Der rote Reiter

Greatly enjoyed this film which had great photography in Arizona and showed in great detail the Native American dwellings and customs. Tyrone Power(Constable Duncan MacDonald),"The Eddy Duchin Story",'56, played a young Canadian Mounted Police Constable who was on a mission to rescue settlers who were captured and held hostage. Thomas Gomez,(Natayo Smith),"Key Largo",'48 gave an outstanding performance as a guide to Duncan through the Indian country and demanded great rewards for his services. Penny Edwards,(Emerald Neeley),"Two Guys from Texas",'48 was the only white woman around and was greatly abused through out the entire picture. Despite all the conflicts among the Indians and the White folks, Duncan MacDonald was able to adopt a young boy as his son with the Indian community blessings. I have seen Thomas Gomez perform in many Classic films, but I truly enjoyed his great acting abilities in this film and regret he had a very short lived career.

Mediocre and unexceptional western dealing with a tale of the early days of Canadian Mounted Police and their relationships with the Indians . Average Western has Tyrone power as the Mountie on an assignment to the US to stop rebel Indians led by Stuart Randall as Standing Bear and Cameron Mitchell as Konah and their Cree tribes from launching an all out attack . As Tyrone , accompanied by Natayo: Thomas Gómez, has to keep rescuing hostages throughout the movie , as well as battling Cameron Mitchell and help harassed settlers fight Indians .There are White captives to be rescued : Robert Horten , Penny Edwards , too , and building a thrilling final confrontation .

Spectacular , though medium budget western , with thrills , fights , go riding , and being mostly shot at an Indian location .Cast is pretty good , it stars Tyrone Power , a fine actor who performed some classic swashbucklers, until his early death in Spain when he was shooting Salomon and Queen of Sheba by King Vidor ; However , he is miscast in a very minor stuff for his usual standards . Costars Penny Edwards as the heroíne in distress who is kidnapped by Indians , she spent several years languishing in Roy Rogers Westerns . Support cast is frankly well ,such as : Cameron Mitchell , and Stuart Randall as two Indian chiefs who are raiding Montana from their Canadian reservation , Robert Horton as a nasty hostage , Thomas Gomez as a fatty scout and uncredited Richard Boone , Earl Holliman and Michael Rennie as narrator . Colorfully and attractively cinematographed in pale but brilliant Technicolor by the professional cameraman Harry Jackson , Universal's ordinary .

The movie belongs to Canadian Mountie sub-genre including important titles as 1947 Unconquered by Cecil B DeMille , 1954 Saskatchewan by Raoul Walsh and 1961 Canadians by Burt Kennedy motion picture was regularly directed by Joseph M Newman. He was a prolific assistant director , writer and producer . As a filmmaker he realized a lot of films with no much success , and directing all kinds of genres with penchant for Western , Noir and Gangster movies such as The George Raft story , A Thunder of drums , The lawbreakers, The story of Arnold Rothstein , Tarzan the ape man , The big circus , Fort massacre , Flight to Hong Kong , Kiss of fire , Red skies of Montana , 711 Ocean drive, Vendetta , Outcasts of poker flat , Abandoned , Northwest Rangers , Don't Talk , Women in hiding, among others .

The absence of a strong story line in the screenplay alleviates the overall effect of "Pony Soldier," but as filmed against a breathtaking Technicolor panorama, Joseph M Newman's film guarantees attention for its qualities of vivid action and the interesting authenticity with which life in last century times is depicted among the Cree Indians and the Mounted Police...

These sequences abound in effective atmosphere and are increased substantially by Newman's splendid choice of players (Cameron Mitchell, Thomas Gomez and Penny Edwards) to surround head man Tyrone Power (in a colorful uniform) assigned to stop a tribe of hostile Crees from going on wage war against the U. S. Cavalry...

The film - free from weeds - stands out as a little gem of Technicolor beauty... It contains: a spectacular attack on a wagon train; hostages held as a pledge; enraged Indians riding into the hills to burn at the stake a beautiful innocent girl; and a battle during which a handsome hero is saved by the arrow of an Indian lad...

Tyrone Power is the title character in this good western whose mission is to effect the return of the Cree tribe from the United States back to Canada in the name of the Queen. Of course, the Indians just want to hunt and return to their old way of life and to lift a few scalps along the way. Power is aided by a trail-savvy, talkative half-breed scout who provides droll comic relief along the way. The film has more dialogue than action, although white hostages held by the Indians lead to some tense moments for the Mountie. The officer's peace efforts are threatened by a band of hostile Indians, with most of the skirmishes coming at the end of the picture. The movie has a great cast of western character actors and the camera work is also very good.

I can only say, poor Tyrone.

You make a fortune for your studio. You ask to make Nightmare Alley. Zanuck hates it. As a reward, you're handed mostly dreck until your contract is up.

Pony Soldier from 1952 is such dreck. It is in color, and Tyrone as Canadian Mountie Duncan Macdonald looks spectacular.

It was filmed in Arizona, and he got a nice romance out of it with Helen Frye, ex-wife of the founder of TWA. You can look it up on the Internet.

Film wise, it's 1876, and MacDonald, a newcomer to the Mounties, is given a dangerous assignment. The Cree Indians, now in Montana, took two hostages for their safe return to Canada. MacDonald's mission is to free the hostages.

It's nice to look at, but that's about it. I spent the film feeling terrible for Power. Thankfully once the Fox shackles were off, he would be on the rise again. A little late, since six years after this film, he was dead.