La porte du diable

While some might balk at the idea of Robert Taylor playing an American Indian, such casting was pretty typical of this era--with folks like Rock Hudson and Paul Newman cast as Indians as well! Plus, while the casting is poor, the film does have a lot in its favor. The biggest plus is that the American Indian is portrayed VERY sympathetically here and is a film about intolerance and prejudice--and makes some excellent points to counter the prevailing "evil and stupid Indian" image many films of the day. Plus, although Taylor is an Anglo with an aquiline nose and blue eyes, the film manages to have him appear rather Indian-like--and his craggy middle-aged good looks helped--along with gobs of skin paint! I cannot speak for American Indians, but I assume most would appreciate the film's message and overlook the casting--as there simply wasn't any better sort of film about them made at the time--and very, very few since.

The film begins with Taylor returning home after several years absence serving in the Union army during the Civil War. Along the way, he developed a bit of naiveté and assumes his being a sergeant in the military and living out the White American dream that he'd be accorded respect and equal treatment at home. However, there's an ill-will brewing and instead of receiving honor for his service (which had earned him the Medal of Honor--the nation's highest military award), he will face a lot of unreasoning hate. At the heart of this is a scum-bag lawyer (imagine that!) who is bent on stirring up the Whites against the Indians--mostly so he man make himself rich in the process.

I could say more to the plot, as there is quite a bit more to the film, but I really don't want to spoil the film. Suffice to say that it is very well written--mostly because it is NOT a movie with a clear message that the settlers were all evil and the Shoshone were perfect and noble. I liked this, as both sides had a point--though the Natives clearly were having their rights cast aside in the process. The characters, as a result, were multidimensional and interesting.

Overall, if you are a bit tired of cookie-cutter westerns and are looking for something a bit different, "Devil's Doorway" is a pretty good bet.

ROBERT TAYLOR, grim-faced and painted to look like an Indian, gives a strong performance in Anthony Mann's examination of the plight of American Indians and their mistreatment in DEVIL'S DOORWAY.

Although he's a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor after his victorious conduct in war, he doesn't get the welcome he expects when he returns to his home state of Wyoming where EDGAR BUCHANAN is the Sheriff who warns him that he's naive if he thinks he can find a welcome mat for Indians at any bar.

PAULA RAYMOND is the pretty lawyer who tries to help Taylor when her mother (SPRING BYINGTON) reminds her that that's what her dad would do. But nobody can stop evil lawyer LOUIS CALHERN from spreading false and malicious gossip that poisons the mind of the homesteaders who want a piece of Taylor's land.

It's a grim story, beautifully photographed with stunning B&W western landscapes filling the eye with their grandeur. All of the performances are expert and the climactic battle with men foolishly following Calhern's orders is photographed for stunning impact.

Told in a tense 85 minutes, it's a film worth viewing and one that was ahead of its time in dealing with the plight of American Indians in a realistic way.

In Wyoming, Native American Indian and Civil War hero Robert Taylor (as Broken Lance Poole) faces discrimination. When his father appears ready for the "happy hunting ground," Mr. Taylor can't get a doctor because he's an "Injun". White lawyer Louis Calhern (as Verne Coolan) wants to take away the land Taylor inherits. Taylor hires female attorney Paula Raymond (as Orrie Masters) to help and they are mutually attracted. Taylor learns that, as an Indian, he is not a United States citizen and has no right to his own land. Sheepherding homesteader Marshall Thompson (as Rod MacDougall) moves in, and the conflict gets violent...

"Devil's Doorway" opens with some serious reservations about Taylor's portrayal of a Native American. It doesn't help that his make-up shades up inconsistently in different scenes. But, after about thirty minutes, when he's in full "red-skin" dress, Taylor creates an appealing and believable character. Taylor's stoic mid-life screen persona matches the role perfectly, and he responds with one of his best performances. Also lifting this film from the doldrums is director Anthony Mann, who gets photographer John Alton under your skin with some beautifully framed and staged scenes. The "pro-Indian" theme was not new, but had become rare.

******* Devil's Doorway (9/15/50) Anthony Mann ~ Robert Taylor, Paula Raymond, Louis Calhern, Marshall Thompson

Sensational western , deemed as the first Hollywood film to side with the Indians , along with ¨Broken arrow¨ by Delmer Daves and starred by James Stewart . It deals with Lance Poole (offbeat cast of Robert Taylor who surprisingly is pretty well) , an Indian Navajo who won a Medal of Honor fighting at Gettysburg , goes back to his tribal territory intent on peaceful cattle ranching . Returning home and finding a bleak situation : his people living in poverty . As usual , crooked settlers and mean traders (Louis Calhern) thwart peace . Some people and State laws attempt to take possession his lands . Then Lance hires an advocate at law (Paula Marshall) . The solicitor attempting to find truce among feuding white man and Indian people.

This picture acclaimed like one of the first to deal the Indian with understanding and justice . The film contains agreeable depiction about Indian habits as it actually was , including adulthood initiations , complex mythology and peculiar culture .¨Devil's doorway¨ along with ¨Broken arrow¨ marked in the cinema field a trail of consideration and empathy toward native indigenous to North America, and lift the troublesome relationships between native and colonizers , then it would go on other films until reach its climax in the great and magnificent "Dancing with wolves" (Kevin Costner, USA 1990). Good acting by Robert Taylor as an Indian Navajo who served in Civil War and must fight to right the injustices against his people ; his perfect interpretation as "Lance Poole" remains one of the highlights in his prestigious career. Furthermore , an attractive Paula Marshall as a kind advocate and Louis Calhern as the intriguing lawyer "Verne Coolan" makes an adequate character of the evil . Support cast is frankly excellent such as Marshall Thompson as Rod MacDougall , the recently deceased James Mitchell as Red Rock , veteran Edgar Buchanan as Zeke Carmody , Rhys Williams and Scotty MacDougall and Chief John Big Tree as Thundercloud . Evocative and imaginative musical score by Daniel Amfitheatroph . This good film packs a splendid photography in atmospheric black and white by John Alton, another European -Austro-Hungarian- who emigrated US and became an excellent cameraman expert on Noir cinema as well as Nicholas Musuraca .

This top-drawer Western was stunningly realized by the master Anthony Mann , infusing the traditional Western with psychological confusion , including his characteristic use of landscape with marvelous use of outdoors which is visually memorable , including a majestic production design by Cedric Gibbons , Metro Goldwyn Mayer's (MGM) ordinary . Mann established his forte with magnificent Western almost always with James Stewart . In his beginnings he made ambitious but short-lived quality low-budget surroundings of Eagle-Lion production as ¨T-men¨ , ¨They walked by night¨ , ¨Raw deal¨ , ¨Railroaded¨ and ¨Desperate¨ . Later on , he made various Western , remarkably good , masterpieces such as ¨The furies¨ , and ¨Devil's doorway¨ and several with his habitual star , James Stewart, as ¨Winchester 73¨ , ¨Bend the river¨ and ¨The far country¨ . They are characterized by roles whose determination to stick to their guns would take them to the limits of their endurance . Others in this throughly enjoyable series include ¨Tin star ¨ and ¨Man of the West¨ is probably one of the best Western in the fifties and sixties . After the mid-50 , Mann's successes came less frequently , though directed another good Western with Victor Mature titled ¨The last frontier¨. And of course ¨Devil's doorway ¨ that turns out to be outlandish but stylishly realized , well paced , solid , meticulous , with enjoyable look , and most powerful and rightly-considered . This well acted movie is gripping every step of the way . It results to be an over-the-top western and remains consistently agreeable as well as thought-provoking . Rating : Above average , the result is a top-of-range Western . Well worth watching and it will appeal to Robert Taylor fans .

Your one other comment on this film so far (Under the Arch) sums up my feelings entirely. Why this masterpiece of a film is not mentioned in the same historical discussions of great westerns as Stagecoach, The Oxbow Incident, High Noon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, etc. is beyond me. But of course it was made by Anthony Mann and that says it all. Those little known episodes in our nation's history in which greedy white men dispossessed cooperative and non-violent native Americans can never be re-told often enough; such as when Andrew Jackson, despite a Supreme Court decision to the contrary, conspired in the 1820s with the land robbers so as to allow those white men to exploit the state's mineral wealth in the 1820s. The peaceful and civil Cherokees were driven out of their Carolina homelands and into concentration camps. (Hitler had nothing on Andrew Jackson.) From there the Cherokees were driven into Florida and then on to Oklahoma via the "Trail of Tears." And the Devil's Doorway is such a classic tale of land-grabbing, ethnic cleansing, bigotry, and high-handed discriminatory bureaucracy as to make your flesh creep. See it.

PS I recently (2009) saw Anthony Mann's Cimarron (1960, his last Western) for the first time and read all the many reviews of it. Many went into great depth as to Mann and his career, listing and evaluating many of his previous films. Not one of them mentioned this film, perhaps his greatest! So even among Mann aficionados one of his greatest accomplishments has fallen by the wayside and into the memory hole! What can be done about this to bring back such a classic and restore it to its rightful place in film history?