Ulzana's Raid

In an interview, Bruce Davison recalled how he got the part of Lt. DeBuin: "I went in to see [director] Robert Aldrich (I) and said, 'Mr. Aldrich, you have no idea how much The Sand Pebbles (1965) meant to me'. He said, 'Thanks, kid, but Robert Wise (I) made that film. But you're just dumb enough, you have the part".

At the end of the movie just before Mcintosh and his party enter the canyon for the ambush he tells the Sergent that they have to wait for Ke-Ni-Tay to take out Ulzana's sentry. However, the decision for Ke-Ni-Tay to take out the sentry was made by Lt. DeBuin after Mcintosh had led the other party into the ambush so there was no way for Mcintosh to know what Ke-Ni-Tay was doing.

There are two versions of this film, Robert Aldrich's print (RA) and Burt Lancaster's (BL) print. There are many subtle differences between the two although the overall running times are similar and most of the changes involve alterations of shots or lines of dialog within scenes. In the UK the Lancaster version was released on VHS and the Aldrich version on DVD (same as the US version) The major differences versions are: (a) The Aldrich version has an opening scene (before the credits) showing Ulzana leaving the reservation. This is missing from the Lancaster print. (b) The BL version deletes almost all shots of Burt Lancaster's Indian woman - played by Aimee Eccles (c) The BL version has a scene showing the two troopers pursuing the wounded Indian, The off-screen Indian kills one of them with rifle fire and the survivor rides away. This is missing from the RA print therefore creating more ambiguity as to what actually happened when the survivor returns. (d) The scene in which the rape victim plunges herself in the river is longer in the RA version and she refers to herself trying to "wash it off". In the BL version, the scene is abridged to suggest only suicide.

Featured in Moviedrome: Uizana's Raid (1990)