Fort invincible

This film, released in 1951, has the usual elements typical of the westerns released during the 50's; the cavalry needing to protect the territory from a murderous band of Indians, an officer determined to see that task through, and the men with him with various character flaws that he has to merge together into a cohesive unit. This small band must hold on to a fort located close to the Indian village until reinforcements arrive. The Indians know, all to well, that the small band is undermanned, and could be wiped out before the help comes. One major difference for this film, "Only the Valiant", is that it attempts to play out the usual storyline, but at the same time, deliver the message that duty is a paramount concern to be shared by all, even if they don't accept that charge.

Gregory Peck embodies the tight-lipped captain of the troop that has to prevent the Indians from breaking out into the territory. The troopers that he takes with him to the small outpost are the dregs of the troop at the fort; they, in turn, have gripes or weaknesses that cause them to wonder if the captain hasn't taken them out because of their general lack of devotion to a cause. Eventually, the captain and the small band confront the hostiles, and at the same time, each confronts his own flaw. The cast includes western stalwarts such as Ward Bond, Gig Young, Neville Brand, Lon Chaney, Jr., and Warner Anderson.

A sleeper of a film, and a good solid western for fans of this genre.

I saw this film twice, both by accident. It is one of those movies that only gets shown at 3:00 am because it is so intense. After seeing this you can understand why John Huston picked Gregory Peck to play Captain Ahab in his version of "Moby Dick". This is a character you can only hate until he redeems himself. The Indians are a serious force of nature whose periodic attacks you fear because the aftermath of each one is so bloody you cringe instinctively which is why I am glad the movie is in Black and White. Gordon Douglas, who also directed one of the greatest monster movies of all time, "THEM", really understands the art of building tension and the pain of violence. Lon Chaney Jr's character goes through some of the same sadistically disturbing drama that Gene Hackman went through when his character was shot in "Bonnie and Clyde". A real nail-biter.

In the book that Michael Freedland wrote about Gregory Peck, Only the Valiant is described as the worst film Gregory Peck ever made. During those beginning years of his stardom it seems like just about every film became a classic of some kind.

Only the Valiant was shot on the cheap and it shows. The book says that Gregory Peck's cavalry uniform was an old costume worn by Rod Cameron in one of his B westerns. It was an independent production by James Cagney and as part of the deal Peck got Barbara Payton who had a contract with Cagney himself and was used in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye which he produced and also starred in.

According to Michael Freedland's book, Peck who was still tied to David O. Selznick got $60,000.00 for the part of cavalry captain Richard Lance. Selznick got $150.000.00 and Peck was not a happy camper. Still being the professional he was, Peck did the film.

In truth Only the Valiant is a far better film than MGM's big budget The Great Sinner which Peck also starred in. Mainly because of a very competent crew of players that James Cagney gathered for this film. And an interesting script which contains elements of Beau Geste, The Lost Patrol, The Dirty Dozen and David and Bathsheba which Peck had starred in.

Peck and Gig Young are rivals for Barbara Payton and Peck is ordered to send Young on a patrol to take hostile Apache chief Michael Ansara to a better staffed army fort. Young gets killed and Ansara escapes and the old Uriah the Hittite story starts circulating at Peck's post.

Later he gets an assignment to man an abandoned fort that sits across a narrow mountain pass that the Apaches can't even charge through on horseback. He takes a select group of army misfits, some of whom would like to kill him worse than the Apaches.

Even with Ward Bond as an alcoholic corporal, any resemblance between these soldiers and those John Ford cavalry pictures is coincidental. The ones who he takes with him, Sergeant Neville Brand, Lieutenant Dan Riss, Bond, Troopers Terry Kilburn, Steve Brodie, and Lon Chaney, Jr. are a collection that Lee Marvin would gladly have taken on a mission.

Chaney has the strangest role. He's named Kabushyan and he's Armenian though the men refer to him as A-rab. He's got one big old gay crush on Gig Young though it's not spelled out due to Code restrictions and he hates Peck worse than the others. It's the best performance in the film.

Only the Valiant has an A list cast with B production values, I wish it had been done with a bigger budget.

Only the Valiant isn't a great movie, but it is a good one. It is sluggishly paced however, with some parts that feel drawn out, and there were times when the direction was lacking. That said, Only the Valiant is very well shot, the black and white cinematography looks good, and the scenery is authentic. Also good is the score, which is suitably rousing, the script is decently structured and the story is interesting while taking inspiration from Fort Apache and Red River. The acting ranges from decent to very good; I am not a huge Gregory Peck fan(I sometimes find him dull) but he does a good job as the ruthless and tight-lipped martinet officer, and Barbara Payton is luminous and pretty as Cathy. Ward Bond, Gig Young and Jeff Corey are much more impressive though. Overall, not perfect, but worth the look. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Made a couple of years after Ford's 'Fort Apache' (1948), in some ways Douglas' violent film is reminiscent of that earlier work. Gregory Peck's straight-backed Captain Lance, the unpopular stickler for honour and adherent to all the fine print of duty, recalls Ford's military martinet Lieutenant Colonel Thursday (Fonda). There's a significant difference of course: Lance has a quiet competence throughout (and grudging respect of the ranks) conspicuously absent in Thursday's command. And whereas Thursday's actions lead to disaster, Lance pulls off a successful mission. Corporal Gilchrist (Ward Bond, also in 'Apache'), grudgingly admits as much as he declines to shoot the Captain, maddened at the height of his personal whisky drought: Lance is "the only man who can get them through", faults and all. Like the narrow pass through which the Apaches must move to attack the fort, Lance works within a narrow confine of responsibility and honour which can be dangerously constricting.

Interestingly, for a film ostensibly full of action, much significance attaches itself exactly to the opposite. For instance, it is Lance's unwillingness to draw upon others to clear his honour that estranges him from the post and his girlfriend Cathy after the death of Lieutenant Holloway. Most importantly, it is Lance's 'failure' to shoot the indian chief at the beginning, immediately after the fluke capture, which precipitates the death of so many others (a fault corrected at the end when Lance uses a knife in the last struggle). The film suggests that it necessary to bend the rules sometimes to achieve more effective results (whether or not this includes condoning murder in cold blood of a captive is another matter) - and positions various disrupting influences against the Captain as way of demonstration of the checks and balances this involves.

Chief of these is Corporal Gilchrist, who rather steals the film -particularly in the light of Peck's characteristic dullness as an actor. It is Gilchrist who is present at the start of events, he who rounds out the film. It is he too, who provokes a rare yielding, as far as military rules are concerned, by Lance: the Captain allows him a surreptitious swig of whisky just before the final attack. A boisterous, womanising drunkard, Bond plays a character to the hilt familiar from Ford's 'cavalry trilogy' and other films.

The forces contrasting Lance's discipline, control and code of honour rang neatly and conveniently against him at the fort. A deserter, a drunkard, a frustrated bully, an irrationally violent man - these and others, are the small command aptly chosen by Lance (being those the army can "spare mostly easily") to support his mission. In effect, such a select rabble represent the dregs of the army. But also, the weaknesses and darkness which all men contain, and naturally it is these which Lance has to face and master, as much as holding the pass against more physical incursion.

Reflecting this intrigue, the film is naturally rich in character acting. Besides Bond's loud bluffness, one also relishes Chaney's satanic Kebussyan (his character definitely *not* a Fordian derivative!), and the grouchy bitterness of Neville Brand's sergeant Murdock. Much of the film's pleasure lays in such incidentals, especially as the events at the pass, when examined logically, hardly make military sense (Why don't the indians just attack in one go? Why do they keep retreating back through the pass when they have broken out?)

Douglas, who went on to make the superb 'Rio Conchos' (1964) and the minor cult item 'Barquero'(1970) made too few Westerns, and does a good, tough job in direction. His pacing and grasp of tension helps to mask over the glaring differences in geology between the studio's 'pass' and the real thing shot on location. Co-scriptwriter Brown was to write Hawk's masterpiece El Dorado. In short: recommended, but for a more complex and convincing portrait of the cavalry under command see Ford.