Zwischen zwei Feuern

Kirk Douglas is portrayed as a lovable jack-the-lad here, always ready to fight for right. He's got a winning quip, a twinkle in his eye and a heart of a lion. I beg to differ.

For starters, right at the beginning he sees an Indian squaw he likes, taking a bath in a lake. So what does he do? Forget about roses or chocolates... he virtually ASSAULTS her to get a kiss, and then steals her knife into the bargain. Later on, he does the exact same thing. Guess what... this brutish behaviour actually makes her FALL IN LOVE with the maniac, and she has sex with him in the forest (only implied though... this WAS made in 1955 after all). This infatuation also causes him to divert a wagon train of white folk on a two day detour from their destination into hostile Indian territory... just so he can sneak a peek at her. This leads to a huge fight, in which many lives are lost on both sides. Some 'hero'.

If you ignore the movie's celebration of this psycho, and the dubious underlying message that we should all resort to Stone Age methods to get the girl of our dreams, there is quite a bit to enjoy here. Full scale battles, majestic cinematography, a compelling story, the works. There are amusing supporting characters, including a young guy who wants to photograph the whole Wild West with his newfangled invention known as a 'camera', and a tough widow with a little boy who is constantly proposed to by a boring fertiliser-obsessed farmer. Sadly for him, her affections (which remain unrequited) lie with Kirk Douglas... and even more bafflingly, her son idolises this lunatic too. Suddenly, soil is starting to seem more appealing by the minute...

So, yeah. Not a classic, but a rousing enough spectacle. With a protagonist I love to hate. Next... 6/10

It's called The Indian Fighter but oddly, in Andre de Toth's post Civil War western, Kirk Douglas playing Indian scout, Johnny Hawks, is the paleface who has the closest relationship with the local Sioux tribe and its leader Red Cloud. And while there appear to be quite a few native Americans doing their bit as tribal extras, the 4 main Indian roles are taken by 3 white guys and an Italian girl. To be fair I guess, it needs to be pointed out that the film is 66 years old, when prominent Native American actors weren't exactly a dime a dozen roaming Hollywood streets.

And Hollywood streets and backlots is not where The Indian Fighter was filmed. It's setting is Oregan and the movie makes particularly good use of the ruggedly scenic locations on tap and wisely even takes some time out for some diverting philosophic conversations, about the possibilities and long - term ramifications of a shrinking frontier.

Douglas's Hawks is not even your conventional western hero. He takes on more of an anti - hero status, with much of the dramatic content occurring as a direct result of him taking his eye off the ball for long periods, whilst being distracted by the charms of Red Cloud's daughter, Ohanti. Elsa Martinelli as Onahti is almost believable in the role, if you ignore her pronounced Italian accent. Anachronistically, she is also asked to act out one of those "Stop! Stop! I love it" routines which periodically reared their heads in 20th century movie - making, where the poor old, put upon female, is asked to put aside bullying, sexist male behaviour, in demonstrating she was actually receptive to it.

The narrative, whether deliberate or otherwise, ends up quite morally correctly, in the corner of the Indians. But everything is rather awkwardly put together. This includes the 2 cheesily, funny aquatic, nude scenes; one to introduce the character of Ohanti and the second to quite ludicrously finish, the film on an almost farcical note, with Hawks and Ohanti romping in the rapids together.

The Indian Fighter will be remembered as an entertaining vehicle for a somewhat over-acting Kirk Douglas, whilst attempting to portray Native Americans in a more positive light, but through a distinctly patronising means.

With a title like THE Indian FIGHTER, you'd think that this was the standard "let's kill all the Indians" type movie so typical in the 1940s and 50s. However, like some of the better cowboy and Indian films of the era (such as the great FORT APACHE and the not so great CHEYENNE), the reason for the Indians hating the Whites is explained--they are not just unreasoning savages or idiots, but people justifiably angry at their mistreatment by the invading Whites. Because of this, I appreciated the film and was also happy that it also wasn't like some of the newer breed of films that paint the Indians and completely noble and the Whites as the epitome of evil! It did seem well balanced AND featured mostly Indians in Indian parts (though, oddly, they chose an Italian lady to play the female leading Indian!).

The rest of the film, while entertaining and having the usual great performance by Kirk Douglas, also is very simplistic and poorly thought out at times. For example, the motivation for why Douglas saved Walter Mathau's sorry butt at the beginning of the film is unclear. It defied common sense not to just let the Indians kill Mathau. Plus, at the end of the film, Douglas' confrontation with Douglas and Lon Chaney, Jr. was a long time coming but was resolved awfully quickly--making it seem very anti-climactic. Still, overall it does stand out from the HUGE number of look alike Westerns and it is worth your time.

Filmed in Oregon, Andre De Toth's film is a frontier adventure tale of the Great Sioux Nation whose heritage and culture run through the silver screen like a strong steady stream...

The motion picture touches up new ground by giving Indians a little sex appeal... Douglas, as a vigorous frontier scout, tries to attract the Indian maiden Onahti, played by the attractive brunette Elsa Martinelli... The Italian actress is seen bathing in the fresh waters of a river and later captured nude in a transparent voluminous stream...

"The Indian Fighter" concerns the efforts of a wagon train heading for Oregon in 1870... The train stops at a small frontier fort when the Sioux forbid them to pass through their territory... A seasoned scout and Indian expert, Johnny Hawks (Douglas), is assigned by the army to aid them...

Hawks rapidly goes to the camp of the dignified Chief Red Cloud (Eduard Franz) who explains that the trouble was started by white whiskey traders, trying to rob the Indians of their gold...

Hawks promises to settle th situation and the Chief agrees to appear at the fort to sign a peace treaty... However, his aggressive brother Grey Wolf (Harry Landers) repudiates peace talk because he despises all white men as dishonorable...

Douglas' portrait of Hawks is suitably vigorous and possibly comes close to depicting the actual character of such a man - Hawks is a jealous self-confident man who considers the West as his milieu... He declines to open up the West for civilization... He considers the West as 'a beautiful woman' and refuses to share her with anybody... He is a brave warrior who fights Sioux-style, and a shooter who never miss a snake... He respects the Indians as vanquished valiant enemies who deserve to be treated as human beings...

I've always enjoyed Kirk Douglas films in general and he's usually very good in westerns. But The Indian Fighter quite frankly is a pumped up B western.

Kirk produced this one as well and was able to get a good cast of familiar faces in westerns. He even got his ex-wife, Diana Douglas to appear as a widow traveling west on a wagon train with her son.

Kirk Douglas is Johnny Hawks who is a scout guiding a wagon train west to Oregon. The film opens with him checking out the naked Elsa Martinelli taking a bath in a creek. Pleasure before business and he continues on to the village where he finds out Elsa is the daughter of Chief Eduard Franz.

And that sets the tone for the film. When Douglas should be concerned about the safety of the people he's working for, he's off trying to court Elsa. His preoccupation with her almost causes disaster to the train.

Action there is though, including a nicely staged Indian attack on an army post. And the whole film was shot in Oregon on location quite nicely. I believe some of this same area was used in Kirk Douglas's later western The Way West.

Kirk Douglas's heroes are usually flawed and quite three dimensional. But this film has a hero I could not really get a rooting interest for.