death Valley in the face of dissension in the ranks and Indian infiltrators. I filled a pitcher of water just looking at the merciless sun-baked terrain. What an excellent supporting cast, familiar faces who lend color and personality by individualizing the troopers beyond their look-alike uniforms. For example, the usually sinister Paul Richards gets a rare sympathetic turn as a lovelorn trooper (Perkins) who unfortunately swallows before he looks and pays the price. There's also the great Robert Wilke lending his usual brand of sneering thuggery to spice up the proceedings. And as the no-nonsense officer, Stack provides a humorless authority that, by golly, is going to get the peace treaty to Gray Cloud even if it kills him and his men. No wonder there's mutiny in the ranks. Of course, this is the glamour-obsessed 1950's when even the Indians resemble Park Avenue models. At the same time, historical accuracy has never been a major Hollywood concern, especially with the Western. So, certain liberties with detail here are not unusual and should not be allowed to deflect a basically good story. On the other hand, there's a nice bit of overlooked irony in this 90-minute horse opera. They may be the villains, but Indians Taslik and Wanima are correct in rejecting the treaty, after all. The white man will indeed ignore the treaty when it suits him, as proved by the mutinous troopers who renounce army authority once they find gold in the parched hills. The irony of the outcome is not made explicit, but it's there anyway. Anyhow, director Selander has a good action premise to work with, plus a colorful cast, and while he's no John Ford, he knows a good scenic set-up when he sees one. Meanwhile, I think I'll have another glass of water.