Warpath (1951)

Wonderful character development!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Edmond O'Brien was excellent, as usual, as was Tucker. But I may have missed something plot-wise; Dean Jagger's daughter appears to have no knowledge of her father's earlier career as a criminal, nor, more bizarrely, of the fact that his name had originally been Sam Morrison before he changed it to Quade to enlist in the cavalry! Normally that's the kind of thing a daughter would notice... Was this explained anywhere? If so it went right by me.

The twist is the hero joins the cavalry to settle a personal revenge. The island battle was great in my opinion. It seems to be based loosely on the historical Battle of Beecher's Island (in Colorado)named after Lieutenant Beecher who was killed during the battle. I liked the some of the attention to historically correct items such as using different colored scarves instead of everyone wearing yellow scarves and the use of Kepi hats when in garrison. What wasn't correct is the use of chevrons and officer shoulder straps on the shirts but that I can overlook since practically all the movies of that time have that error. In summary, it was a good story, could have been a little better but standard western entertainment.

O'Brien and Haskin were to make a second movie the same year :"silver city";although "war path" has Polly Bergen instead of Yvonne De Carlo (the former can't compete with the latter as far as beauty and seduction are concerned ),it's got a better screenplay ,more interesting characters and O'Brien ,who plays again an educated man (engineer in "silver" ,lawyer before joining the army in "war") seems more interested in his part.The title is well chosen ;"warpath" has two meanings in the plot: 1)O'Brien's fiancée was killed in an armed robbery and he learns that two of her murderers have joined the army So he becomes a private ,to his officers' dismay, cause "he was a great officer in the civil war".But this time ,it's a way to satisfy a desire for personal revenge.2)The Indians are on "warpath" too and they play the part of the villains ;Custer is considered THE hero of the era and it's interesting to compare the way he is depicted with those of seventies works such as "litle big man" .All in all,the most endearing character is O' Hara (Forrest Tucker):it's not exactly the average villain and he has some surprises in store for the audience.

O'Brien plays a man whose fiancé was murdered by three bandits. After killing one, he finds that another one is in the cavalry, so joins the cavalry to find him. He doesn't know what the two men look like, but they soon realize he is onto them. Along the way, he proves his worth, and is made an officer. He falls in love with a woman whose father may be one of the men he is looking for. After some skirmishes he is captured, along the woman, her father (Dean Jagger), Forest Tucker, Paul Fix, and others, and they await their deaths at the hands of Native Americans. First class story of revenge, and an all star cast, including the afore mentioned.