L'urlo dei comanches

OK, up front, I'm a huge westerns fan & I've always loved Clint Walker. A lot of these reviews have focused on a comparison with John Wayne's "Hondo". Well, when "Hondo" was made, Wayne had been starring in films for almost 20yrs, so please - guys - cut Clint some slack, OK? He had been plucked from an everyday life only 3yrs before, with no previous acting experience, & this was his first starring role in films, in the lead no less. I think he carried it off pretty well. It's full of good action sequences, the scenes with Clint & child actor Richard Eyer are sweet & the tension between Clint & Brian Keith is pretty cool. The budding "romance" between Clint & Virginia Mayo doesn't come off so well, but I remember reading elsewhere that she wasn't too happy about being cast opposite a TV actor & that there was some resulting tension on the set. All in all, I found this to be a pretty good entry in the western pantheon; well worth watching. As usual, tho, it's too bad Warner skimped & didn't film in color. What a waste of gorgeous scenery, both landscape & their leading man!

A wanted man saves a widow and her son from an Apache attack and leads them to the safety of a cavalry fort, but the mother soon suspects their rescuer may be responsible for her husband's recent death.

Fort Dobbs is a formula western lifted by the excellent direction of the underrated Gordon Douglas, who had directed some really good westerns and was an expert in executing well-staged action sequences, Virginia Mayo, the rugged terrain, the exciting action sequences and, of course, by its lead star, Clint Walker, who in Gary Cooper fashion, is a man of few words- strong and silent, and for me, he is the quintessential western star. Loved Cheyenne Bodie TV series, and he weaved his towering presence in this feature film. Pity he didn't make a slew of consistent run of westerns like Randolph Scott and Audie Murphy did. He fitted the genre like a glove.

Fort Dobbs is a vigorous western with familiar themes and elements that western diehards would be used to, but it's done with an infusion of skill, grit and excellent performances- and the stark black and white photography lends to the action and suspense played out in the rugged terrain. A solid western starring Clint Walker but the best was yet to come in Yellowstone Kelly.

Fugitive Gar Davis (Walker) flees from posse across hostile Comanche territory with woman and small boy (Mayo & Eyer), and encounters old foe, the gun-running Clett (Keith).

Fine eyeful of parched southwestern scenery—I counted only one interior (the "hospital" scene) for the entire movie. Sure, Big Clint (not Eastwood) has only one "Yes, ma'm, No, ma'm" demeanor for every scene, but that's okay, even if he didn't get to be the next Gary Cooper.

Putting old-pro Gordon Douglas in charge was a shrewd move. Note the stages the awakening Mayo goes through in discovering that, yes, Walker has stripped off her wet clothes. Note too how Douglas gets that infernal glint in Mayo's eyes when she first suspects Clint of murdering her husband—it's almost scary. I also like the way the Indians are credited with some military sense when overturning the wagons to make shooters' barricades. Most important, Douglas knows how to integrate the picturesque terrain into the storyline—catch that great framing of the Walker-Keith shoot-out.

Fortunately, Warners got Burt Kennedy to do the script— and on the eve of his outstanding work with the Boetticher-Scott ,(Ranown), cycle of Westerns. I suspect Bryan Keith's charming villain was Kennedy's inspiration since likable baddies was a standard Ranown feature. Yes indeed, Keith steals the show with his easy-going charm—a real contrast to the uptight Walker. At this early stage, Keith was an interesting actor, best at squinty-eyed cowpokes as Sam Peckinpah knew when casting him as lead in Peckinpah's brilliant but short-lived TV series The Westerner (1960).

The movie itself may have been a hurry-up job—probably that's why there's no Technicolor despite the great scenery, and probably why we get a recycled plot line from Hondo (1953). I guess the hurry-up was to take advantage of Walker's TV popularity. Still, the movie's a very watchable action-filled adventure. What's more, I don't care if the luscious Mayo was pushing 40, she could put her saddle on my horse any day.

Fort Dobbs is directed by Gordon Douglas and written by George W. George and Burt Kennedy. It stars Clint Walker, Virginia Mayo, Brian Keith, Richard Eyer, Russ Conway and Michael Dante. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by William H. Clothier.

After his appealing run in the TV series Cheyenne, it was inevitable that Clint Walker would make the transition to big screen fare. Here for his first feature length outing, we get the marker for his career that would follow. Never blessed with great acting talent, Walker was however a mighty presence, and handsome to boot, and he is the prime reason why Fort Dobbs is a better than average experience.

Plot basically has Walker as Gar Davis, a fugitive of justice who hooks up for a travelogue with Celia Grey (Mayo) and her son Chad (Eyer). Along the way there is Comanche peril, shifty companionship in the form of Clett (Keith) and a cunning twist that strains the relationship between Gar and the Greys. The wonderful Henry Repeater Rifle comes into play, very much so, and it provides some kinetic excitement, and it all builds to a rousing finale of explosions and stunts, while of course redemption and the truths will out. Clothier and Steiner further cement their reputations as skilled craftsmen, with the former beautifully realising the Kanab locations in black and white, and Douglas knows his way around a good honest Oater. 7/10

After being accused of shooting a man Gar Davis leaves the town of Largo with a posse in hot pursuit . His problems intensify when he comes across the body of a man which means the Comanche tribe are on the war path and with a return to Largo not an option he has to trek through hostile territory on foot . He spots a homestead and tries to steal a horse

As someone who is not a fan of the Western genre I only watched FORT DOBBS because there was nothing else on but found myself enjoying the movie much more than I could possibly have expected . One reason for this is because it resembles the type of story that would attract a director like Walter Hill who made a career out of reworking Anabasis by the ancient Greek writer Xenophon which involves protagonists trying to reach sanctuary through hostile territory and this film makes the best of the scenario and just when the protagonists think safety is in sight another obstacle appears

Perhaps even stranger as someone who isn't keen on Westerns I did notice the genre conventions which could be interpreted as clichés were are the fore such as a man's got to do what a man's got to do , men in white hats against men in black hats and the Injuns are portrayed as violent savages . We even have a kid in the mix but none of this harms the movie probably because it's an involving and exciting tale . One flaw to it is that it's filmed in black and white and one thinks if you're to set a film in a vast landscape which is to all intents and purposes a co-star then the film would have worked even better if it was shot in colour