La hache sanglante

A lot of the B Westerns were "fluff", but usually the director or writer would want to add some "sidebar" on for their personal motif.

It is the "sidebar" that is usually the message the director and writer want to display. Sometimes, it is "advertising" for products, such as tobacco companies, soda companies, or what have you.

Here, either Director Selander, or writers Simmons and Boone, looked to want to add their own flavor to a fairly routine cavalry Western.

Like most Westerns of the day, the Indians are depicted as semi good guys with evil white men upsetting the apple cart.

The overkill of the evil white men has always been very politically correct, and especially was in the decades that followed this movie.

However, the real sidebar here is what happens with the evil corrupt cavalry officer who causes at least two massacres, quite knowingly, quite viciously.

Also, a few red herrings come into play here. The fates of a few of the characters you won't guess, as they go against the usual Hollywood propaganda formula. Thus, this particular Western has some surprises by the end.

Calhoun spends much of his time in this film, warning the builders and settlers of a new army outpost, that they will be wiped out by the hostiles. In this decidedly downbeat tale, he is not only snubbed by authority, but mocked and ridiculed...and guess what? The action scenes are done well, and the unusual ending is fresh.

The Yellow Tomahawk is directed by Lesley Selander and written by Harold Jack Bloom and Richard Alan Simmons. It stars Rory Calhoun, Peggie Castle, Noah Beery Jr., Warner Anderson, Peter Graves, Lee Van Cleef and Rita Moreno. Music is by Les Baxter and cinematography by Gordon Avil.

Scout and tracker Adam Reed (Calhoun) is handed a yellow tomahawk by Cheyenne warrior Fire Knife (Cleef). It is to be given to Major Ives (Anderson) as a proclamation of war, a heed to get women and children out the way prior to attack. Ives stubbornly rejects the threat...

Another splendid 1950s Oater begging to be sought out by fans of the genre, and another reason to laud Calhoun as underrated in his time. Story wise there are familiar tropes, but it's always nice to see a screenplay sympathetic to the Native Americans, where here led by *ahem* Van Cleef they are fed up of encroachment and seek to defend their tribal lands. There is honour in the actions, which in turn solidifies a believable friendship between Fire Knife and Reed.

It's also in parts sexy, which gets its first marker during Reed and Katherine's (Castle) first meeting, god bless water! Ok! So the inevitable coupling is all a bit sudden and trite given an event previously, but the romance factor here does not hinder the depth of the screenplay. Also bonus is that Reed is not some unstoppable muscular hero, he is openly shown to be as fallible in a fight as all of us can be - twice! The makers are not here purely for comic book

There's twists in store as well, one of which is a doozy, while the action as you would expect under Selander is very competent and exciting. You will not forget the massacre sequences, where the eye for an eye - violence begets violence theme is banging the drum, while the presence of Beery and Graves is most welcome. Filmed in Colour but released to TV in black and white, a Western fan can't help lament this fact. For you can see the wonderful Kanab locations begging to be colourized. Shame that.

The messages within my grate on some, but if shrugging that off there is a whole lot for Western supporters to savour here. 7/10

This western belongs to the second part of career for Lesley Selander, his best part, unlike his cheap one, during the forties. Here, with more budget, he is of course more comfortable, and without being under the lack of freedom, which is usually the bad side of a bigger budget. Producers generally remove any wish for something new, or unusual, when some directors dare something daring. Exectuves only seek the gross, and in that purpose, the key is to propose to audiences what they seek for, what they search for, and certainly not something unexpected. Such a shame. Here, with this film, and others that he made more or less in the same period, Lesley Selander makes me think of a total freedom, concerning camera angles, characters study, and above all the Indian attack over the cavalry base camp, so violent, so brutal, with shocking scenes of women slaughtered with tomahawk. Yes, this is a very effective, excellent western from a specialist. An overall atmosphere and spirit that you can't forget, especially from a grade B movie, and not a Z.

The Yellow Tomahawk is a typical western from the 1950s. Perhaps it was forgotten because of the time it was released. It was 1954 and everyone was running after widescreen and colour films. This film, on the other hand, is in narrowscreen and was shot in black and white. But it has a solid cast. Rory Calhoun is the protagonist, a man who, like the western genre itself, went from film to television and always offered good portraits of those tough men who conquered the west. At his side, we have a treat for the male eye in the beautiful Peggy Castle, who loves to take baths in streams despite the threat of an imminent Indian attack. Joking aside, she is a pretty woman with a strong character who deserved better luck in her professional career. We also have Lee Van Cleef, a classic villain in both Hollywood and spaghetti westerns. Here, with a little makeup, he is the Indian who sends the soldiers the yellow tomahawk, as a warning that they are not welcome because he has to take revenge on the soldier who commands the camp, played perfectly by Warner Anderson, since he was the culprit of one of those indiscriminate massacres where the frenzy of the lowest human instincts does not respect women, children, or the elderly. Perhaps the best thing about this plot is the fatalism of the situation. There is no solution. The conflict cannot be avoided. The Indian only understands the Law of Talion, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. In a supporting role is Peter Graves. In his case he is dominated by gold fever and sells his soul for those nuggets of golden metal, therefore he is not the hero we so admire in Mission Impossible. Also, as an unlikely interracial couple, but one that is consolidated by actions rather than words, were Noah Beery, with a very long acting career in film and TV, and the young Rita Moreno, who years later would burn up the screen in The West Side Story (1962).

In short, an entertaining western, with a tough conflict between soldiers and Indians and with very well-known figures that I like to see again.