Der Speer der Rache

Victor Mature playing Chief Crazy Horse gives one of his best performances from the Fifties. Although an Italian/Swiss would never be cast as a Lakota Sioux today, American Indians have no reason to criticize or be concerned with what Mature did with the role of one of their greatest heroes.

Curiously enough the Battle Of The Little Big Horn is given a short shrift by the film. Which in a way is good because Crazy Horse had been plaguing the white man for well over a decade when he emerged as a warrior chief of the Lakota with as much natural military ability as Cochise of the Apaches to the south. The action of the film is over a ten year period in terms of when Mature takes the role of the adult Crazy Horse.

The film is told from the point of view of John Lund who plays a white trader who was ambushed by the Sioux's rivals the Shoshone and is taken in and cared for by the Lakota. When Mature is courting Suzan Ball, Lund does him a solid and he's then got the Lakota welcome mat out for him.

Chief Crazy Horse was the farewell performance of Suzan Ball who was Lucille's cousin, also from Jamestown, New York died much too young after this film was completed. She had a bright promise and real beauty to give the big screen and small.

There are some fictional subplots working, but in the main the film is a true account. A really good western about a true warrior.

I don't know how faithful it is to the true story of Crazy Horse, but it is not an anti Indian western, on the contrary. Victor Mature is rather convincing in the lead role, but not as convincing as Jeff Candler in BROKEN ARROW. George Sherman was a good western film director and he did his best at Universal Pictures LAST OF THE FAST GUNS for instance. Splendid natural settings, landscapes galore and action scenes too. Awesome atmosphere helped by an adequate score. It remains classic though, do not expect unusual lines.

This movie is based on some historical facts about Crazy Horse, who is played as an adult by Victor Mature. I first saw this movie as a kid in the 60's and fell in love with it. However, seeing it years later as an adult, I noticed certain discrepancies, like none of the main characters were portrayed by Native people. My family is of Cherokee descent, so this was important to me. I also wondered why Susan Ball, although beautiful, looked so stiff. Victor Mature wasn't old when this was made, but he looked too old to play this character who was in his 30's when he died. Honestly, the two things that captured my attention as a kid were the fight scenes and the music. The music was heavenly when parts of the prophecy came to pass. It creeped me out as a child, but I can really appreciate the score now. The movie is not boring. Not in the least. I still watch it from time to time and it's still one of my favorites. But now, I understand that the Hollywood prejudice that laced its creation can't be compared with the reality of the Native person who inspired the story.

This is the story of Crazy Horse, who from a very young age was expected to go onto great things for his people. Taking in his youth and finally onto his accent as military leader, Chief Crazy Horse tells things from the Indian point of view.

This is a good and reliable Western picture, though sadly not using Indian actors to ram home the fact it's telling things from the Indian side of the vista, it's none the less unharmed by Victor Mature (Crazy Horse) and the rest of the white man cast. It's difficult for myself to personally gauge just what the makers were aiming for, was it honest portrayals? Or did they hope to make a stirring picture about a man proclaimed as a true great American General? Because they really don't achieve either of those things. But as I have said in my heading, this film doesn't waste one's time, it is a very interesting story, and technically it has its treats (filming in the actual Black Hills location a definite bonus for the story), yet ultimately I came away thinking that we could still do with a rousing epic to fully capture this man's biography.

Because ultimately it's a story well worth telling and a story worth telling with grace and elegance. 5/10

Victor Mature is Crazy Horse in this potted version of the Lakota Sioux and the war over the Black Hills, told from a viewpoint entirely on the side of the Indians.

Originally planned as a vehicle for Jeff Chandler, but that didn't happen. Mature was quite capable of giving a strong performance, but required a good script and strong direction, which were not available here. Leading lady Suzanne Ball had lost a leg to cancer five months before filming began, and so her movement was limited; she would die four months after this was released.

DP Harold Lipstein gives some nice, woodcut-like images, particularly in the long shots, resulting in a watchable but undistinguished Universal Shaky A production. With John Lund, Ray Danton, and David Janssen.