Although it was apparently supposed to be another version of C.B. DeMille's "The Plainsman" of a few years before, Paramount obviously thought better of it, and assigned director Paul Sloane (who???) to make an "epic" on the budget of a B picture. Surprisingly, Sloane didn't do a bad job. For one thing, the picture is well cast. Preston Foster has always been a solid, if not stolid, actor, and Andy Devine is as amusing as always. William Henry looks a bit out of place playing the young officer, but he acquits himself well enough. The real stars, though, are Gene Lockhart, who plays his trademark weasely villain to perfection, and Ralph Morgan, who does an outstanding job as the commanding general assigned to stop Apache warrior Geronimo from his ravaging of the territory. Chief Thundercloud bears a strong resemblance to the real Geronimo and actually does quite a good job, conveying the menace, cunning and intelligence that even the enemies of the actual Geronimo gave him credit for. The battle scenes, although consisting mainly of footage culled from many previous westerns--several of them looking like they dated back to the silent era--are for the most part pretty well integrated into the picture, although there are several instances where the use of process rear-projection shots is painfully obvious, notably during the fight on the island in the middle of the river. Overall, though, this is actually an entertaining picture. Although Paramount tried to fool the audience into thinking it was a bigger picture than it actually was, they really didn't need to do that, because it stands on its own pretty well. Enjoyable.
