Le fort de la dernière chance

i have seen this film several times. also, i am looking forward to seeing it again on television this week.

my only regret is that when we visited Arlington cemetery in 1990 we did not visit Audie Murphy's grave.

An earlier reviewer writes that the title of this Audie Murphy oater suggests a comedy--"F Troop" meets "Petticoat Junction." He can be forgiven this wit since both of those sitcom inanities post-date this western by many years.

But in a way he was not far wrong. While not a comedy it has comedic elements, as all good action films should, and it's a merger of two stories that could be described as "The Alamo" meets "Westward the Women".

The latter is an (apparently) little known film by William Wellman made six years earlier. Robert Taylor has the Audie Murphy role as wagon-master Buck Wyatt leading a group of mail-order brides from Chicago to California. He's also a hard-nosed martinet whose crew deserts him when they can't obey his orders to stay away from the women, thus setting up a similar scenario. Although not the only male guiding the wagon train west (there are four), the setup is pretty much the same as "Fort Petticoat".

The common bond here is Hope Emerson ("Sergeant" Hannah Lacey), a true pro. She was also Patience Hawley in Wellman's film, playing the same character in both, and it's a good one. I believe MGM hoped to establish Emerson as another Marjorie Main but comparisons are invidious and Emerson, a wonderful actress (see "Caged"), inevitably came off second to Main. Sadly, she died a few years after this movie was made.

Many of the same elements populate both movies, particularly in how the man trains the women, who grow beyond his tutelage (and leadership) after overcoming difficult odds, but "Fort Petticoat" manages to come up with a few new turns of its own.

As for Audie, he does well--reprising Buck Wyatt in spirit but remaining true to his own personality. He plays as well off Emerson as Taylor did in "Westward" and both make this an entertaining movie.

This movie can be frequently found on Encore Westerns but if you can catch "Westward the Women" on TCM, I urge you to do so. It's a bit grittier but the two are a credit to each other thanks to Hope Emerson.

I wonder why no one who commented on this movie before noticed how this is the sort of scenario that made El Alamo the thrilling film it was, and that led to so many re-makes. There is a surrounded group, with no escape, and decided not to surrender to a bitter enemy... That this group was of women only, and that they died battling with bravery, makes me wonder where the cable televisions are, what video producer will discover this gem first - a gem it is, as people who saw this film only had praise for it! I'll be the first to buy a VHS or DVD copy of this film. Just tell me where it is.

The Guns Of Fort Petticoat is a nice little western flick. Telling the story of Lt. Frank Hewitt, a man who deserts the Union when his colonel decides to attack friendly Indians returning to Sand Creek, resulting in the Sand Creek massacre, he has to prepare a townstead of women to defend themselves as Indians commit attacks in the state in retaliation to the massacre.

This is a neat movie. The idea of women defending their homestead is a bold move, but it works out. The story has everything to expect in a western: action, romance, suspense. If you never saw this, I recommend doing so.

The title of this film almost sounds like it will be a comedy.....sort of like "F Troop" meets "Petticoat Junction". It is, however, a relatively serious affair with some decent action sequences and some (sometimes unintentional) amusing moments. Murphy stars as a Cavalry Lieutenant who deserts his post in order to go a warn the people of his nearby hometown of an impending Indian attack. Unfortunately, virtually every man is gone from the area and the remaining women all resent him for wearing the blue instead of the gray uniform. Once the Indians start to make their mark, the ladies begin to change their mind and Murphy rounds them all up in an abandoned mission, determined to convert them into soldiers for their own sake. An already slightly campy film (check out the Indian grandma doing a child's hair at her camp right before a marauding cavalry unit appears), gets even loonier at this point. The mere idea of women brandishing guns and fighting physically must have been otherworldly in 1957. The enterprise is treated with all the expected attention and detail for the curio that it is. Murphy refers to the ladies as "men" and appoints sergeants, etc... He drills them in target practice, hand to hand combat and skirt-tucking (turning skirts into makeshift pants!) Naturally, there is every type of woman imaginable.....the old love, the new love, the haughty rich bitch, the one "in trouble", the religious fanatic, the tart, etc... What gives the film a great boost in the arm is the irascible, irreplaceable presence of burly, sarcastic Emerson as the leader of the women. Always intriguing to watch, she gets a plum role here as a bossy, tough, but good-hearted pioneer woman. It also helps that the film isn't dumb enough to suggest that this sort of thing wouldn't lead to casualties. So the unusual aspect of seeing women holding a fort with guns is accented and enhanced by seeing some of them take a fall as well. This adds to the realism of a film which is, at heart, pretty trite and coy. There are some fairly tough scenes and the Indian attack is actually pretty tense. (And it's awful nice of the Indians to wait and WAIT before coming until Murphy has trained all the gals, drained the water from the well, taught them how to make "bombs" and ammunition and solved various other problems!) Maley as a saloon singer and Elsom as a society matron help push the camp envelope. A few other ladies (like the one who gets upset and literally gobbles like a turkey with her face in the ground) take it even further, but Nolan rips it open. She is downright embarrassing as a devout Christian who clutches her Bible and spouts messages of nonviolence. However, when push comes to shove and arrows come to necks, she has a freak-out scene that is one for the books! Even with the pat situations and mundane dialogue, there's a certain curiosity value to the film and scattered laughs throughout (Wade, as Elsom's maid, has a real zinger of a closing line for her character!) Grant would later become better known as Mrs. Bing Crosby.