The Nebraskan

A whole group of competent B film players get cast in The Nebraskan which as a film might pass muster for an episode on a television western. It's one of the most contrived pieces of film making I've ever seen.

First we have some Comanche politics where Maurice Jara is accused of murdering the old chief in a palace coup d'etat. His accuser is Jay Silverheels who becomes the new chief. Things are really bad though when Jara decides white man's justice is better so his friend, army scout Philip Carey brings him in.

But when they lock him in the army guard house, another prisoner there, Lee Van Cleef has other ideas. He's a trooper accused of murder and he busts out together with Jara.

Then we got passengers on a stage Richard Webb and Robert Haynes, husband and wife, who get rescued by the cavalry and then rescued by Carey on the trail of Van Cleef and Jara. Wouldn't you know it she's Carey's old flame who married Webb on the rebound.

All these good folks wind up at Wallace Ford's old besieged by Silverheels and the Comanches who want Jara real bad. If you have no idea how this is all going to end, you've not seen too many westerns.

Regis Toomey as the post commanding colonel and Dennis Weaver as a hot headed young captain complete the cast of this western. It's way too contrived for my taste and the ending in how all is put right makes no sense at all.

But if you're interested in what I'm talking about sit through The Nebraskan and find out.

Whilst the Civil war is over there is trouble brewing in the state of Nebraska as Chief Thundercloud has been murdered and the last man seen leaving his tent was Indian scout Wingfoot (Maurice Jara) who Wade Harper (Philip Carey) escorts back to Fort Carney as he believes he is innocent despite Spotted Bear (Jay Silverheels) and his Sioux warriors chasing them across open country. But Wingfoot escapes the fort when under arrest Private Reno Benton (Lee Van Cleef) murders the guard and forces Wingfoot to leave with him. With Harper and a small troop following their trail things don't go to plan as whilst Harper catches up with Reno and Wingfoot he also catches up to his ex, Mrs. Paris Elliott (Roberta Haynes) who has recently married Ace (Richard Webb) and this small group end up pinned down at Mac McBride's (Wallace Ford) outpost by Spotted Bear and his warriors.

Yes, there's some dodgy looking papier-mâché mache rocks moving during a skirmish, stock footages, a bullet sound occurring seconds after a guy falls off his horse, and a very routine story with familiar situations, but this is lower down the production line, after all, and these things are expected. Yet I fairly enjoyed this. The 3-D wasn't bad.

The Nebraskan" is just a standard cowboys and Indians western from the 50s where a mixed group of people end up under siege from warring Native Americans. It's actually far from dull, and fills in those 68 minutes quite well. Plus it's got some good action, a slimy villain in Lee Van Cleef, a stoic yet solid turn from Phil Carey as the hero, and a shady performance by Jay Silverheels. It lacks some tension, though, but it still fun for such a short time. For all it's familiar tropes of the genre, the cavalry don't come riding to save the day.

I don't suppose it could have been THAT bad as I've just watched it a second time to fill in an empty hour or two. I wish now that I'd made a body count of the Native Americans who got killed in attacking McBride's house, sometimes falling off their horses out of sync with the defenders' rifle shots: possibly twenty - a very high casualty rate. At least some of them were only wounded, in contrast to the apparent 100% mortality in similar situations in other films, and they were shown being helped away by their comrades.

I wondered about a right-handed Wade Harper firing his rifle and pistol from the right-hand side of the window, with his body protected only by a shutter. I would have thought that instinctively he would have preferred to have placed himself on the other side, behind the more solid wall.

The curious moving boulders have been mentioned by others. The Native Americans' English could have come from a child's comic book.

And who didn't think there would be an attractive young woman on the stagecoach ...

I last saw this western on a black & white set when I was 13 and my sole memory of it was an enormous close-up of a hand clutching a knife about to be plunged into a sentry's back; thus alerting the viewer to the fact that this was originally in 3D. That explains the occasionally jerky cutting to get the camera into the best position for 3D effects like a chair being crashed into the camera (while some of the exteriors are created to very odd effect by foreground objects like rocks or shrubs gliding in front of grainy long-shots).

The more conventional footage is attractively shot in Technicolor, but the budget plainly didn't allow for many cavalrymen or injuns, so the siege that takes up most of the second half of the film is an underpopulated business; while the scenes inside the besieged cabin are far too overlit.

A young Lee Van Cleef in a Yankee uniform figures prominently as the principal baddie. In it much more briefly is Dennis Weaver as a bone-headed Yankee captain who swiftly learns the hard way he should have heeded the hero's advice.

An army scout captures Wingfoot--an Indian who works for the cavalry--who is wanted for murder. He brings him into the fort but the Indian, along with Lee Van Cleef, manages to escape. So Carey has to go after them. A no-good man and a woman, which he claims to be his wife, are rescued by Cleef and Wingfoot after their stagecoach is over-turned in an Indian chase. That's when Carey manages to catch Wingfoot/Cleef and takes them to a relay station where an old timer agrees to help take them back to the fort. Suddenly, before they can leave, they find they are surrounded by the Indians who want Wingfoot because the murder he is wanted for was their chief. Now Carey, the man and woman (who turns out to be Carey's former girlfriend), the relay manager and the two outlaws are trapped. There's lots of shooting and even a few times of catching the relay station on fire before the finale.

The acting in the movie is labored. It seems none of the actors/actresses were comfortable in their role nor had they learned their lines. It was really pitiful. But that was not the worst.

One of the most ridiculous things about the movie, other than the contrived, forced acting by all, is the use of fake rocks which are held up in front of the camera during the chase scenes and continue to move back and forth as though whoever was holding the picture could not hold it still. The "rocks" were there to highlight the front portion of the scenery and make it look "rocky" to match the mountains in the far background. But they certainly LOOKED super-imposed! It REALLY cheapens the movie. Were it not for the fact I taped it off cable I would not spend money to buy it on video/DVD.