Choque de razas

Despite a veteran cast, this one just doesn't make the grade. The script is routine at best, and most of the location and action scenes are nothing more than stock footage, most of it gleaned from "Buffalo Bill" (1944). Ms. Albright can almost always lift a B picture to the status of "watchable" however, here she is reduced to nothing more than window dressing between old stock footage action scenes. Pass on this one.

George Montgomery didn't make particularly good westerns--like a lot of other western stars he was tall, good-looking, rode a horse fairly well, and was a strapping physical specimen, but he just didn't that "something" that set him apart from the rest of the crowd. He did make a few better-than-average westerns--1951's "The Texas Rangers" fits that description--but for the most part his stuff was for the lower half of a double bill, cheaply made in black and white for low-rent outfits like Allied Artists or some independent company, and one was pretty much like the next. There are two things that set this one apart, however--(1) it's in color and (2) it has Lola Albright.

Like many of his westerns, it's not particularly well-shot, even though it's in color, and is cursed with a surfeit of stock footage, much of which doesn't match the "new" footage. Fortunately, the new footage also contains Lola Albright, who, even in a long skirt and loose blouse is incredibly sexy, with that smoky, almost growling voice of hers in full bloom, and she's actually the best part of the picture. The plot is one that's been done a million times before--white boy's parents die, he is raised by Indians, complications ensue--and better, but Albright is pretty much the only reason to watch this. Stony-faced Charles Horvath plays--as he has done many times before--a villainous Indian warrior (although he's actually Hungarian), veteran character actor Ralph Moody plays--as he has many times before--a kindly old Indian chief, George Waggner directed and co-wrote the script (and didn't do particularly well in either department).

The film's cheapness shows through at every turn, and overall it's just a fair way to spend an hour or so, but not much more than that.

Pawnee is a cliche ridden mid-fifties Western made bearable by a good cast, professional direction, and some decent scenery. George Montgomery stars as a white man raised by the Pawnee Indians who must decide whether to remain an Indian and become chief of the Pawnee nation or return to his roots and save a wagon train from an Indian attack. The basic premise is old hat, and the film is loaded with stock characters includng the wise old Indian chief who seeks peace with the whites and the younger, violent war-mongering chief who seeks to kill the settlers (and his long despised white "brother" and rival Goerge Montgomery), the kindly and wise wagon train doctor, the wagon master who also becomes a rival of Montgomery for the love of a whte woman, a crusty, but lovable old coot of a settler, and so on. The film is juvenile and simplistic, but is watchable thanks to a good cast of old pros, fast and knowing direction, and excellent color photography of the scenic west. George Montgomery was a solid, leading man in many westerns of the fifties, and turns in his typically solid performance as the hero here. He is ably supported by such stalwarts of fifties westerns as Robert Griffin, Francis McDonald, Dabbs Greer, and Bill Williams. Lola Albright, an excellent, but underrated actress who later costarred on TV's Peter Gunn, gives a good performance as a yong woman traveling with the wagon train, who comes between Bill Williams, the wagon master, and Montgomery. It is noted that the lead Indian parts are played by caucasion actors and Native Americans are used almost exclusively as extras. The direction is by George Waggner, who directed the Wolfman and other horror films at Universal in the forties. Waggner is an old pro who moves the script along quickly and makes the cliches bearable while keeping the cast from going over the top in roles that could have easily become laughable. There is nothing new here, but it is a competent film which should mildly entertain western fans and youngsters who have never sat through a western programmer from the fifties.

The Images are Bright and Colorful and the B-Cast is Strong.

However the Repeating Emphasis on Family, Child-Bearing and the Like,

Overwhelms what Little this Exercise in Cookie-Cutter Film-Making has to Offer.

It's Inoffensive White-Bread Population Control.

Even the Central Character George Montgomery's "Pale Arrow" Story is of Growing-Up into the Man He has Become in Search of His White Roots.

The Action is Minimal and the Extended Battles are Lifted from Other Films.

The Movie Offers Not Much More than Time-Killer Eye-Candy.

A Lot of it Takes Place on Fake-Looking Sets with Squeaky-Clean Clothes with Cliched Characters and Dialog Coming-Off as "American Family Pamphlet" Guide.

If there's Such a Thing as Typical "Cut-Corners" B-Western Formula, this is it.

Not Much to See Here...Only the Cast and Color are...

Worth a Watch.

George Waggner was a good western director, not ambitious but with good talent to show. This one will not stay forever in my memory. The basic scheme is interesting, a White risen grown up among Indians, but that's not that new; some westerns used this plot too. Anyway this one is an agreeable time waster with a George Montgomery doing his job. But everything is predictable, tha's an element which I always take care of. I like being surprised by something unusual and here, nothing of this kind. Many westerns were like this anyway. So just watch it for the quality, atmosphere, charm. Any die hard western buff will like it.