The Great Sioux Uprising

The Great Sioux Uprising in the tradition of B westerns is a misnomer of a title. No great uprising takes place though not for Lyle Bettger's efforts to get one started.

During the Civil War Bettger is a horse dealer and the biggest one around. He'd like to merge with another dealer, Faith Domergue and crush his other competitors. The reason he's the biggest horse dealer around is that Bettger steals his horses from the Indians and gets top dollar for them from the army. Kind of an unfair advantage don't you think?

Enter Jeff Chandler former Union Army surgeon now a veterinarian who has given people doctoring because of a war wound and now tends to animals. He sees what Bettger is doing and tries to organize the opposition, but Bettger is a very clever villain if a little less psychotic than he usually is in films.

There's also a Confederate general in the area looking to make his own deal with the Sioux. It all adds up to an interesting western of the Civil War era.

There are some interesting supporting performances by friendly blacksmith Peter Whitney and from Stacy Harris a really mean psychotic sort who is Bettger's right hand man.

For Jeff Chandler's loyal legion of fans.

Have you ever watched a film and thought to yourself "This isn't bad....but it also isn't good, either". Well, that's the impression I had in watching "The Great Sioux Uprising".

The story is set in the west during the Civil War. Apparently, the Union army needs horses and they've contracted with an unscrupulous dirt-bag to get them. But Stephen Cook (Lyle Bettger) doesn't seem to care where he gets them or if he starts a war with the various Indian tribes...all he wants is the money. So, it's up to a traveling doctor (Jeff Chandler) to save the day.

The action is fair. The villain is fair. The story is fair. The treatment of the natives in the film...fair. Nothing really stands out as good nor bad. It's purely a time-passer and nothing else.

This low-budget, low-ambition western actually contains the line, "white man speak with forked tongue." Well, nearly. A doctor poses as a vet to track down two horse thieves and prevent the great Sioux uprising. Rather slow-moving and the liberal speeches at the end are the last straw.

During American Civil War an ex Army doctor called Jonathan Westgate : Jeff Chandler, gets to a little town where he finds a job as a veterinary. There he meets the beautiful Joan : Faith Domergue, she is a horse dealer whose boyfriend is the nasty crooked dealer Stephen Cook : Lyle Bettger. She is suppying horses to Union Army, while her colleague is planning to sell robbed horses to Confederation and Jonathan opposes his ominous activities to prevent a new Indian war. The latter is an unscrupulous horse dealing who attempts to rob herd to the Wyoming Sioux led by Red Cloud : John War Eagle. Meanwhile, a Confederate general called Stand White, a Cherokee, is attempting to join forces with Sioux Indians to face off the Union Army. As a doctor against a villain rustler, agitators, Southern rebels and the mighty Chief Red Cloud along with his scalp-hungry hordes at his command ! . For the scarlet lips of a traitor's woman, he stood alone!

Thrilling western with frantic action, brawls , Indian assaults , and chavary charges . This is a routine Western with usual elements, including ordinary triangular romance, as starring, the good guy Jeff Chandler falls for gorgeous Faith Domergue who is also for the corrupt bad guy Lyle Bettger . There are some nice action scenes, as well as violent, thrilling fights . Stars Jeff Chandler as an unfortunate doctor who escapes from Civil War but becomes involved into a lot of problems. Chandler is well known for his deep characterization as historical Apache Chief Cochise, in Broken arrow 1950, who went on playing the role in The battle of Apache 1951 and Taza son of Cochise 1954 . He dressed military uniform in Two flags west 1950 , War arrow 1954, Pillars of the sky 1956 and he was a mine owner in The spoilers 1956 . As well as a Georgia military governor in Durango 1957 , a Basque wagon train guide in Thunder in the sun 1959, an ambitious dreamer person in The Jayhawkers 1959, a Civil War veteran in The Plunderers 1960 and his Western final as a modern sheriff in Man in the shadow 1957. Chandler is finely accompanied by the beauty Faith Domergue who at the time, the Hollywood studio attempted to launch her as Marilyn Monroe's rival. Supported by awesome secondaries such as : the always villainous Lyle Bettger, the sympathetic and strong Peter Whitney, Walter Sande, Stacy Harris, John War Eagle and Glenn Strange who played Frankenstein character in terror Universal series.

It contains a glimmer cinematography in Technicolor by Maury Gertsman, shot on location in Portland Oregon, Pendleton Oregon, and, of course, Universal studios. As well as atmospheric and stirring musical by the uncredited Henry Mancini, Milton Rosen, Herman Stein, all of them Universal's regular. The motion picture was uneven but professionally directed by Lloyd Bacon, and it has some flaws. Bacon was a prolific craftsman who made films of all kind of genres, as Thriller, Westerns, dramas, comedy, Film Noir and outstanding in Wartime and Musical genres. As he directed movies as 42th Street, Footlight parade, Kept husbands, Devil dogs of the air, Marked woman, Boy meets girl, Oklahoma Kid, Brother orchid, Footsteps in the dark, Silver Queen, The fighting Sullivans, Action in the North Atlantic, Miss Grant takes Richmond, It happens every Spring, The Fuller brush girl, She couldn't say no, The French line , among others. Rating 5.5/10. Passable and acceptable.

Not a great or even a very good Western, but notable, for 1953 (more than ten years before Cheyenne Autumn), for its relatively strong anti-racist message with reference both to the Abolitionist issue in the Civil War and to the long history of failed promises to Native Americans. Given the standard tendency of Westerns (at best) to skirt over race entirely or to present a favorable interpretation of the Confederate cause, this is no small issue.

Apart from Dr Westgate's (Chandler) obvious sympathy for the Indian position, he presents his case for Indian neutrality in the Civil War to the Sioux Council, citing the clear racism of the Confederate general (which he implied would be transferred to the Sioux if they made common cause with the Confederates) and the sacrifice being made by Northern troops in the cause of racial equality. Elmer Daves' Broken Arrow of 1950 with James Stewart and Chandler had already raised the issue of Indian grievances against US Indian policy, but this was emphasizing the message in a 'B' Western context.