Fort Defiance

Nice guy, Ned Tallon, now blind, is waiting for older brother, Johnny, to come home from the war and help get the ranch back on its feet. A newly arrived stranger, Ben Shelby, reports that Johnny deserted his outfit, costing many men their lives, then became a bank robber and was killed. When the desertion story gets out, relatives of several men who died want brother Ned buried, too. Ben steps in to save Ned by helping him skedaddle to Navajo territory -- but the Navajo have just been told that its Reservation Time, and they're none to pleased. ...now guess who shows up!

Pretty good yarn. Fair amount of action. Rugged Arizona scenery. A good Ben Johnson role. Interesting to see Peter Graves in one of his earliest films.

The film packs thrills , noisy action , horse pursuits , crossfire , high body-count , cavalry charges and it is fast-moving and quite entertaining . Standard Western about an expedition heading for Fort Defiance and along the way suffering native american attack .It's just after the Civil War , an ex-Civil War soldier called Ben Shelby (Ben Johnson) arrives looking for Johnny Tallon (Dane Clark) whom he plans to murder . Shelby was the only survivor of a battle due to the cowardice of Tallon, that's why he is hell-bent on killing the man whose surrender got his brother killed, but then discovers that a rancher wants him and his blind brother (Peter Graves) killed. Ater finds out a rancher wants that same man and his blind brother killed. Tallon and and his companions have to confront Navajo Indians who go on the warpath and must now battle together postponing the inevitable showdown . This is killer country ... and the story of the guns that won its glory ! All the fury of the last Great Indian Wars !Where "Kill or Die" Was The Indian Cry!...a hunted man and his hunter fight side by side...across the blood-mad terror of the Navajo empire!

The picture gets Western action , shootouts , US cavalry go riding , a love story between a blind man and an ex-prostitute , and it results to be an enjoyable tale . Set during the Arizona Indian Wars with the violent upheaval of brave Indian chiefs as : Cochise , Jeronimo , Vitorio , Mangas Coloradas , when fear and violence spread throughout the land .This one shows a campy , amusing and entertaining glimpse in the Wild West . It's a medium budget film with acceptable actors , technicians , functional production values and pleasing results . There is plenty of action in the movie , guaranteeing some shoot'em up or stunts every few minutes .vBursting with appealing characters, thought-provoking themes as the peculiar relationship among two attractive characters : a blind and a prostitute , sub-plots , symbols , and with very decent filmmaking and interpretation . There is an odd implementation of shots in the camera work during some particular scenes as the film approaches its climax , as the battles between the stagecoach passengers and Navajos . Nice production design creating an adequate scenario with luminous outdoors , plains , montains and rocky landscapes under a glimmer sun and atmospheric sets but in B-series style . It stars the always agreeable Ben Johnson as former Civil War solider bent on killing the man whose surrender got his brother killed, and Dane Clark as a gunfighter who eventually gets redemption , but is Peter Graves who steals the show as the good blind brother attempting to keep his first love . Peter drafted United States Air Force, he studied drama at the University of Minnesota and then headed to Hollywood, where he first appeared on television and later made his film debut in Rogue River (1951). Numerous film appearances followed, especially in Westerns . However, Graves is primarily recognized for his television work, particularly as Jim Phelps in Mission impossible (1966). He made movies of all kinds of genres , Sci-Fi, drama , Western , Warlike , comedy , such as : Stalag , Beneath the 12-mile reef , It conquered the world , Killers from space , The clonus horror , The court martial of Billy Mitchell , The winds of war , Sergeant Ryker , Cruise missile , Legend of the Sea Wolf , Scream of the Wolf, Texas across the river , The Guns and the Fury , The rebels , Survival run, Let's make up , The night of the hunter , The slipper and the rose , being especially known for his special appearances in : Airplane I and II and Men in Black 2 . Peter Graves died of a heart attack on March 14, 2010, just four days before his 84th birthday. His partenaire is the attractive but unknown actress Tracey Roberts . They are accompanied by a fine support cast , such as :vGeorge Cleveland , Ralph Sanford , Dennis Moore and Iron Eyes Cody as Brave Bear ; the latter played several Indian roles , in fact he claimed Native American descent, although he was actually of Italian descent, with ancestors from Sicily , he labored for decades to promote Native American causes, and was honored by Hollywood's Native American community .

The motion picture was well directed by John Rawlins . This B-Hollywood filmmaker had a long and important cinematic career. At the beginning he was an actor, stunt man, gag writer and assistant director . For a while he sidelined as a comedy writer, then became an editor and later directed second features for First National in Britain from the early 1930s. Returning to the US, he joined Universal (1938-46), where he turned out "B" pictures and serials, including installments of the "Dick Tracy" and "Sherlock Holmes" series. And directing various Westerns such as : The Arizona Ranger , Strange conquest, Overland Mail, Men of the Timberland , Rogue River , shark river , Mississippi Gambler , among others. He had similar assignments at RKO (1947-48) and United Artists (1951-53), before branching out into television dramas. Rating : 6.5/10 . Decent and better than average Western.

'Ft. Defiance' is a B-movie western that in terms of story is quite a cut above the typical Saturday matinée fare. But, this is a description of the Cinecolor process it was shot in.

3-strip Technicolor was the first technically viable, full color film process commercially available to the U.S. film industry. Although technically elaborate and expensive, for about a 15 year period (ca. 1935-50) it was also the only full color process available (Kodachrome, a reversal process yielding a positive image from the camera stock, was not regarded as suitable for studio film production).

During Technicolor's reign there were a number of alternative low-budget color film processes based on the 2-color principle of color reproduction. Although 3 primary colors are required to obtain a full color gamut, a surprisingly natural-looking color image can be achieved by using only 2 primary colors, basically, a warm primary and a cool primary.

Instead of dividing the spectrum into 3 bands (red, green, blue), it is split into 2 regions, representing the warm colors (red, orange, yellow) and the cool colors (green, blue, violet). In the photography, red and green color separation filters are used to obtain the 2 primary color images. Because of the technical complexity of full 3-color requirements, the first successful color motion picture processes (Kinemacolor and others) from the 1910's onward, were 2- color processes. Technicolor started out as a 2-color process itself.

As with other 2-color processes (Trucolor being its main competitor) the Cinecolor process used Mitchell cameras adapted for bi-pack filming where 2 rolls of film are run through the camera simultaneously. The camera's magazines had 4 chambers, 2 feed and 2 take-up. Each roll of black & white film captured one of the 2 'primary' images.

A Cinecolor film print contained 2 primary color images, a reddish-orange and a cyan, printed on opposite sides of the film base. In making splices, the projectionist had to scrape emulsion off BOTH sides of the film so the cement could form a proper bond. Focus was achieved by focusing at the center of the film base as a compromise (instead of on the emulsion).

When Kodak and other companies introduced single-strip negative-positive color film systems around 1950 -- which meant that standard production cameras could be used for full- color filming without special adaptations or apparatus -- the raison d'etre for 2-color systems was eliminated, with 'Ft. Defiance' being among the last of its kind. 3-strip Technicolor itself survived only a few more years as a production process, although the lab continued providing imbibition film prints to the industry for more than a decade afterwards.

Like other 2-color processes, Cinecolor suffered from a limited palette, where bright greens, yellows, and purples were not achievable. Most other colors could be represented with fairly reasonable approximations. It also suffered from a bit of variability in color densities. Nevertheless, it was the most natural looking of all the 2-color processes.

Considering its 2-color limitations, what's remarkable about Cinecolor is how natural-looking it could be.

Some other 2-color Cinecolor titles are: Black Gold (1947) Albuquerque (1948) Strawberry Roan (1948) Flight to Mars (1951) Flat Top (1952) .

It's just after the Civil War and Ben Shelby arrives looking for Johnny Tallon whom he plans to kill. Shelby was the only survivor of a battle due to the cowardice of Tallon. Thinking Tallon dead, another man who lost a brother at the same battle arrives to kill Tallon's blind brother. Tallon arrives to find Shelby and his brother fleeing. Then they are attacked by Indians and Shelby and Tallon must now fight together postponing the inevitable showdown.

Fort Defiance is an enjoyable western, due to the good performances, direction, cinematography and a tense, yet quiet atmosphere, and exciting blazing action as Shelby and the Tallons square off against vengeful white men and their Native American neighbors. Loved Dane Clark's witty comeback and his fast guns. Ben Johnson is excellent as always, but I reckon Peter Graves steals the scene as a blind man. The first half is slightly plodding, but picks up when the villainous Ned Parker and his gunnies turn up. It's then uphill all the way.

For a fitfully simple b-western, FORT DEFIANCE has the most complicated case of post Civil War revenge, twofold: first there's Ben Johnson, who becomes a ranch-hand working for blind, extremely trustworthy Peter Graves, and secretly wants to kill Peter's older brother for backing out of one of the last battles... and then an entire posse wants both brothers dead...

Enter first-billed Dan Clark, extremely anticipated through expository dialogue, thirty-five minutes in, as his brother and new best friend are cornered by Indians in a cornering canyon, led by legendary faker Iron Eyes Cody...

There would be far more suspense along with anticipating tribal drums if the low-budget use of day-for-night... filming darkly in daylight masquerade a brightly moonlit night... wasn't so obvious... but the introduction of heart-of-gold-hooker Tracey Roberts, who even blind Peter Graves knows is pretty and genuine, adds some needed dimension: but what matters most takes place in the third act, after sunrise...

When Dane Clark, usually a kind of poor man's George Raft, really stands out, playing the heck out of the villainous yet faithfully-dependable scoundrel in what's an 11th hour crash-course of the ambiguous gunfighter persona... making you forget that most of the film's buildup didn't have him around at all.