L'attaque de la rivière rouge

In the last days of the American Civil War, a Confederate gun smuggler ends up helping to defend a Union fort when his weapons are sold to the Shawnee Indians.

Routine yet amiable western with light-hearted moments as well as tense ones. Van Johnson stars as a salesman going town with his assistance singing "tapioca." Clever bit is that it's a code word. It moves leisurely, and gets more exciting as it progresses and ends with a rousing cavalry vs Indians fight featuring a Gatling gun. Joanna Dru and Richard Boone as a villain also star. Van Johnson does well in his only western. Well photographed with fantastic rugged terrain.

A Confederate captain (Johnson) goes undercover in the North to steal a Gatling gun with his sergeant (Milburn Stone), but a Pinkerton operative is suspicious (Jeff Morrow). As they take advantage of an unknowing Rebel-hating woman (Joanne Dru), they hook up with a mercenary (Boone) to help them get through Indian country.

The era of 1953-1954 featured great Westerns like "Shane," "Destry," "Garden of Evil," "Johnny Guitar" and "Vera Cruz," as well as formidable ones like "Arrowhead," "Escape from Fort Bravo," "Gun Fury," "Hondo," "Pony Express," "Broken Lance" and "The Raid." I bring that up because "Siege at Red River" (1954) doesn't exactly place with these Westerns as it's flawed by amusing, yet generally unfitting humor and a too-busy giddy-up score, which is seriously quaint.

This isn't helped by splicing in Indian-fighting footage at the climax from "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" from five years earlier. Another problem is the disingenuous geography in the first half that's supposed to be areas near the Ohio River, but is obviously the Southwest (of course, this was more of a 'B' Western and it would simply cost too much to transplant the cast & crew to somewhere in the East for those particular scenes).

Nevertheless, there's a lot to enjoy in this old Western. Van Johnson's non-cowboy mannerisms actual fit the role since Capt. James S. Simmons/Jim Farraday hails from Atlanta back East. Johnson had charisma to spare and Milburn Stone is entertaining as the sidekick. Meanwhile Boone was unsurpassable as the unlikable character with "toxic masculinity." Add to this winsome Dru, the beautiful scenery and the interesting Gatling gun subplot and you have an entertaining enough early 50's Western with some lame elements.

It runs 1 hour, 25 minutes, with outside shooting done in east-central Utah at Professor Valley, Colorado River, Castle Valley and Dead Horse Point; as well as in Durango, Colorado, which is 158 miles southeast of there.

GRADE: B-/C+

It's a typical 50's Technicolor Western trotting out all the usual ingredients with the usual vim – no-nonsense people and plot was the motto.

Two Rebs steal the being-developed Gatling Gun from the Feds in an ingenious segment, eventually toting it further south but ending up stuck in a small town. This town gets quickly filled to the brim with Federal soldiers still on the hunt for their gun. Van Johnson (Reb) and Joanne Dru (Fed) fall for each other of course although of course they don't realise it until the climax. What interested me was the implication that the gun could be used by civilised whites against each other in a civilised slaughter but that selling it to the savage Reds was beyond the Pale. Both Feds and Rebs are eventually united to prevent the Reds using it during the noisy 5 minute siege. And of course the implication was only the Reds were low enough to actually use the horrible weapon the Feds had had the brains to design – at the time of production America had the same idea about the Russian Reds and the atom bomb.

It has a bit of everything Western in: romance and fights, trains and horses, shootings and slapstick comedy. It's fun, I loved it.

This western is,in my opinion,very underrated,and gives a nice blend of adventure,thrills,actiion and wry humour with the addition of some very catchy tunes. Van Johnson gives a good performance as one of a pair of undercover Confederate agents,carrying a stolen Gatling Gun through Union territory to aid the cause of the South. They travel as medicine salesmen contacting Confederate agents as they travel and picking up Joanne Dru on the way. The love interest between her and Van Johnson provide some nice humerous touches. Richard Boone steals the film,of course, as a really nasty,bullying,woman hating,unscrupulous,murdering cut-throat,who steals the Gatling gun from Van Johnson and sells it to the Indians and joins them, for money,of course, in attacking the Cavalry Fort. The fights,action scenes and Indian attack are very well-done. At the end Van Johnson gives Boone his come-uppance,the day is saved and Van goes off with Joanne into the sunset, but all in a very satisfying manner. Milburn Stone and Jeff Morrow provide excellent support. The direction,writing and acting are above par from all concerned. It is a western that one can see time and time again and still obtain great enjoyment.

I don't know why, but the Van Johnson's role seems to have been inspired by a Randolph Scott's character in a western from the forties, for Warner, where he played a Confederate soldier fighting for something lost in advance; of course as a Confederate officer.... Maybe I am wrong, I have not in mind all the Randolph Scott's characters, but this Confederate soldier trying to do his best to win or at best change the course of the war, I have seen this before. However this lead character can't be shown as the evil guy, only ambivalent. This is not my Rudolph Maté's western favorite. Worth watching for any western buff.