I suppose in today's world of having to put up warnings for a number of old-time movies because they contain material that needs to remind today that yesterday existed and that it was not today, I may need to apologize for having watched "White Eagle" (1932) and am going to review it the way I saw it and admit: I really liked it...
Now, that said, my head bowed, and my coffee cup in front of me in case I need to cough at some unexpected place in today's world of sanctimonious perfection:
I watched "White Eagle" (1932) with Buck Jones, Barbara Weeks, Robert Ellis, Jason Robards, Sr., Ward Bond, Robert Elliott, Bob Kortman, Russell Simpson, Jimmy House, and so many others, including, of course, Silver the horse, Jones' trusty companion in most of his early Western films. Jones is a great rider for the Pony Express, greatly respected by the town-folk and all the employees of Pony Express - but, he's also a full-blooded American Indian. The Pony Express experiences a number of horse thefts, mail thefts, even deaths of its riders. We know it is at the expense of Robert Ellis and his gang of henchmen, especially Ward Bond. Ellis is posing as a government man who is also buying horses with fake government warrants. Meanwhile, besides, his gang is holding up stage coaches, and so forth. If it's bad, it's associated somehow with Ellis and his gang. Nobody suspects anything of Ellis because when anything goes wrong, his gang has been dressed up as Indians. Jones, raised by Russell Simpson, a chief of a tribe wishing Jones would come back and be their leader for the future, now figures out that the Indians are not guilty of anything, and that someone has used a ruse to make all look that way. Enter, too, Barbara Weeks, sister of Jason Robards, Sr. She quickly falls for Jones. But, of course, her brother and all the town won't allow any of that. No Indian can be loved by a white woman. Etc., etc., etc. Of course, Jones isn't an Indian afterall. His father was killed by Russell Simpson (remember, this great character actor - a white - was playing an Indian) and Jones taken as a revenge motive and then raised by Simpson as an Indian, Simpson never letting on to Jones. You can easily figure out the ending.
This was a very well done "B" Western. It almost could be considered an A- feature. It does last 65 minutes, about ten minutes more than the typical "B" of the day, and these Westerns made money for Harry Cohn at Columbia. Well acted, well-scripted, well-directed, well-edited. Ward Bond steals every scene he's in as the heavy - and he's a heavy's heavy - bad to the bone. Bob Kortman, a baddie in nearly every film he ever was in - and from as early as William S. Hart days - plays the sheriff here, quite a switch, and he's got a number of lines, and he acquits himself quite well, thank you. Jimmy House, a gangly kid who admires everything about White Eagle and plays a sort-of son figure to Jones, is also very good here. Russell Simpson, one of Hollywood's legendary character actors who appeared in nearly 220 films, here shows that he can play nearly any part, but I'll admit that his Indian chief characterization is rather stagy and stolid. Jim Thorpe, who's also an Indian chief in the film, and uncredited, or someone like Charles Stevens, Geronimo's grandson, could have played the part, yes, but they would have been too young looking. There indeed were a number of native American actors who could have played the part. But - they didn't. Jones had to be "whited" to be able to clinch Weeks at the parting shot. A lot coulda, shoulda, but it wadn't. Sorry. I still enjoyed the film and highly recommend it. For the record this lasts 65 minutes, and is a feature: in 1941 Jones reprised the rôle and made a nearly 5 hour serial out of it. At one time this story must have been very, very popular.
Oh, yes, I'll admit we've come a long way, and we've a long way to go. What we've done's a good thing. Okay, sermon over.
