Fort Vengeance

Fort Vengeance is directed by Lesley Selander and written by Dan Ullman. It stars James Craig, Rita Moreno, Keith Larsen, Reginald Denny, Charles Irwin and Morris Ankrum. Music is by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by Harry Neumann.

As written there's a whole bunch of interest in this otherwise routinely staged Oater. On the surface it's a good brother versus bad brother theme, as Dick (Craig) and Carey Ross (Larsen) flee problems in the States by crossing the border into Canada and join the famed North West Mounted Police. Carey Ross is the tempestuous young brother, Dick Ross the wise and reasonable one. There's trouble afoot with the Indians, Sitting Bull (Michael Granger) is on the warpath and wants to unite with the Canadian Blackfoots to wipe out ole whitey.

Running at just 75 minutes, Selander crams as much action in as he can, unfortunately this is at a cost to narrative promise. The story is set just after Custer's folly, and thus the Canadian Red Coats are dealing with the aftermath of the Blue Coats' ventures down across the border. On the Native American front, Sitting Bull is using devious tactics to stir up his wrath, but Blackfoot leader Crowfoot (Ankrum) still believes peace is possible. But with Carey Ross now a loose cannon on the Red Coat side of the fence, this part of Canada is turning into a powder-keg.

There's a lot of fascinating historical ideas ticking away here, but the nature of this sort of production means nothing is ever expanded upon. The action scenes are competent, though the fisticuffs choreography is poor, and I'm still not exactly sure what Rita Moreno's character has to do with things? She seems to exist just to tease the men, unflatteringly so! The Cinecolor looks washed out, meaning the potential airy vistas lack vibrancy, while you will search far and wide for an acting performance of note.

The various narrative strands jostling with each other for notice in the picture keeps things watchable, while the finale does pack an emotional punch, but ultimately it winds up as a time filling second string feature that is quickly forgotten once the credits do roll. A shame that. 6/10

This is pretty much a routine 50s Oater, set in the Northwest. The story concerns two brothers working for the RCMP, one good, one bad. It gets a boost from a better than average cast, nice color cinematography, and a fine score by Sawtell.

James Craig, long past his Hollywood heyday, and Keith Larsen, a bland, rugged youth, are brothers on the run from the law. They decide to seek refuge in the Great White North. Luckily for them, the recruiting standards for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seem to be low. They don't run any background checks, taking them at their word that they are honest types who would love to take the Queen's shilling. Benign, old duffer Reginald Denny is soon kitting them out with Mountie outfits. Squaw woman Rita Moreno tries to catch the eyes of the brothers. The future EGOT winner did a lot of these "exotic" roles at this stage of her career, and is unconvincing here. There is a stab at historical accuracy with the introduction of Sitting Bull and his tribe, fleeing Little Big Horn. They are given an eccentric speech pattern and a yearning to recover their old hunting grounds. Clearly, they are doomed. The setting is a bit different to the majority of Westerns and most of it is shot outdoors. However, dramatically it is uninvolving and lacks credibility

A pair of brothers named Ross who are probably no better than they ought to be flee the USA and cross into Canada. As brother James Craig points out to brother Keith Larsen they left in rather a hurry and haven't got all that much liquid capital and at least Craig would prefer to make an honest living. When the opportunity presents itself to join the Northwest Mounted Police they join with Larsen a bit reluctant.

Their presence is welcome especially since they confirm that Sitting Bull has crossed into Canada after the Little Big Horn and is making for the Cree camp and Chief Morris Ankrum. He's looking for allies and the Cree are far more numerous than Mounties. But in Canada because there were so many fewer white settlers the Mounties become protectors of the Indians.

As for the brothers Craig gets into the Mountie spirit and starts taking up with the trading post owner's daughter Rita Moreno. But Larsen reverts to his old ways and the Cree are ready to join the Sioux because of it.

Fort Vengeance is nicely photographed with the players settling into familiar type roles for them. Before Rita Moreno won her Oscar playing someone of her heritage in West Side Story she was cast in a ton of films as exotic native types wherever the location of the film story was. Her she played a mixed race person known in Canada as a Meti.

Lesley Selander directed Fort Vengeance and he has a couple of hundred films and television shows under his belt. The man did know what to do with his players on a western set, albeit this one being a Northwestern.

Western and northwestern fans should be pleased.

Not that novel, because other Westerns have featured the Mounties, not least "O'Rourke of the Royal Mounted", also known as "Saskatchewan" starring Alan Ladd, which had a similar theme of the Sioux crossing the border and stirring up trouble.

But "Fort Vengeance" (listed as "Fort Retribution" on some streaming services) did make a change from other 1950s Westerns and, interestingly, did not include an instant and improbable romance between an ageing star (such as Randolph Scott) and a very attractive girl. Rita Moreno provided enough peripheral feminine interest.

The fort did not seem very defensible and on several occasions its garrison (of 29 men, augmented by the two Ross brothers) was halved when patrols of a dozen or more policemen rode out.

No doubt experts could comment on the accuracy of the uniforms, which were changed some time in 1876. But a nice touch was two men wearing brown jackets and trousers ( issued for stables and other fatigues) when the two brothers arrived at the fort.

Goof-spotters may have noticed two horses tethered to one side of the fort gates and two civilians chatting on the other when a patrol rode out. They were still there when the patrol returned the following day!