La Loi du scalp

A courageous US cavalryman is given a vitally important mission - to deliver a peace treaty to a powerful Indian chief, preventing further conflict. However, a band of bloodthirsty rebels are determined to see him dead before he completes his task, while the officer's guide may not be as trustworthy as he appears.

Filmed in Death Valley, War Paint opens up with a pre-title sequence with an action sequence that sets the scene for the rest of the grim excursion with Keith Larsen's Indian guide leading a cavalry on a mission to destruction. What you get is a tense and involving plot with a bunch of characters not exactly clean as the driven snow. It's sort of like a lost patrol story but with an unusual slant. It's not the most action-packed film, but there's enough going on to keep one captivated and it is quite thoughtful. It also boast solid performances by Robert Stack, Joan Taylor, Keith Larsen and the rest of the cast.

This western has great natural beauty but more talk than action in a film that should have been better than it was. The plot is simply that of a cavalry patrol that has a few days to deliver a peace treaty to a chief and prevent the Indians from going on the warpath. Robert Stack is the big cast name here and he is in complete "Eliot Ness" mode as a no-nonsense lieutenant who drives his men hard in the name of honor and duty. The patrol is guided by the chief's son who has a completely different agenda. The supporting cast is terrific, with names like Charles McGraw, Douglas Kennedy, Peter Graves, Robert Wilke and John Doucette along to carry out their mission. The picture is not a cavalry-Indian western as the title implies but instead focuses on the travails and frustrations of the troopers, not the least of which is thirst, as they make their way to the Indian village. The movie is worth watching for the old-time character actors and the striking beauty of Death Valley.

This could have been a well-made western. With Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and the line-up of supporting characters including a beautiful 'Indian' woman, the acting really wasn't half bad but someone skimped terribly on script-writing and the action scenes.

The rattlesnake scene was horrible. The snake was clearly either dead or a rubber fake, you could see the string tied around its neck that was slowly jerking it along. That was the most fake rattlesnake I've ever seen in a western. I suppose they couldn't afford a real one.

The scene where they drank at the water hole in the cave was even worse. Supposedly near-dead from thirst, all they did was shake their heads in the water and blow bubbles and make noises. Those that did draw water into their mouths spit it back out into the pool right in front of the others who were 'drinking'.

The fight scenes and deaths were the worst. I won't even go into detail about how poorly scripted and acted they were. There was clearly a skinny male stunt person taking the Indian girl's place when she wrestled the soldier. And the way the combatants who were next in line to be killed would stand up in full view to shoot in order to be shot was laughable.

I liked the overall plot and the cast, Robert Stack was good and the dialog not bad. But the director must have been so convinced that these elements would carry the film that he paid no attention to these details. I can't even rate it a 5 because of these blatant oversights.

Robert Stack plays the officer in charge of a cavalry patrol entrusted with delivering a treaty to an Indian encampment, who encounters difficulties with outside and inside influences along the way. Stack is earnest, and despite some miscasting--Charles McGraw was always more at home playing a big-city detective or syndicate killer than he was playing a cavalry sergeant as he does here, and Keith Larsen often played Indians but seldom played them well--the performances are adequate, but if there's one thing that a western cries for it's action, and there's virtually none in this film. It moves like molasses and what little action there is doesn't occur until almost the end of the picture and it's not particularly well done. Director Lesley Selander was an old hand at westerns and has done far better. He must have had an off day. No need for you to have one by watching this snoozer.

Lesley Selander was a prolific B movie director. That is all I know about him. I do not know that I have watched any of his other flicks, but on the strength of WAR PAINT I would say that I am not losing much.

With a decent cast for a B picture - including Robert Stack, Charles McGraw, Peter Graves, Keith Larsen, Walter Reed and beautiful Joan Taylor as a sqwaw - the acting rates sufficiently high to hold your attention.

The script provides the downside: unrelenting in its penchant for tragedy, we see Larsen as the subversive son of the Indian chief kill soldiers, then his sister Taylor does it, and finally the Cavalary troops kill each other. In between, a soldier who has just become a father drinks poisoned H20 and croaks without seeing his son - the single most tragic and heart-wrenching event in the film.

Stack has a fiancée but by the end of the movie he appears to be more inclined toward going off into the sunset with the Indian chief's daughter, peace looking set to stay.

The length is 89 minutes, pretty standard for B pictures... but it feels a lot longer and heavier, what with all the deaths. 6/10.