The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957)

Let's be realistic.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

One of several films that includes the infamous massacre of a peaceful Cheyenne village at Sand Creek, CO, simply because it was the most accessible location for the perpetrator: Colonel Chivington of the Colorado Territorial Militia(herein claimed to be of the US army). Other films include "Massacre at Sand Creek" and "Soldier Blue". Also, partway through the film, we switched from marauding Cheyenne to marauding Comanche, who would be more relevant to Texas. I'm sure there must be other films where a mass of women took over the usual duties of soldiers because the men were needed elsewhere. I'm familiar with "Wild Women", in which a group of women inmates of a fort prison cell are pressed into service in lower Texas, barricading an abandoned village to fight a Mexican patrol. Another example is "The Man from the Alamo", where Glenn Ford trains the women in a wagon train to fire on a Mexican patrol, after the men are called to join Sam Houston.Audie rides around the north Texas plains, convincing menless women to go to an old broken down mission for safety. Besides Audie, the only man in the mission was Kettle. He came to no good when he stole a horse and rode to his 3 buddies, who promptly strung him up after he told about the women. They came to the mission , but the women scared them off after it was obvious they were up to no good. But, they soon ran into a band of marauding Comanche. Telling them about the women, they rode together back to the mission. But the women had hidden themselves well, so that a superficial look by the Comanche failed to discover them. The 3 men were killed for leading the Comanche astray. Soon there after, a gun was accidentally discharged in the mission, alerting the Comanche that someone was there. The Comanche returned and fired on the fort, killing several women, until Audie sneaked out and killed their medicine man, in the rear, stringing up his body in front of the fort.In the finale, Audie is court martialed by his Union post for desertion and insubordination. But the women somehow got past the guards, into the interrogation room, corroborating what Audie said about their beating off the Comanche. The General decided to drop the charges, and instead served Chivington with a court martial for leading the massacre of Cheyenne. Historically, Chivington was not court martialed. However, he was roundly criticized. He claimed he killed around 200 warriors, but other witnesses said they were mostly women, children and old men. He claimed the massacre would cow the Indians into stopping their raids on settlers, but it had the opposite effect.See it in color at YouTube

An earlier reviewer writes that the title of this Audie Murphy oater suggests a comedy--"F Troop" meets "Petticoat Junction." He can be forgiven this wit since both of those sitcom inanities post-date this western by many years.But in a way he was not far wrong. While not a comedy it has comedic elements, as all good action films should, and it's a merger of two stories that could be described as "The Alamo" meets "Westward the Women".The latter is an (apparently) little known film by William Wellman made six years earlier. Robert Taylor has the Audie Murphy role as wagon-master Buck Wyatt leading a group of mail-order brides from Chicago to California. He's also a hard-nosed martinet whose crew deserts him when they can't obey his orders to stay away from the women, thus setting up a similar scenario. Although not the only male guiding the wagon train west (there are four), the setup is pretty much the same as "Fort Petticoat".The common bond here is Hope Emerson ("Sergeant" Hannah Lacey), a true pro. She was also Patience Hawley in Wellman's film, playing the same character in both, and it's a good one. I believe MGM hoped to establish Emerson as another Marjorie Main but comparisons are invidious and Emerson, a wonderful actress (see "Caged"), inevitably came off second to Main. Sadly, she died a few years after this movie was made.Many of the same elements populate both movies, particularly in how the man trains the women, who grow beyond his tutelage (and leadership) after overcoming difficult odds, but "Fort Petticoat" manages to come up with a few new turns of its own.As for Audie, he does well--reprising Buck Wyatt in spirit but remaining true to his own personality. He plays as well off Emerson as Taylor did in "Westward" and both make this an entertaining movie.This movie can be frequently found on Encore Westerns but if you can catch "Westward the Women" on TCM, I urge you to do so. It's a bit grittier but the two are a credit to each other thanks to Hope Emerson.

Audie Murphy plays Union officer Lt. Frank Hewitt, who disobeys his officer's orders to massacre Native Americans at Sand Creek. He deserts his unit as he knows the massacre will only incite the tribe to take revenge upon American citizens. He heads home for Texas, where his friends and neighbours consider him a traitor, for defecting the calvary. With the proof of an impending tribal attack, Hewitt must train the women to defend themselves, as all the men are away at war. He trains them at an abandoned missionary, and when the angry Indians arrive, the women defeat them. Hewitt the deserter is found not-guilty during court-martial proceedings, however his former commander is not so lucky, and is charged with the Sand Creek carnage. This film is surprisingly very good. The cast gives solid performances, with the stand-out mention of Hope Emerson and young Kathryn Grant playing Murphy's feisty love interest. There are some good tense and gripping scenes, that take place during the attack on the mission. Murphy's performance is cool as he whips the woman into fighting shape. I really enjoyed this entertaining film and suggest it's worth a look.

Lt. Frank Hewitt absconds from the Union Army to warn fellow Texans that Indian attacks are inevitable due to a massacre at Sand Creek. What he finds is that all the men are away fighting in the Confederate Army so the homesteaders are mainly made up of women. Having to first earn their respect and trust, he convinces them to prepare for an Indian attack at a dilapidated mission station, teaching the majority of them to shoot and fend for themselves in hand to hand combat. Badly outnumbered when the day comes, it will take more than the hand of god to stop this from being another massacre to further darken the South.What an absolute blast this picture is, for sure it's steeped in B movie traditions, but led by the amiable Audie Murphy as Hewitt, the picture is certainly most engaging and never lets the discerning viewer down. Perhaps struggling to shake off the need to be overtly serious, it is none the less dramatic at times and not without serious moments that put the ladies of the piece firmly in a good light. It's not a feminist picture of course because the characters still need their men to be with them, Hewitt naturally creates a little pitter-patter amongst some of the women, what the picture chiefly portrays is that these gals can step up to the plate when required, and more crucially, the film doesn't rely on sentimentality to raise the picture's worth.Kathryn Grant (soon to me Mrs Bing Crosby), Hope Emerson, Jeanette Nolan, Peggy Maley and Patricia Tiernan are just some of the female cast that make this a hugely enjoyable picture. From the intriguing training sequences as Hewitt gets tough with the gals, to the thrilling rush of the Indian attack on the mission, The Guns Of Fort Petticoat is a very enjoyable Western that most certainly doesn't waste the time of the viewer. 7/10