Seminole

Really enjoyable movie that ticks all the boxes.

The story weaves in and out of a love triangle, a sympathetic soldier and a becoming crazed Senior officer, all trying to find their solution to the Seminole 'problem'.

It never gets stuck too long with one perspective or another, just building the story fluidly as it moves along.

The film has a great look and sound and the performances fit well. More screen time with Marvin would have been a bonus but glad to see him in it.

Also nice to see Hale with a female character who is not a victim or out of her depth as many movies of that era portray, her character has a quiet strength and dignity which along with Hudson and Quinn help to offset the slightly over the top villain of Carlson.

Worth your time :)

Despite a far-fetched romantic triangle, "Seminole" is a solid early-19th-century historical drama that details the tensions between Florida's Seminole tribe and a U.S. military that is charged with dislodging them from their valuable land. Book-ended by the court martial of Lt. Lance Caldwell, the film relates in flashback the conflict between Caldwell, who has a knowledge and respect for the Seminole, and Major Harlan Degan, a martinet by-the-book officer who will stop at nothing to achieve his ends.

While Rock Hudson is acceptable in the undemanding role of Caldwell, Richard Carlson as Degan has the showier, more intense part, and he delivers a fine performance. The film's two Oscar-winning actors, Lee Marvin and especially Anthony Quinn as Osceola, the Seminole leader, are largely wasted in small, although critical parts. Lovely Barbara Hale as Revere has little to do but incongruously parade her finery and jewelry around a military fort; her romantic chemistry with both Hudson and Quinn fails to ignite. While Hale's splashy costumes, credited to Rosemary Odell, are eye-catching, the Seminoles have the more dazzling wardrobe; whether or not accurate, the actors playing Seminoles wear colorful, well designed outfits and headgear that at least suggest Native American attire. Cinematographer Russell Metty captures the vibrant hues of the costumes and the thick greenery of the Florida Everglades in glorious Technicolor.

Under the direction of Bud Boetticher, a veteran of several outstanding westerns, "Seminole" maintains interest, although action is secondary to dialog, and the climactic scene is borderline laughable for its timing. However, boasting a young Rock Hudson at his physical best, a script by Charles K. Peck Jr that throws some light on a forgotten historical episode, and a competent supporting cast led by Richard Carlson, the Technicolor film is a passable entertainment for most, but essential viewing for Rock Hudson fans.

Better than average drama with a decidedly pro Indian slant was one of the many films Rock cranked out on his way up, this was one of seven pictures he made in 1953. He gives a good performance, one of his better early ones, as the resolute soldier who is on trial for his life.

The cast is full of familiar faces most of whom were also just starting out and would go on to greater fame like Lee Marvin, in good guy mode here, and Russell Johnson. Richard Carlson is the sore spot in the picture, he starts out okay but ends up chewing the scenery in an over the top performance.

Barbara Hale was never particularly well served by films having much more success on TV as Della Street on Perry Mason nor is she very well used here but she looks probably the best she ever did on screen beautifully shot in Technicolor and as Revere Muldoon has one of the greatest character names ever. Not really a western, not even set in the west but Florida this is an enjoyable picture especially for military history buffs.

Rock Hudson fans, rent Seminole. He's so ridiculously handsome, it makes you want to make an optometrist appointment for Barbara Hale. In the movie, he's a lieutenant from West Point who comes back to his hometown after many years. His sweetheart Barbara isn't exactly glad to see him. Why? Because she's got another sweetheart on the side. Magnetic and passionate Anthony Quinn is Rock's rival, but since he plays an American Indian, it's a taboo romance. At that time, it was pretty racy of Hollywood to take an interracial romance seriously, let alone to show smooches!

The love triangle alone makes Seminole an interesting movie, but the side plot is also compelling. Rock is under the command of the stern, unfeeling Richard Carlson, and they constantly struggle with how to deal with the American Indians. Richard wants to obliterate them and take the territory, but Rock knows them-and is even friends with one of them, namely Anthony Quinn. And yes, that makes things even more complicated!

If you're don't really like Cavalry vs. Indians movies, you won't like this one. I wasn't really happy with the way things ended up, so this isn't a movie I'll watch over and over, but it was entertaining for the first hour.

"Seminole" is set at Fort King, in the Florida, territory of 1835, where West Pointer Lieutenant Hudson is charged with the murder of a sentry...

At the court-martial he recounts his story: the wary co-existence between the settlers and the Indians was threatened by the strict commander (Richard Carlson) of the Army fort... Hudson's childhood sweetheart, Barbara Hale, agreed to meet with Osceola (Anthony Quinn), a mutual friend from their youth who had given up his own Army career to become chief of the Seminole tribe...

Through her influence and Quinn's respect for Hudson, the redskin leader eventually comes to the stockade under a truce flag... But Indian-hating Carlson imprisons Quinn in a detention pit, the latter dies, and the situation deteriorates from bad to worse until the Indians rescue Hudson, who had been jailed by Carlson for killing a soldier while trying to restore peace...

All the cast of the film (photographed in Technicolor) gives energetic performances... Barbara Hale's major asset is her physical presence, providing a tone of sincerity... Anthony Quinn plays the noble 'savage' for the last time...