New Mexico

"New Mexico" is a definite western of the 1950s. Up until the 1950s, most westerns either never mentioned the natives or they were shown as mindless savages. However, in the 50s, filmmakers began showing them more sympathetically...no longer killers, but people.

The film begins with a prologue with President Lincoln visiting the west in 1860 (I am pretty sure this never occurred) and affirming his commitment to the natives. Then the film skips ahead a few years.... Lincoln is dead* and it's back to the same place out west. However, instead of honoring the President's commitments, the new cavalry leader deliberately stirs up the Indians by his insensitive actions. Soon, the natives attack...killing him and leaving Captain Hunt (Lew Ayers) in charge. Hunt is determined to find the Indian leader and come up with some compromise....but as the story progresses it's obvious this is not gonna happen.

This is a decent film but I am sure some will hate the ending, which is very dark and unusual. I didn't mind it, as I must have seen 302,003 other westerns over the years....and at least this made "New Mexico" different. Not a brilliant film....but worth your time....as well as being unusual since you'd never expect Lew Ayers in a western.

*To show that Lincoln was killed, you see a closeup of a firing revolver. While mistakes with guns are common, I was surprised with this one because John Wilkes Booth's weapon was a tiny Derringer....which looks absolutely nothing like a revolver. A bit sloppy...but no major deal.

Cavalry-Indian skirmishes highlight this film that somehow has been forgotten and seems to have passed from western movie memory. President Abraham Lincoln's death sets in motion the corrupt practices of a territory commissioner whose abusive policies destroy peace initiatives and the Indians go on the warpath. Lew Ayres, an army captain, leads a cavalry troop to track down his erstwhile friend, a chief who becomes an implacable enemy. The soldiers are plagued by thirst and dissension but find water and a large cache of rifles and ammunition. The fighting between the soldiers and the Indians is intense and quite violent for its time. The cast is good and the color captures the dry, dusty mesas and deserts of New Mexico.

The movie centers on a strong clear plot structure strongly defined in the beginning. The story progresses to a seige, where pure character takes over the plot as the main element that defines the fine quality of this movie. For some reason I did not know at the time, I loved this movie as a child. Later in theater I learned the quality aspects that New Mexico writers and actors used. I wish it was available in DVD or VHS.

Too many broken promises to the Indians, and prisoners gunned down at the orders of cavalry colonel Walter Greaza. Indian chief Ted de Corsia tells Captain Lew Ayres their friendship ended. After his men kill Greaves, it's up to Ayres to make peace or die trying.

United Artists had done its share of B westerns, of course, but the times were changing, and they were upgrading into the Shaky A western, with a fine cast including Marilyn Maxwell, Andy Devine and Jeff Corey. More, they were handling a real theme here, the theme of revenge and its futility, and doing so rather brutally and cinematically. Unhappily, the print was rather muddy, but director Irving Reis was clearly a man who was scheduled to go places. He had started out directing RKO B movies, but had had a hit with THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER; the movie after this would be the well regarded THE FOUR-POSTER. Alas, he would die in 1953 at the age of 47.

"New Mexico" is a cavalry and Indians Western that is just so-so as far as the story goes. A number of films have been made about the exploitation of Indians, illegal sales of weapons to Native Americans, and their mistreatment at the hands of dishonest and unscrupulous people. This one starts with that premise, and with some promise, but then slips into a battle between the Indians and cavalry. It doesn't have the love interest, but it does have the gratuitous female.

This was an independent film produced by one of the poverty row studios and released through United Artists. The quality of the film is poor. The other technical aspects also are low. The acting is split – some good and some not so good. The good include Andy Devine as Sgt. Garrity, Marilyn Maxwell as Cherry, and Lloyd Corrigan as the corrupt Judge Wilcox. The bad is Ted de Corsia as Indian chief Acoma, Jeff Corey as Coyote, and Lew Ayres as Captain Hunt. Raymond Burr is in this film and is a real despicable character. He already has his huge physical frame in this film. He's such a delegable character that I can't tell if he's guilty or not of bad acting as well. We may have loved Burr as Perry Mason in his long-running TV series by that name (1957-66, and revival series from 1985 until his death in 1993). But in this and a couple other early films I've seen him in, he wasn't very good.

What is of interest to me in this film, though, is the shooting location. This was mostly outdoors and on location in New Mexico. I thought I recognized the Acoma Indian Pueblo with its village built atop the 365-foot mesa. It's located about 60 miles West of Albuquerque, off I-40 at Exit 108. Today it's also called "Sky City." I visited there a few years ago, and took a tour from the Acoma Reservation Visitor's Center. In the 1950s – after this film was made, the Acoma tribe blasted a road through the rock to get to the top. We rode up in the tour bus and walked back down over a narrow, steep, almost hidden path. From the film, it appears that the views of the mesa and the church were from the South side, and possibly SE and SW. That would avoid any developed roads and facilities to the north.

Today about 300 adobe buildings are on top of the mesa. Most now have been repaired and finished with adobe. These are mostly two-story and three-story residences, with exterior ladders to go from one level to another. About 30 people now live permanently atop the mesa. It has no modern conveniences, no running water, electricity or sewage. The residents truck their supplies up, and haul their garbage out. Since this movie was made, the tribe has built a very nice Visitor's Center near the base of the mesa. The Acoma Pueblo is one of the oldest continuously occupied places in North America.

I went back and checked the shooting locations for this movie. The IMDb credits list Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Gallup, New Mexico, and California. But the credits don't specify the pueblo. While there are other pueblos to be sure, I don't think there's another located so distinctly as this one. And, there's a clue in the film tells me my guess is right. The Indian chief's name is Acoma. Now, how coincidental might that be, if it's not also the name of the tribe, reservation and pueblo where much of this movie was filmed?

My six stars for this film are for the action and the interesting location. Movie buffs who find themselves in that area in the future would enjoy a stop off at the Acoma Visitor Center and a tour of the pueblo's "Sky City."