Fort Osage

This a nice B western about a wagon master trying to make wrong a right done by the businessman behind a wagon drive.

I can't say I'm familiar with any of the films made by the lead Rod Cameron. Although lacking the gravitas of the great cowboy actors he does a decent job as the righteous good guy. The rest of the cast are more than adequate.

The plot is pretty standard but it comes with a healthy amount of the required fist fights, horse chases and shootouts with the obligatory romantic interlude tucked in for good measure. It's all filmed in vivid colours which give the film a nice if dated feel.

This is no Hign Noon and holds few surprises but it is sharply scripted, well acted and enjoyable. For those that like old westerns this is well worth watching.

A frontier scout hired to lead a wagon train from Missouri to the gold fields in California finds out that the two men organising the journey are ruthlessly exploiting the people under their protection. They have also broken a treaty with the local Osage Indian tribe, putting everyone's lives in danger.

Fort Osage is a routine western monogram programmer with the expected fist fights, chases, and shootouts, round this up with a workmanlike plot and you get a pretty diverting little nugget. For diehard western fans, especially of old-fashioned kind. Rod Cameron does his usual sturdy acting, playing a firm yet honourable figure who recognises that the Osage are on the warpath for a reason. Douglas Kennedy does what he does best and provides the villainy.

The film Fort Osage is marked by some truly stupid and greedy villainy. Because of that some truly preventable bad things happen.

Rod Cameron stars and he plays a wagonmaster who is refusing to take a train west and the settlers scheduled to travel want to know why. Easy enough, the Osage Indians are on the warpath. Cameron goes to Osage country to find out the answer.

His previous boss had his own treaty with the Osage. The tribe got a delivery of supplies with each wagon train for safe passage. Kind of like in Charge Of The Light Brigade where the British where the British stop their stipend to C.Henry Gordon, but trust he won't go on the warpath there.

Difference is that Morris Ankrum is more interested in money and Douglas Kennedy is a nasty sort in general. Kennedy dominates Ankrum in any event. Just sheer stupid greed.

At 6'5" Cameron cuts a taller figure in the saddle than John Wayne, he's also a bit stiffer in his acting. Ankrum and Kennedy are the real story in Fort Osage.

A greedy businessman called Arthur Pickett (Morris Ankrum) is charging outrageous prices to homesteaders who wish to join a wagon train for passage to California while also stealing the Osages' supplies who consequently begining assaulting all passing wagon trains . While a wagonmaster called Tom Clay (Rod Cameron) is organizing a trip , to travel from Missouri to California but the heinous hoodlums are ordered to kill him . Meanwhile, George Keane (Douglas Kennedy) and his henchmen have broken the treaty his predecessor made with the Osage Indians commanded by Osage Chief (Francis McDonald) and Osage Brave (Iron Eyes Cody) to provide trade goods in return for passage across the Native Americans' land. At the end there is a rousing free-for-all climax that leaves the sagebrush carpeted with lots of corpses ,

A rugged B class Western from the unheralded Monogram low-budget stable , set in the time of Gold Rush and in Fort Osage location . It is an action-packed , vivid Western and there's plenty of tough action with Rod Cameron in the lead continuing his image as the quietly spoken but grimly determined man who it's dangerous to double-cross , he puts personality into the headstrong hero . Rod plays a wagon train guide hired for a risked trip who learns of the businessman's duplicity and attempts to set things right before the Indians go on the warpath . And it contains an excellent final climatic fight betwen him and Douglas Kennedy . Stars Rod Cameron , a coping six-footer in the Gary Cooper tradition , as he found a slight hit as a "stand-in" with Paramount Pictures for such stars as Fred MacMurray while managing to find himself sparingly used in other Paramount films. To supplement his income he also played leading man in the studio's screen tests for starlet wanna-bes and his athleticism paid off playing stunt double for such established cowboy icons as Buck Jones . Cameron toiled as a bit player for quite some time and appeared insignificantly in such classics as Christmas in July (1940) and Northwest Mounted Police (1940) , where he fulfilled his early wish by playing a Mountie. Occasionally he would find a noticeable secondary role, in such lesser films as The Monster and the Girl (1941), The Forest Rangers (1942) and as Jesse James in The Remarkable Andrew (1942) .His breakout screen role was as clench-jawed Agent Rex Bennett, out to bring down the foreign enemy and save the world, in the Republic serial cliffhangers G-Men vs. The Black Dragon (1943) and Secret Service in Darkest Africa (1943). From there he was signed by Universal to appear in a flurry of low-budget westerns with Fuzzy Knight as his comic sidekick. Aside from the rough-hewn heroics he was paid to display, he would occasionally show a softer side for the ladies, such as with fellow Canadian Yvonne De Carlo in Salomé, la embrujadora (1945), Frontier gal (1945) and River Lady (1948) .Among Cameron's many dusty showcases (more often than not made at Republic or Universal), Brimstone (1949), Stampede (1949), Dakota Lil (1950) and San Antone (1953) are worth a good look . In the 1950s Cameron found time to settle into a couple of syndicated TV series. Both City Detective (1953) and State Trooper (1956) lasted a couple of seasons. He also guested on the more popular western series, such as Bonanza (1959), Laramie (1959) and The Virginian (1962). And appeared in a couple of low-budget westerns such as Requiem for a gunfighter (1965) and The Bounty Killer (1965), which was noticed more for reuniting sagebrush stars from yesteryear than for its high quality. He also played an aging rodeo star who dies early in the story in the biopic Evel Knievel (1971). When his movie career began to fade in the early 1960s, he went to Spain for a few spaghetti westerns . As Rod even starred European , Spaghetti Westerns such as : Winnetou and Old Firehand or Thunder at the Border , Sendero de odio or Bullet in the Flesh , and Guns don't argue . Rod Cameron is well accompanied by a good cast , giving fortright interpretations , such as as the heroine Jane Nigh as a damsel in distress called Ann Pickett , his father is interpreted by Morris Ankrum as a greedy Missouri merchant overcharges the westbound settlers for goods , Douglas Kennedy as the nasty cutthroat who leads a bunch of bandits robbing supplies , John Ridgely , and Francis McDonanald and Iron Eyes as Indians, and the latter was a secondary actor who played a lot of Indian roles , posing as a native , but being in Italian origin .

It packs colorful cinematography by Harry Neumann in above-par Cinecolor in Monogram usual style . As well as atmospheric and thrilling soundtrack by Marlin Skiles. Being produced in short budget by prolific Walter Mirisch , still living , who financed the successful The Magnificent Seven saga .The motion picture was regular but satisfyingly directed by Leslie Selander . Selander is generally considered to be the most prolific director of feature Westerns of all time, with at least 107 to his credit between 1935 and 1967. He realized his first feature in 1936, a western , genre in which he would not only excel but one where he would spent much of the rest of his career . Although Selander couldn't be deemed an "A"-list director, his movies had a professionalism and a verve that many of those made by his fellow B directors lacked . He also filmed detective thrillers, action/adventure motion pictures and even a horror film or two . He finished a close second with 106 horse operas helmed between 1917 and 1949 , for thirty years . He began with Western starred by Buck Jones and subsequently Hopalong Casssidy series performed by William Boyd . He moved to Republic where directed Rod Cameron in ¨Panhandle¨ and Stampede¨and started his collaboration to Tim Holt in 20 films . After that , he directed his best films as ¨Fort vengeance¨, ¨Arrow in the dust¨, ¨Town Tamer¨ and his final picture shot in Spain ¨Texas Kid¨. Rating 5.5/10. A minor Western with some touches of spectacularity , adding rousing entertainment and showing the West as wild you could wish .

The pure Lesley Selander's chain made western, B western with so much charm, so entertaining, which brings absolutely nothing for a western lover, but a kind of western which I will never be tired of. The plot is so overused that I won't even come back on it. Rod Cameron, some kind of poor man's Randolph Scott - often played under the direction of Lesley Selander and the combination is quite good. So, nothing much more to say about this agreeable time waster, made in Cinecolor and produced by Monogram, the future Allied Artists. Action packed, beautiful settings, what could we ask for more? Now, that's up to you to decide.