La montaña roja

It's 1865 and the Union army are beating the Confederates. Circumstances evolve so that we have Alan Ladd (Sherwood), Arthur Kennedy (Waldron) and Lizabeth Scott (Chris) seeking the help of Confederate Colonel John Ireland (Quantrill) as he sneaks around the mountains with his troops and Indian factions in the disguise of the blue cavalry. Blue is the Unionist colour whilst it should be grey for the Confederates. Deception is the order of the day.

I think the film's message of unity is kind of rubbish and tacked on at the end. The film is an excuse to put Alan Ladd into a film and we get a love triangle in which there is only going to be one winner. It's all pretty unconvincing stuff. However, the Technicolour does save the film as the scenery is amazing. It's incredible to think of all the history that has gone before on this rocky terrain. If the film's best point is the scenery, then I think we can agree that we are in trouble! The cast aren't particularly interesting and despite making out that Ireland is a bad guy, he does make sense - he should shoot the prisoners. This is war not a charity.

It's an ok film to watch once.

I can watch both Alan Ladd and Lizabeth Scott in anything, but to my knowledge this is the only film that paired them up. In fact without minute checking I believe it is, and they are unlikely as possible lovers, and without spoiling the plot the question of that consummation is left dangling. What happens in between that possibility is a rugged Western set in a rocky landscape and it is a pity it was not made a few years later when Cinemascope was in its beginnings. That quibble put aside both Ladd and Scott give good performances and basically this is a Native American fight against the background of the American Civil war as it drew towards its close. Historically I am ignorant of the facts of that ending, but according to the film you get the impression that Ladd ends the war almost single handed versus the last of the Confederates. Judged simply as film the improbable situations work and suspense is held all the way through. I prefer the UK title of ' Red Mountain ' to its American title, and given the amount of action and in your face action at that, as if rehearing for the imminent arrival of films in 3-D, it is never boring. I saw it many years ago and liked it and thought it was lost until it showed up on UK television. By the amount of reviews it has not been seen by many, so catch it when you can. Ladd was at the time at his peak and ' Shane ' his finest Western was waiting in the wings, and although his acting is not top notch his presence is and he deserved his popular appeal from the last part of the 1940's to the late 1950's. Nobody alive now who was a child then will forget his escapist films, and ' Red Mountain ' is high up there in its position of being pure, basic and fun to watch cinema.

Paramount has a fast-paced drama in this underrated, colorful western that has Union and Rebel soldiers clashing after the close of the Civil War. Alan Ladd stars as a rebel sympathizer and point man for General Quantrell who wants to carve out territory for the Confederacy in Colorado with the aid of wild Indian tribes. John Ireland, in one of his best roles, plays the renegade Southern general and Brett Sherwood and Quantrell remain on a collision course that results in a thrilling face-off in the film's final moments. The movie has plenty of shootings, claim-jumping, a lynching scene, Indian fights and a dusty, noisy battle where the soldiers fight at close quarters in well-staged cavalry action. Lizabeth Scott is good as Ladd's romantic interest as is Arthur Kennedy, always good at playing compromised characters. A solid cast of western supporting actors is on hand to keep the story moving at a good clip. Camera work and Franz Waxman's music are good.

It is very unusual that a movie called Red in the title during the early fifties has noting to do with the Red Scare. This movie is a western, the only that director William Dieterle offered us. Useless to say it's a damn good Alan Ladd's vehicle for Paramount studios - Ladd's home studios before Ladd went to Warner. It is tense, gritty, using West legends, including the famous Quantrill. Many more westerns did the same, especially some Ray Enright, Raoul Walsh, Edward Bernds movies. Splendid color to enhance this great western. With, as usual, Arthur Kennedy as the second role. I can't remember him in a lead character, actually. Except NAKED DAWN.

This one is good, but not great, although it had a lot going for it: beautiful color photography of the Southwest, fine Franz Waxman score (somewhat reminiscent of the one he did a year earlier for The Furies, another and superior western), good-lucking leads--two diminutive blonds, both of whom are enjoyably minimal in their expressiveness. However, they do not have quite the chemistry that Ladd had with Veronica Lake, another diminutive blonde. In addition, the script could be a little more inventive, but its slant on the actual historical figure of Quantrell is interesting, and John Ireland makes the most of his part. So the film never quite catches fire the way that The Furies does--and in moody black and white--but it's certainly worth a look.