Comanche

I just had to look--- KENT SMITH as Quanah Parker???? I mean, the guy was always wooden, but jeeze! Utterly unconvincing in every way. And big Mike Mazurki as his right-hand goon--whew. Henry Brandon's Black Cloud, with his ice-blue eyes and bad wig, is another howler. You can even see the wig coming loose when he's struggling with Dana Andrews, himself looking seriously out of place. Diehard fans may or may not care to see him in this role. But at least Iron Eyes Cody is in there, though his presence only points up how fake those redface 'red men' look.

The script is well-meant, and deserved better. But this was the 50s, and the production decisions were what they were. As the gratuitous Girl, Linda Cristal contributes exactly what was intended-- and in a cantilevered bra, too. If you like shoot-'em-ups and can overlook the casting limitations and other snags, you might find this acceptable entertainment.

Western frontiersman and Cavalry scout (Dana Andrews) travels Comanche territorry to save a fragile peace usually sabotaged from a rebel Indian (Henry Brandon) and by the short-sighted Indian Commissioner (Lowell Gilmore) as well as free a Mexican woman kidnapped by Apaches led by Quana Parker (Kent Smith) . As a rebel Indian leads his followers on a wild chase across the plains in this saga of the Old west . At the end , an Indian Brave squares off cavalry in an impresive battle . Ultimately and perhaps predictability , the bad guy (Brandon) and the good guy (Andrews) face each other in hand-to-hand combat and peace prevails . They killed more white than any tribe in history ¡The Never-Before Told Epic Of The Last Great Indian Battle! Filmed In The All-The-Earth-Spanning Power of Cinemascope

A routine and standard oater but passable Indian/Cavalry western with two Comanche tribe leaders , one good- Kent Smith- , and the other evil -Henry Brandon- clashing each other and a scout -Dana Andrews- attempting to keep peace and order . Decent , gleaming Western with noisy action , go riding , pursuits , Indians attacks , Cavalry charges , and shootouts . This glittering picture results to be an ordinary oater but containing some novelties , as the historical remarks about Quana Parker and General Miles . Stars the prolific Dana Andrews who had a long career and played a lot of Westerns . He first worked in Metro Goldwyn Mayer , it was two years before Goldwyn and 20th Century-Fox , to whom Goldwyn had sold half of Andrews' contract, put him in a film, but the roles, though secondary, were mostly in top-quality pictures such as The Westener (1940) and Ox-Bow incident (1942). A starring role in the hit Laura (1944), followed by one in The best years of our lives (1946), made him a star, but no later film quite lived up to the quality of these. During his career, he had worked with with such directors as Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, William A. Wellman, Jean Renoir, and Elia Kazan. Andrews is well accompanied by a good main and support cast such as : Kent Smith , Henry Brandon ,Stacy Harris , Lowell Gilmore , Nestor Paiva , Mike Mazurki and the beautiful Mexican Linda Crystal in her film debut.

It contains a rousing and moving musical score by Herschel Burke Gilbert with catching songs by The Lancers . As well as glimmer Cinematography in shining Technicolor by Jorge Sthal Jr. shot in Mexico . The motion picture was competently made by George Sherman in B-style , though has some flaws and gaps . Entertainment , atmosphere , action and excitement surge along with the tale under the hand of filmmaker George Sherman , who is clearly more at home with the thrilling scenes than somewhat talking scenes. Sherman made reliable low-budget fares for Columbia between 1945-48, then moved on to do the same at Universal for another eight years . Sherman specialized almost exclusively in "B" westerns there , including the "Three Musketeers" series, which featured a young John Wayne. George directed lots of Westerns as ¨The Last of the Fast Guns¨ , ¨The Lone Hand¨, ¨Santa Fe stampede¨ , ¨Red skin¨ , ¨Chief Crazy Horse¨ ¨Calamity Jane¨, ¨Relentless¨ , ¨Comanche Territory¨ , ¨Dawn at Socorro¨, ¨Border River¨ and many others . He also made occasional forays into action and horror themes, often achieving a sense of style over substance . The only "A"-grade films to his credit were two westerns starring John Wayne: ¨Comancheros¨ (1961) (as producer) and ¨The big Jack¨ (1971) . His last films were realized in Spain as "Find That Girl" , ¨The new Cinderella¨ and ¨Joaquin Murrieta¨. Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable . Well worth watching.



The film is partially based on the notorious Indian figure Quanah Parker (Comanche kwana, "smell, odor") , he was a war leader of the Quahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band, the son of Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been kidnapped as a child and assimilated into the tribe. Following the apprehension of several Kiowa chiefs in 1871, Quanah emerged as a dominant figure in the Red River War, clashing repeatedly with Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. With European-Americans deliberately hunting American bison, the Comanches' primary sustenance, into extinction, Quanah eventually surrendered and peaceably led the Quahadi to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was never elected chief by his people but was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche Nation, and became a primary emissary of southwest indigenous Americans to the United States legislature. In civilian life, he gained wealth as a rancher, settling near Cache, Oklahoma. Though he encouraged Christianization of Comanche people, he also advocated the syncretic Native American Church alternative, and passionately fought for the legal use of peyote in the movement's religious practices. He was elected deputy sheriff of Lawton in 1902. After his death in 1911, the leadership title of Chief was replaced with Chairman; Quanah is thereby described as the "Last Chief of the Comanche," a term also applied to Horseback. He is buried at Chief's Knoll on Fort Sill. Many cities and highway systems in southwest Oklahoma and north Texas, once southern Comancheria, bear references to his name.

This colorful western has plenty of action and the beautiful landscapes of Durango, Mexico as the setting for a story of war and peace on the Texas plains between the U.S. cavalry and the Comanches. The Indians also attack Mexican villages and take horses and captives and rampage on both sides of the Rio Grande. Dana Andrews is the scout whose task it is to convince Quanah Parker to stop raids into Mexico and talk peace with the American soldiers. Of course, the quest for peace is threatened by white scalp hunters and renegade Indians. There are several good cavalry-Indian battles in this film which was the American debut of Mexican movie star Linda Cristal, who is Andrews' love interest. The music score is decent but the warbling by Alfred Perry and company is out of place in this kind of western. It is also worth noting that several lines of dialogue in this film were lifted verbatim from Elliott Arnold's excellent work, "Blood Brother", which details the Apache wars and the friendship between Cochise and Tom Jeffords. Many of Quanah Parker's ideas of war and peace were taken word-for-word from Arnold's novel and attributed to the Comanche chief to portray him as the sage leader of "the lords of the south plains". One wonders if Arnold ever received credit or acknowledgment for the screenplay in this movie.

The period is 1875. The War Between The States had ended. But South of the Rio Grande, another more ancient and cruel war continued. Peaceful Mexican villages were tragic victims...

Comanche is directed by George Sherman and stars Dana Andrews as frontier scout Jim Read, who is sent to hopefully broker peace between Mexicans and the Comanche. As usual conflict exists within the tribe {Quanah Parker and Black Cloud}, as it does within the cavalry. Thus peace will be very hard to establish after years of mistreatment and mistrust.

Filmed entirely in Durango, Old Mexico for authenticity and shot in deluxe colour for a Cinemascope production, Comanche is a very tidy B Western offering. The action scenes are well constructed, with the Blanco Canyon scenes particularly eye catching; as the cavalry and divided Comanche armies form. While the acting, although far from being great, is competent and never at any time hinders the movie. Some misplaced jauntiness and a shoe-horned in romantic arc {Linda Cristal} threaten to derail the piece, and no doubt about it the film has over familiarity issues with Delmer Daves' far better Broken Arrow from 1950. But it's an interesting story that offers up something different within the genre. And since we may never get a great film that deals with the Quanah Parker {played by Kent Smith here} story, Comanche at least made the effort, and made the effort to watch it worthwhile.

Solid, interesting and enjoyable. 6.5/10

Had this movie starred a lesser name than Dana Andrews, I probably never would have watched it or else turned it off after a while, as this was a rather dull but competently made picture. Aside from more modern sensibilities about the American Indians (they aren't savage or bad and there is an attempt to understand their motivations), there really isn't anything different to set this apart from hundreds, if not thousands of mediocre Westerns from the 40s and 50s.

Part of the problem was in casting Kent Smith as the Indian chief. He was a good journeyman actor, but here he was all wrong. While his character was supposed to have SOME White blood, Smith looked and sounded about as much like an Indian as Shirley Temple! It's odd that although the script is quite sensitive and "politically correct" by today's standards, they still used a lot of White actors in makeup as the Indians (if you look, you'll also notice Mike Mazurki as an Indian as well).

Another part of the problem is that while I like Dana Andrews a lot, I've got to admit he was pretty bland in the part--a part which would have been more convincing had it featured Randolph Scott or Jimmy Stewart. Andrews just wasn't believable as a cavalry scout in the old West. Andrews forte was in contemporary stories--placing him in a horse and Indian film just seemed unnatural and his performance reflects this.

Aside from these complaints, I am not recommending you avoid the film--it is fairly entertaining and won't rot your brain. However, it really is nothing more than a time-passer and it SHOULD have been much better given the decent script.