Revolt at Fort Laramie

John Dehner gets a rare top billing in this interesting western. He's the commanding officer at the fort, just as Fort Sumter surrenders. The enlisted men, with mixed loyalties are ragging each other on with reprises of "Dixie" and "John Brown's Body", and he faces them down. He tells them they're soldiers of the US Army, and they'll behave that way. Then orders come from Washington to discharge every man of uncertain allegiance, so he resigns, planning to lead he other Southerners to Texas to enlist. He leaves his daughter, Frances helm, with the new, young C.O., Greg Palmer, saying that national loyalties may differ, but love conquers all. Then he heads out into hostile Indian territory.

Lesley Selander directs this one without much fuss. He focuses on the sense of honor and loyalty of the professional soldier instead, and Dehner's aristocratic presence makes this one to watch. Keep an eye out for Harry Dean Stanton, still uncredited in his third movie role.

At the start of the Civil War, the soldiers manning Fort Laramie are split between Yanks and Confederates but the real threat is the warpath Sioux surrounding them all.

Fairly good western with all round performances, especially from John Dehner, who for once isn't a shady character but a conflicted major of a fort. The idea of North and South conflict plus Indians on the warpath is quite fresh, and the action scenes are well done, though I wish the script was sharper, there was a longer running time and a more famous lead hero. Such things would have fulfilled the film's potential.

Revolt at Fort Laramie is directed by Lesley Selander and written by Robert C. Dennis. It stars John Dehner, Gregg Palmer, Frances Helm, Don Gordon and Robert Keys. Music is by Les Baxter and cinematography by William Margulies.

Upon watching this above average Oater one word kept coming to mind, brief! Be it the battle scenes, the finale and of course the running time, it'as all so brief. Which when you have such a powder-keg premise at the core of the pic, is hugely annoying.

We have the Fort of the title made up of Southern and Northern soldiers, all standing together to repel the Red Cloud led Sioux Army. Then the First Battle of Fort Sumter opens on April 12, 1861, and what was once a harmonious force is now divided. Into the mix is shifty shenanigans involving gold, a lovers relationship under strain and murder! If only we could have had a bigger budget, another thirty minutes run time, and someone to throw a firecracker over it and BOOM!

Still, it's an entertaining piece with well staged battles - one a siege and one on the river - good scenes such as the opposing soldiers singing against each other with their respective "homeland" anthems, and fun moments like Dehner's Major Bradner being restrained in leg irons to stop him sleepwalking to his doom! Baxter's score is mostly standard stuff but occasionally shows inspiration like incorporating the said North/South anthems, while the Kanab locations are beautifully utilised (so not Laramie then? So what).

If only everything wasn't so brief. Grrrr. 6/10

A reviewer considered ot a lost opportunity and suggested a remake, as the conflicts amongst the troopers against the background of a common enemy: the ethical conundrum between duty and the emotional call of home loyalties, at a frontier cavalry post, as the US Civil War begins, was fertile ground for a deeper examination.

I agree. A remake could be an allegory of the present deeply and bitterly racially and politically divided US, against the backdrop of circling enemies, China, Russia, Iran, Nth Korea, smelling 'blood in the water' from what they perceive as a declining and wounded power.

The premise is promising—a cavalry garrison divided evenly between Northerners and Southerners on the eve of the Civil War. That's inside the fort. On the outside is a riled-up Sioux nation looking for white-man scalps that the rebs will have to ride through if they want to get to Dixie. So who would want to be the commanding officer with killer complications of this sort. And if that's not bad enough, add a wagonload of gold due at the fort that the budding Johnnie-rebs want to take south. Poor Major Bradner, he has an oath to the army, but family roots in the South. So there's more than enough plot for any 70-minute movie. Then too, Bel Air Productions popped for scenic Kanab, Utah locations that produce a lot of commanding red rock scenery even if the terrain looks nothing like Laramie-area Wyoming.

So, with these promising ingredients, why aren't the results better than they are. In my book, the acting lacks the intensity that these conflicting cross-currents should realistically produce. Basically, the actors (even the great John Dehner) stand there and speak their lines, but without much feeling, so the drama never really gels the way it should. I guess director Selander's specialty is action and not acting. Still, there are a couple of good battle scenes— especially the unusual skirmish between soldiers on rafts and Indians on the riverbank. Anyhow, if you're not too expectant, this is a decent enough oater made at the peak of the Western craze of the 1950's.