Sur la piste des Comanches

Fugitive Gar Davis (Walker) flees from posse across hostile Comanche territory with woman and small boy (Mayo & Eyer), and encounters old foe, the gun-running Clett (Keith).

Fine eyeful of parched southwestern scenery—I counted only one interior (the "hospital" scene) for the entire movie. Sure, Big Clint (not Eastwood) has only one "Yes, ma'm, No, ma'm" demeanor for every scene, but that's okay, even if he didn't get to be the next Gary Cooper.

Putting old-pro Gordon Douglas in charge was a shrewd move. Note the stages the awakening Mayo goes through in discovering that, yes, Walker has stripped off her wet clothes. Note too how Douglas gets that infernal glint in Mayo's eyes when she first suspects Clint of murdering her husband—it's almost scary. I also like the way the Indians are credited with some military sense when overturning the wagons to make shooters' barricades. Most important, Douglas knows how to integrate the picturesque terrain into the storyline—catch that great framing of the Walker-Keith shoot-out.

Fortunately, Warners got Burt Kennedy to do the script— and on the eve of his outstanding work with the Boetticher-Scott ,(Ranown), cycle of Westerns. I suspect Bryan Keith's charming villain was Kennedy's inspiration since likable baddies was a standard Ranown feature. Yes indeed, Keith steals the show with his easy-going charm—a real contrast to the uptight Walker. At this early stage, Keith was an interesting actor, best at squinty-eyed cowpokes as Sam Peckinpah knew when casting him as lead in Peckinpah's brilliant but short-lived TV series The Westerner (1960).

The movie itself may have been a hurry-up job—probably that's why there's no Technicolor despite the great scenery, and probably why we get a recycled plot line from Hondo (1953). I guess the hurry-up was to take advantage of Walker's TV popularity. Still, the movie's a very watchable action-filled adventure. What's more, I don't care if the luscious Mayo was pushing 40, she could put her saddle on my horse any day.

In the late 1950's, Warner Brothers was the studio responsible for more westerns on television than any other production company in town (the town being Hollywood, of course!) They made stars out Clint Walker, Ty Hardin, James Garner, Jack Kelly and a host of others who appeared in their half hour and then one hour western dramas, which later became parodies of themselves, as the long running Maverick will prove.

Here, they rework the "Hondo" plot (lone gunman rescues a woman and her son after finding her husband dead) and spend two thirds of the movie getting themselves to Fort Dobbs. I'll stop there, because actually, under the considered hand of director Gordon Douglas, this is actually an okay film. Walker gives a very quiet performance but it's his character, so you buy it. Virginia Mayo and Richard Eyer give better performances, one scene with the kid especially cool-- and the standard cowboys vs. Indians plot is made a bit more edgy by the presence of Brian Keith as the bad guy. He doesn't show up until the 30 minute mark, but he steals the show and has a great time playing the bad guy.

The final scene is laughable ( not in a good way, sorry to say) but prior to that, the action is okay, inter cut with some out takes from "The Searchers", which don't match the Fort Dobbs footage at all.

Contains all the usual Warner Brothers sound effects, gun shots and bodies hitting the ground you've heard hundreds of times. Also, the music was by Max Steiner, which notched it up to a 7 for me.

If you get a chance, give it a look. VERY LITTLE studio work, a whole lot out OUT DOOR SHOOTING, another high point.

This western follows a familiar genre theme of a loner who comes to the aid of a woman and her son and guides them to safety through Indian country. The plot is spare with a twist of mistaken identity thrown in as an innocent man on the run scrambles to escape a hanging posse hot on his trail. Clint Walker is the reformed gunfighter whose reputation places him on the sheriff's wanted poster as fate takes him to a woman's ranch in the midst of an Indian uprising. Virginia Mayo is the widow and reluctant trail companion of Walker along with her son as they make their way to Fort Dobbs. Brian Keith steals the film as an unsavory gun runner whose rifles play a large part in the Indian attack on the fort. The film is not a polished feature but is a straightforward, no-frills drama and is worth watching.

From the moment that kids of the 1950s got a look at Clint Walker on the opening episode of Cheyenne (fall, 1955), we knew that he would be the John Wayne of our generation, just as a year earlier Fess Parker as Davy Crockett became our combination of Jimmy Stewart and Gregory Peck. So why didn't filmmakers make use of their potential? At first, Warner Bros. didn't want Walker to do movies at all, perhaps thinking it would take away from the high ratings of his show. That was of course ridiculous. He threatened to walk out and they belatedly gave him the lead in this B+ black and white actioner. He's the strong silent type (what else?) who comes across a gorgeous woman (Virginia Mayo) and her little boy (Richard Eyer) on the prairie - after the success of Shane, every western had to have an adoring little boy! Eyer was a fabulous child actor, and there's a terrific performance by Brian Keith as the sort of friendly-enemy that Dan Duryea played in so many of the Audie Murphy oaters. The cast makes this routine western seem a cut above the average, and I can't remember any other cowboy getting off more shots per second with his Winchester (other than Chuck Connors on the Rifleman series, of course) than Keith does here. One bit you'll get a kick out of - at the end, Walker and company get to the title fort and are attacked by Indians. When they ride up, there is no water in sight. Anywhere! But when the Indians attack, they have to cross a large river. Wha? Here's the reason - the Indian attack footage is lifted from a 1954 big budget western called The Charge at Feather River. (guy 'wild bill hickock' madison was the star). And if Walker fans had a sense of deja vu, even in 1958, there was a good reason for that too: An early Cheyenne episode, titled "West of the River," was a remake of "The Charge at Feather River" with Walker substituted for Madison, and all the large scale action scenes taken from that film.

Fort Dobbs is directed by Gordon Douglas and written by George W. George and Burt Kennedy. It stars Clint Walker, Virginia Mayo, Brian Keith, Richard Eyer, Russ Conway and Michael Dante. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by William H. Clothier.

After his appealing run in the TV series Cheyenne, it was inevitable that Clint Walker would make the transition to big screen fare. Here for his first feature length outing, we get the marker for his career that would follow. Never blessed with great acting talent, Walker was however a mighty presence, and handsome to boot, and he is the prime reason why Fort Dobbs is a better than average experience.

Plot basically has Walker as Gar Davis, a fugitive of justice who hooks up for a travelogue with Celia Grey (Mayo) and her son Chad (Eyer). Along the way there is Comanche peril, shifty companionship in the form of Clett (Keith) and a cunning twist that strains the relationship between Gar and the Greys. The wonderful Henry Repeater Rifle comes into play, very much so, and it provides some kinetic excitement, and it all builds to a rousing finale of explosions and stunts, while of course redemption and the truths will out. Clothier and Steiner further cement their reputations as skilled craftsmen, with the former beautifully realising the Kanab locations in black and white, and Douglas knows his way around a good honest Oater. 7/10