The Gun That Won the West

Dennis Morgan stars as Jim Bridger who is hired to scout land for the cavalry. They want to build a land encroaching on Red Cloud's territory. Predictably Red Cloud is not happy with that, and consequently there's an injun vs cavalry feud, despite the New Springfield rifles on their way. It is a watchable western, but it doesn't standout. It's slow moving at time and though the action is energetic, the battle at the end features none of cavalry firing the new rifles, and it ends as if they ran out of film time.

Any resemblance in this film between historical accuracy and what you see in the picture isn't coincidental, it's downright unintentional. The fact that Sam Katzman produced it should have been a warning that this film would be made as cheaply as possible, with lots of stock footage borrowed from "Buffalo Bill" ("Pony Soldier" borrowed the same battle scenes) and Indian "war" dances. The fact is that Red Cloud (who lived into the 20th century) made numerous visits to the White House to plead the cause of his people. The Bozeman Trail, supposedly the reason for the U.S. Army to escort railroad builders, simply isn't true; no railroad was built into the area at that time. Red Cloud succeeded in getting the Bozeman trail forts abandoned, a detail not mentioned in the film. Lots of anachronisms, including a Wild West show taking place in the 1860s, Jim Bridger actually in his dotage by then, and demeaning references to Native people ("Redskins") unacceptable today. The fight between Bridger and the Indian in the river comes straight out of "Buffalo Bill" in which Joel McRae as Buffalo Bill fights Yellow Hand played by Anthony Quinn to the death. I wasted 1:15 watching this film; should have taken the time to read a book.

Despite the summary above, this events that this movie depicts happened during Red Cloud's War happened in 1866- 1868 not the late 1880s. Also, the Secretary of War depicted in the movie, Edwin Stanton left office in 1868. The introduction of the Springfield rifle helped the Army win some battles. Peace came after a change of policy that lead to the Army's abandonment of the Powder River Country and its forts along the Bozemann trail. Settlers were channeled to the Transcontinental Railroad then nearing completion. It's route ran farther south.

Red Cloud was the only major Indian leader who really won a war against the US Army. The peace treaty did not last long thanks to white treachery, greed for gold, Custer's thirst for glory, etc.

Entertaining enough although the weak script, low budget and poor film editing let the film down somewhat, probably a B movie supporting a better feature film when released. The dialogue and most of the action will frighten and shock millennials and wokes not brought up in the glorious 50s and 60s when we all played cowboys and injuns! Good that these western and war films still get plenty of tv airtime and no doubt sizeable audiences still.

Well, I expected worse from this Sam Katzman's production, the infamous Sam Katzman who was so obsessed with bringing films with the tiniest budgets that sometimes the result was simply awful or laughable. This one is OK, maybe inspired by a true story, part of conquest of the West history. This film also belongs to the Columbia Pictures period for William Castle, before he eventually found his way in terrific and terrifying horror films that made his legends for generations of fans. Unlike his Columbia period.... This one, I repeat, is OK, agreeable to watch and the plot is rather interesting, smooth and not that predictable.