Kampf am roten Fluß

Two Confederate agents (Van Johnson and Milburn Stone) head west in order to bring a Gatling gun back to the South in the hopes of winning the Civil War. In order to travel with the famous gun through hostile Commanche territory they hire Indian trader Richard Boone to lead the way. Johnson and Stone hide their true identities by masquerading as sales reps for a cure all tonic and actually perform a song together in order to draw in a crowd. Amongst the crowds are various Confederate sympathizers who slip them concealed notes about where to go next. Also in the mix is Joanne Dru who plays a health care provider and who falls for Johnson's ruse as the tonic sales rep while gradually discovering his true Confederate identity. The action is mostly laughable, especially a big fight with Indians, though they (the Commanches) do get their hands on the Gatling gun and get a chance to use it. However, any film with Richard Boone in it is worth watching. He does not disappoint here as a sore tempered loser at poker and treacherous Indian trader. A few years later the film Rio Conchos portrayed a similar story of the Civil War out west, and this one also starred Boone. It's about ten times better than Siege At Red River.

I don't know why, but the Van Johnson's role seems to have been inspired by a Randolph Scott's character in a western from the forties, for Warner, where he played a Confederate soldier fighting for something lost in advance; of course as a Confederate officer.... Maybe I am wrong, I have not in mind all the Randolph Scott's characters, but this Confederate soldier trying to do his best to win or at best change the course of the war, I have seen this before. However this lead character can't be shown as the evil guy, only ambivalent. This is not my Rudolph Maté's western favorite. Worth watching for any western buff.

This western is about two unreconstructed southerners who steal a Gatling gun from Union soldiers which winds up in the hands of an outlaw who sells the gun to Indians for gold. The film dwells on character development and takes a great deal of time detailing the two southern agents' travels from town to town delivering coded messages and trying to arrange a rendezvous with a contact to deliver the Gatling. The picture is another Blue vs. Gray conflict in the west with the Indians on the warpath against the soldiers, a plot angle that has been done better in other westerns. Van Johnson is okay as the hero and Joanne Dru is the gal who falls for Johnson. Richard Boone is a standout as a gun-running renegade in a role as a heavy he would reprise in other westerns. The supporting cast and color photography are good.

This well unfolded tale is set at the end of the American Civil War, 1861 - 1865, it concerns the battle for one of the first Gatlin Machine Gun. As a confederate officer called Farraday, Van Johnson, posing as a Medicine Man along with his colleague, Milburn Stone , go throughout towns singing and delivering their supplies. They ride on a carriage captioning : Doc Sunderland, Muscle Builder, great scientific discovery. Meanwhile, the bad boy, Richard Boone, takes the Gatlin gun so that he can sell it to the violent Indians. Along the way captain Farraday falls in love for a beautiful nurse, Joanne Dru who formerly played a classic Western : Red River by Howard Hawks . The last and most desperate battle in the winning of the West!. And the two best soldiers in the line that day were the Giorgia captain and the Yankee spitfire!.

Decent Western in B-style with plenty of intrigue for good measure, noisy action, thrills , Indian attacks and cavalry charges . A plain, simple and nice plot deals with an undercover captain named Farraday who tries to prevent a Gatlin machine gun passes into the hands of hostile Indians . Varied cast provide adequate interpretation. But the rousing musical score by Lionel Newman, Cryl Mockridge, as well as appropriate production design by Lyle Wheeler, George Patrick and colorful cinematography in brilliant Technicolor by Edward Cronjager are the real stars of the film . Main starring, Van Johnson and Joanne Dru, who replaced Jean Peters, are pretty well. And support cast is frankly good, such as : Jeff Morrow, Milburn Stone, Craig Hill, among others. Special mention for Richard Boone who steals the show, giving a terrific acting as a strong villian.

This is an attractive western with action all the way produced by short-lived Panoramic Productions, being professionally directed by Rudolph Maté, though it has failures and some stock-shots. Maté, 1898-1964, was a good craftsman initially working in Europe, he even photographed the classic Passion of Joan of Arc by Karl Theodor Dreyer , as Nazi government rising, he then emigrated America where worked as a prestigious cameraman, and subsequently directed various films of all kinds of genres with penchant for thrillers, dramas, Adventure, Sci-Fi and westerns such as DOA, The dark past, Union Station, Branded, When worlds collide, The green glove, Second chance, The black shield of Falworth, The violent men, Three violent people, Deep six and For the first time. Rating : 6.5/10. Well worth watching.

An unpretentious Western totally unlike ' The Unforgiven ' which I reviewed just before this film. This is the kind of Western that is there as simple entertainment for those who like the genre. It gives a picture of the West as it really never was and the audiences of the time ( early to middle 1950's ) loved its nonsense because it kept to its formula. This formula consisted of colourful scenery, villains and heroes, women with improbably good clothes and makeup, a few battle scenes, horses and Indians and a lot of delightful hokum. The epitome of this is Saloon Bar music with the same ' tune ' played in film after film; 2Oth Century Fox was the past master of this ridiculous fiction. The whole concept of this image of the West was there to lull its audience into lies about how conquered America was constructed to put its indigenous people into Reservations. I accept the lie of this image of how the West was won as simple and superficial enjoyment; a guilty pleasure that entertains. This is totally unlike the Western with a message and often a fake finger wagging liberalism. This liberalism was to ease a conscience; a collective conscience of guilt and I dislike it. As they say in Film Noir ' it was too late for tears '. This simple film is all about the Gatling Gun and how it must not end up in Native American hands. It has a ridiculous song which is endearing and has Van Johnson, Joanne Dru and Richard Boone. An ' A ' cast in a basically' B ' film, and they all act to form and just as the audience expected them to do. There is a stirring climax and the Gatling Gun ( a horrible form of human extermination ) and it is made to look like a naughty toy. The mindless child I still am thoroughly enjoyed it.