Le Déserteur du Fort Alamo

During the war of independence of Texas, a group of five men of the city of Oxbow chooses, for a raffle, who would leave the fort Alamo to save the families of all them of the Mexican troops. Stroud is the chosen, but is considered a coward by the other men of the fort, that don't know about the real reason of his escape.

However, when arriving to his home, his family and the one of all his companions had been killed by American renegades, that struggled beside of the Mexicans. Now, is the hour of the his revenge! But how to face the hostility of all the Texans that considered him a coward for fleeing of the Alamo?

Happily, his heroic behavior due to the adversities, as when leading a caravan of Texans before an attack of the renegades, will show to his compatriots him real value!

Good film, with good interpretations. An excellent western for a Saturday afternoon.

There is always something interesting and just a bit different in this Director's Movies. This one is no exception. It is replete with thought provoking ideas like cowardice, bigotry, loyalty, and other values only found in the better Westerns.

This is an action filled Film with guns blazing, galloping Horses, Wagon Trains, bushwhackers, Mexican impersonators, fist-fights and all that is expected in this type of thing. But the difference here is the intelligence. The injection in a popular genre some things that rose above the material.

Budd Boetticher, Anthony Mann, and sometimes John Ford and Howard Hawks always gave more than the raw material. This is a modest effort from one of the Greats with an OK cast and a Production that looks so much bigger than it was. That was Boetticher, he was always so much bigger and better than what he was allowed.

Glenn Ford plays the only survivor of the Alamo -- not a very popular man in Texas. Of course, the story gives him a good excuse -- he drew lots with some other Alamo soldiers to see who would go west to defend their homes from Texan bandits hired by the Mexicans, but the families were already dead when he gets there -- but nobody wants to believe him, except one lovely woman on the wagon train he sets out to defend. Only problem is his strategy of siding with the bandits to get into their confidence puts him in a nearly impossible situation.

A well-made film, with convincing action and gritty characters. Unlike other Boetticher westerns, here the scale of the film is "epic" as the future of the West hangs in the balance. Ford makes a surprisingly good substitute for Randolph Scott or John Wayne.

By chance, June clouds threatening, I sat down and watched this entertaining western on a Saturday afternoon. An earlier commentator ended his praise for this film by noting that it is "an excellent western for a Saturday afternoon." And it was. The ethical dilemma of leaving a field of battle (in this case the Alamo)to try and save the lives of loved ones is a powerful theme. The repercussions to John Stroud, Ford's weary but stalwart character, are scorn, accusations of cowardice and worse. The best part of the film are the sweeping shots of the Texas plains. The movie is well-composed, capturing the majestic plains and hills with a strength of purpose that demands an emotional response. One of the early films of Jeanne Cooper, who is a favorite of mine.

Drawing straws (or in this case beans) Texas patriot Glenn Ford is picked to leave the Alamo in order to evacuate his and his neighbor's families, only to find them all dead at the hands of marauders and himself branded a coward.

Starting with a fairly colorful, low-budget Alamo siege (shot on a sound-stage!), this is pretty compelling all the way, with an excellent, hard-boiled performance from Ford and nice direction from the great Budd Boetticher, one of the best unsung western filmmakers ever.

This is almost as good as Boetticher's later collaborations with Randolph Scott. My only problem is that this wasn't shot in widescreen.

As far as the supporting cast goes, Chill Wills is always fun to watch, while the incredibly beautiful Julie Adams is always fun to look at, and Neville Brand delivers some great, macho, swaggering villainy that easily overshadows the more subdued Victor Jory.

On the other hand, I can't quite understand the Golden Globe win by Hugh O'Brian. He's okay, but slightly bland as Ford's main accuser.