La carica delle mille frecce

The Images are Bright and Colorful and the B-Cast is Strong.

However the Repeating Emphasis on Family, Child-Bearing and the Like,

Overwhelms what Little this Exercise in Cookie-Cutter Film-Making has to Offer.

It's Inoffensive White-Bread Population Control.

Even the Central Character George Montgomery's "Pale Arrow" Story is of Growing-Up into the Man He has Become in Search of His White Roots.

The Action is Minimal and the Extended Battles are Lifted from Other Films.

The Movie Offers Not Much More than Time-Killer Eye-Candy.

A Lot of it Takes Place on Fake-Looking Sets with Squeaky-Clean Clothes with Cliched Characters and Dialog Coming-Off as "American Family Pamphlet" Guide.

If there's Such a Thing as Typical "Cut-Corners" B-Western Formula, this is it.

Not Much to See Here...Only the Cast and Color are...

Worth a Watch.

George Montgomery didn't make particularly good westerns--like a lot of other western stars he was tall, good-looking, rode a horse fairly well, and was a strapping physical specimen, but he just didn't that "something" that set him apart from the rest of the crowd. He did make a few better-than-average westerns--1951's "The Texas Rangers" fits that description--but for the most part his stuff was for the lower half of a double bill, cheaply made in black and white for low-rent outfits like Allied Artists or some independent company, and one was pretty much like the next. There are two things that set this one apart, however--(1) it's in color and (2) it has Lola Albright.

Like many of his westerns, it's not particularly well-shot, even though it's in color, and is cursed with a surfeit of stock footage, much of which doesn't match the "new" footage. Fortunately, the new footage also contains Lola Albright, who, even in a long skirt and loose blouse is incredibly sexy, with that smoky, almost growling voice of hers in full bloom, and she's actually the best part of the picture. The plot is one that's been done a million times before--white boy's parents die, he is raised by Indians, complications ensue--and better, but Albright is pretty much the only reason to watch this. Stony-faced Charles Horvath plays--as he has done many times before--a villainous Indian warrior (although he's actually Hungarian), veteran character actor Ralph Moody plays--as he has many times before--a kindly old Indian chief, George Waggner directed and co-wrote the script (and didn't do particularly well in either department).

The film's cheapness shows through at every turn, and overall it's just a fair way to spend an hour or so, but not much more than that.

This film begins with a wagon train heading west and directly through the land controlled by the Pawnee. As it so happens, one wagon in particular has lagged behind the others and is subsequently attacked by a Pawnee named "Crazy Fox" (Charles Horvath) who shoots an arrow into an older settler by the name of "Uncle Tip Alden" (Francis McDonald) before setting fire to the wagon and riding off with the livestock. Fortunately, another Pawnee named "Pale Arrow" (George Montgomery) happens to come along right afterward and surgically removes the arrow from Uncle Tip's shoulder and then takes him and his daughter "Meg Alden" (Lola Albright) to the edge of where the rest of the wagons have camped for the night. Not long afterward their only scout decides to quit and so with nobody else available to guide them through the Pawnee territory they accept the offer of a stranger who agrees to help them out. What they don't know is that this stranger is none other than Pale Arrow who may or may not have an ulterior motive. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a basic Western which, quite frankly, covered all of the bases if nothing else. Having said that, viewers looking for something to occupy themselves with for an hour or two could do worse and for that reason I have rated it accordingly.

This is just one in a huge string of westerns that Montgomery made over the course of his career. This one, however, falls pretty near the bottom of the heap in quality and prestige. In it, Montgomery plays a white man raised by Indians. (Hilariously, even though he has been reared among the Native Americans his entire life, his hair isn't as long as theirs and it's parted on the side just as it would be in any other film, but with two braided pig tails down either side!) Soon after he saves Albright and her crusty father from his own people's attack, he decides to rejoin the white race. This agonizing adjustment consists of him wiping off his face paint, removing the faux ponytails and changing clothes.......VOILA! He's white! Through plot contrivance, he winds up as the scout for Albright's wagon train (which is chock full of annoying stock characters who are shown in long shots knocking violently over rugged terrain, yet in the close-ups are barely rocking on a static, stationary prop wagon!) Chief among the silly characters is a frail, ancient pioneer wife who is pregnant with her first child. She is shown in shawls, etc...but occasionally can be seen in cinch-waisted dresses which reveal no belly yet gives birth right after! She and Freeman (later famous for her comedic gifts) and Albright (who still looked human at this stage in her career before turning her skin brown and her hair white) take time out from getting slaughtered by the Indians to buy themselves some new dresses in a nearby town. "Little House on the Prairie" fans will recognize the pregnant lady's husband as the Reverend from the later TV series. Eventually, Montgomery finds himself caught in the middle of the distrusting wagon train participants and his Indian family (incited by a particularly irritable "brother" who is out for blood.) All of the battle sequences are lifted from another film. This is ludicrously brought home when the screen is filled with epic numbers of settlers and warriors but the stars are behind a rock or off to the side watching! Unless it is to poke fun at the sorriness of the production, there's not much reason to watch, though Montgomery does display a still fit figure during some of his scenes as a Pawnee (notably in a "washing up" shot as observed by Albright.)

George Waggner was a good western director, not ambitious but with good talent to show. This one will not stay forever in my memory. The basic scheme is interesting, a White risen grown up among Indians, but that's not that new; some westerns used this plot too. Anyway this one is an agreeable time waster with a George Montgomery doing his job. But everything is predictable, tha's an element which I always take care of. I like being surprised by something unusual and here, nothing of this kind. Many westerns were like this anyway. So just watch it for the quality, atmosphere, charm. Any die hard western buff will like it.