New Mexico

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 great cast here, including Ayers, Maxwell, Divine, and Conried cannot save this predictable and routine Western effort. All the stereo-types are here, the fallen woman, the honor-bound Cavalry Captain and comic relief, but none of it seems to work well. The ending attempts to be different, but by that time the viewer could not care less.

Although this film is entitled New Mexico, it certainly might have taken place in any part of our Southwest. It begins with the totally ridiculous premise that Abraham Lincoln took time out in the middle of the Civil War to visit New Mexico territory and make promises to Indian chief Ted DeCorsia that the US government would be feeding the Indians. That was really too much to swallow, anyone who has even a rudimentary knowledge of American history knows that Lincoln never got beyond 50 miles of the White House during his term of office. So when the film began with Hans Conreid as Lincoln getting out of that stagecoach I figured this one would be one ridiculous film.

It turned out to be a film that was not half bad, but could have used a lot of improvement including cutting those first six or seven minutes and some other premise used to show the disappointment of the Indians in the white man's failed promises.

In that meeting with Conreid and DeCorsia is Captain Lew Ayres who wants peaceful relations and is a man of some honor. But an ambitious colonel played by Walter Greaza and a corrupt judge played by Lloyd Corrigan turn the promises of Lincoln into dust. When Greaza is murdered by the Indians, Ayres has to go in pursuit of DeCorsia.

Circumstance places Ayres and his men along with saloon entertainer Marilyn Maxwell and Corrigan at an old mission built on a hillside where they hold off the attacking Indians. One of the troops, Raymond Burr, shoots down a young child who is DeCorsia's son giving him and additional reason to hate the army.

Jeff Corey who was having blacklist troubles got to appear in this film as a cavalry Indian scout. That this was an independent film is significant because Corey could not get work at a major studio.

New Mexico which was an independent film released by United Artists is too low budget and its characters not sufficiently developed which would have made a much better film. It was a sincere effort and no one in the cast need be ashamed of their work here.

"New Mexico" is a fair cavalry-versus-Indians movie that could have been better. It has a good cast and provides a couple good moments, but a routine script and a rather stereotyped set of characters keep it from realizing its potential.

Lew Ayres, a fine actor, has the lead role of the cavalry's Captain Hunt, and the rest of a good cast is highlighted by Andy Devine, Raymond Burr, Marilyn Maxwell, and Ted De Corsia. Unfortunately, most of their characters are not given much depth, and they do not have much dialogue to work with either.

The lack of depth of Captain Hunt is the most important, as the other characters are primarily defined in terms of their relationship with him. At the beginning, he seems to be developing as an interesting character. He is present at a meeting between President Lincoln and Chief Acoma (De Corsia), and seems to be sympathetic with the problems that Acoma's people face after Lincoln's untimely death, even defying for a while his insensitive and boorish military superiors. But when the inevitable conflict breaks out, Ayres is just given some stereotyped lines about how the Indians ought not to resort to violence. Likewise, Acoma, as the leader of the uprising, is a thoroughly conventional character, although at least portrayed with some degree of sympathy.

There are some decent action sequences, and a couple of creative touches in the battle scenes, but it is likely that "New Mexico" will be of interest mainly to those who enjoy any and all Westerns.

"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."