Last of the Comanches

Basically this film is a remake of the 1943 Humphrey Bogart film 'Sahara' with essentially the same plot moved from the deserts of North Africa to the American Southwest. Nevertheless, this is a solid western with good acting by a cast of competent character actors and vivid photography. Broderick Crawford was, to my mind, a very underrated actor and we see Barbara Hale here prior to her 'Perry Mason' days and Lloyd Bridges prior to his'Sea Hunt' underwater TV series. All in all, an enjoyable film for western devotees. I remember originally seeing this film at the weekly Friday night 'Ranch Night' at my local theater in the late 50s. If you like this film, be sure to see the 'Last Posse' with Broderick Crawford which is just as good, if not superior to this western.

An atmospheric, character-driven exercise in suspense shot mainly out in the open in brilliant sunlight, set shortly after the massacre at Little Big Horn. Handsomely mounted in Technicolor and grouped with a dramatic eye; the use of the singular being appropriate since the director himself famously had only the one eye.

If you like Broderick Crawford, you will enjoy this film from beginning to end. Broderick plays the role of Sgt. Matt Trainor who leads a group of people from Arizona with all kinds of backgrounds, one man was a gun smuggler for the Indians, Black Cloud and a young woman, named Julia Lanning, (Barbara Hale) who is among many men but no one tries to hit on her, mainly because they are too busy fighting off Indians constantly. There is plenty of action with arrows flying through the air and people running out of water and Sgt. Matt playing all kinds of games with the Native American Indians who do not fool around and drive a hard bargain. Lloyd Bridges, "Sea Hunt TV Series" (Jim Starbuck) looks very young and gives a great supporting role. Enjoyable 1953 film classic which was filmed in Buttercup Dunes, California and not the Sahara Desert.

A solid directorial effort by Andre De Toth (check out the scene in silhouette with Broderick Crawford & Lloyd Bridges), good story and acting plus decent dialogue make this a must see for any western or "drama classics" fan.

I saw this movie at a children's Saturday afternoon matinee performance in Belfast under its then-British title THE SABRE AND THE ARROW. Only a young child, I remember being extremely moved by the juxtapositioning of the Brodrick Crawford seen-it-all Cavalry Sergeant's pragmatism with Johnny Stewart's vulnerablity as Little Knife, the abandoned Comanche boy in the desert. Normally at a children's matinee kids fidget and talk throughout, only cheering or boohing the action sequences. Thus we mostly came away from a western with an impression rather than a comprehension because the noise built to a point where dialogue went unheard. Not so in THE SABRE AND THE ARROW, the children's attention being a tribute to this western's emotional pull in the days when just seeing movies in colour was regarded as a treat. Cinema-only viewing added to the lustre. The dryness of that sun-blanched desert still haunts my senses fifty years on.