Pawnee

After watching this film I thought back to 1957 when this film first came out and I wonder if anyone noticed that Pawnee was a remake of The Ten Commandments set in the old west. I guess that Paramount thought that Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures which was on its uppers at that time had nothing worth suing over.

George Montgomery plays a man who was raised by the Pawnee after his white parents were killed. At least that explained those baby blue eyes that Burt Lancaster in Apache and Chuck Connors in Geronimo couldn't explain. He's the adopted son of Chief Ralph Moody, favored so much so that blood kin Charles Horvath is jealous. Montgomery is even moving in on Charlotte Austin the Indian maid set to marry the chief to be.

It's Moody's wish that Montgomery go among his own race and see how they live and how the Pawnee can adapt in their world. Which he does by taking a job as wagon train scout for a wagon train headed by Bill Williams. And then Montgomery catches the eye of his girl Lola Albright.

I think you can see the similarities and the final climax between the Pawnees, settlers, and cavalry is the parting of the Red Sea and it all ends romantically as it did for Moses.

Pawnee is a below par western that has me wondering if Cecil B. DeMille was insulted or flattered.

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.

An average western with the expected stock footage ( it's probably on the lower end of the B-budget) and some laboured pace, however, as per 1950's oaters, there's some juvenile charm in the cartoony dialogue (" he Pale arrow will die", well something like that), and it's a good time pass.

Could've been better with George Montgomery's character ( a paleface brought up by the Pawnee gets inspired to leave his people after saving Lola Albright and her father and join the wagon train so he can learn about his people, and consequently he saves the day) being conflicted between the white folk and the people who brought him up. The clash between Pale Arrow ( Montgomery) and the crazy fox is quite stirring.

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.