Il cacciatore di indiani

"The Indian Fighter" was filmed entirely in the outdoor beauty of Oregon. The scenery and color are breathtaking. The action scenes are expertly staged and executed, particularly the Indian attack on the fort.

Kirk Douglas stars in the title role as a scout who is hired to guide a wagon train through Indian Territory to Oregon. Walter Matthau (in an early role) and Lon Chaney (wasted again) play the villains of the piece who start up an Indian war by trying to steal gold from their land. Eduard Franz plays Red Cloud the Sioux chief who tries to keep the white man from encroaching on his people's land.

Elsa Martinelli is an Indian maiden who becomes Douglas' main love interest and Diana Douglas (Kirk's wife at the time and mother of MIchael) plays a settler woman with designs on Kirk but who has to settle for hard-working Alan Hale instead. I wonder how Diana Douglas felt about Kirk rolling around in a creek with Ms. Martinelli?

Rounding out the cast are a number of familiar faces. Walter Abel plays the army captain, Elisha Cook a frontier photographer and Ray Teal, Frank Cady and Lane Chandler as various settlers.

"The Indian Fighter" rises a step above similar westerns through its beautiful scenery and exciting action sequences. It is a truly exciting and colorful outdoor adventure.

It's called The Indian Fighter but oddly, in Andre de Toth's post Civil War western, Kirk Douglas playing Indian scout, Johnny Hawks, is the paleface who has the closest relationship with the local Sioux tribe and its leader Red Cloud. And while there appear to be quite a few native Americans doing their bit as tribal extras, the 4 main Indian roles are taken by 3 white guys and an Italian girl. To be fair I guess, it needs to be pointed out that the film is 66 years old, when prominent Native American actors weren't exactly a dime a dozen roaming Hollywood streets.

And Hollywood streets and backlots is not where The Indian Fighter was filmed. It's setting is Oregan and the movie makes particularly good use of the ruggedly scenic locations on tap and wisely even takes some time out for some diverting philosophic conversations, about the possibilities and long - term ramifications of a shrinking frontier.

Douglas's Hawks is not even your conventional western hero. He takes on more of an anti - hero status, with much of the dramatic content occurring as a direct result of him taking his eye off the ball for long periods, whilst being distracted by the charms of Red Cloud's daughter, Ohanti. Elsa Martinelli as Onahti is almost believable in the role, if you ignore her pronounced Italian accent. Anachronistically, she is also asked to act out one of those "Stop! Stop! I love it" routines which periodically reared their heads in 20th century movie - making, where the poor old, put upon female, is asked to put aside bullying, sexist male behaviour, in demonstrating she was actually receptive to it.

The narrative, whether deliberate or otherwise, ends up quite morally correctly, in the corner of the Indians. But everything is rather awkwardly put together. This includes the 2 cheesily, funny aquatic, nude scenes; one to introduce the character of Ohanti and the second to quite ludicrously finish, the film on an almost farcical note, with Hawks and Ohanti romping in the rapids together.

The Indian Fighter will be remembered as an entertaining vehicle for a somewhat over-acting Kirk Douglas, whilst attempting to portray Native Americans in a more positive light, but through a distinctly patronising means.

This isn't terrible as far as a typical old western. Kirk Douglas does a great job including with his stunts. What I found rather unsettling were the several scenes where he forced himself on a woman both for kissing and sex. Rather than portray it with the disdain it should have, it's presented as a happy time which turns my stomach.

Kirk Douglas is portrayed as a lovable jack-the-lad here, always ready to fight for right. He's got a winning quip, a twinkle in his eye and a heart of a lion. I beg to differ.

For starters, right at the beginning he sees an Indian squaw he likes, taking a bath in a lake. So what does he do? Forget about roses or chocolates... he virtually ASSAULTS her to get a kiss, and then steals her knife into the bargain. Later on, he does the exact same thing. Guess what... this brutish behaviour actually makes her FALL IN LOVE with the maniac, and she has sex with him in the forest (only implied though... this WAS made in 1955 after all). This infatuation also causes him to divert a wagon train of white folk on a two day detour from their destination into hostile Indian territory... just so he can sneak a peek at her. This leads to a huge fight, in which many lives are lost on both sides. Some 'hero'.

If you ignore the movie's celebration of this psycho, and the dubious underlying message that we should all resort to Stone Age methods to get the girl of our dreams, there is quite a bit to enjoy here. Full scale battles, majestic cinematography, a compelling story, the works. There are amusing supporting characters, including a young guy who wants to photograph the whole Wild West with his newfangled invention known as a 'camera', and a tough widow with a little boy who is constantly proposed to by a boring fertiliser-obsessed farmer. Sadly for him, her affections (which remain unrequited) lie with Kirk Douglas... and even more bafflingly, her son idolises this lunatic too. Suddenly, soil is starting to seem more appealing by the minute...

So, yeah. Not a classic, but a rousing enough spectacle. With a protagonist I love to hate. Next... 6/10

I've always enjoyed Kirk Douglas films in general and he's usually very good in westerns. But The Indian Fighter quite frankly is a pumped up B western.

Kirk produced this one as well and was able to get a good cast of familiar faces in westerns. He even got his ex-wife, Diana Douglas to appear as a widow traveling west on a wagon train with her son.

Kirk Douglas is Johnny Hawks who is a scout guiding a wagon train west to Oregon. The film opens with him checking out the naked Elsa Martinelli taking a bath in a creek. Pleasure before business and he continues on to the village where he finds out Elsa is the daughter of Chief Eduard Franz.

And that sets the tone for the film. When Douglas should be concerned about the safety of the people he's working for, he's off trying to court Elsa. His preoccupation with her almost causes disaster to the train.

Action there is though, including a nicely staged Indian attack on an army post. And the whole film was shot in Oregon on location quite nicely. I believe some of this same area was used in Kirk Douglas's later western The Way West.

Kirk Douglas's heroes are usually flawed and quite three dimensional. But this film has a hero I could not really get a rooting interest for.