Comanche

I just had to look--- KENT SMITH as Quanah Parker???? I mean, the guy was always wooden, but jeeze! Utterly unconvincing in every way. And big Mike Mazurki as his right-hand goon--whew. Henry Brandon's Black Cloud, with his ice-blue eyes and bad wig, is another howler. You can even see the wig coming loose when he's struggling with Dana Andrews, himself looking seriously out of place. Diehard fans may or may not care to see him in this role. But at least Iron Eyes Cody is in there, though his presence only points up how fake those redface 'red men' look.

The script is well-meant, and deserved better. But this was the 50s, and the production decisions were what they were. As the gratuitous Girl, Linda Cristal contributes exactly what was intended-- and in a cantilevered bra, too. If you like shoot-'em-ups and can overlook the casting limitations and other snags, you might find this acceptable entertainment.

Had this movie starred a lesser name than Dana Andrews, I probably never would have watched it or else turned it off after a while, as this was a rather dull but competently made picture. Aside from more modern sensibilities about the American Indians (they aren't savage or bad and there is an attempt to understand their motivations), there really isn't anything different to set this apart from hundreds, if not thousands of mediocre Westerns from the 40s and 50s.

Part of the problem was in casting Kent Smith as the Indian chief. He was a good journeyman actor, but here he was all wrong. While his character was supposed to have SOME White blood, Smith looked and sounded about as much like an Indian as Shirley Temple! It's odd that although the script is quite sensitive and "politically correct" by today's standards, they still used a lot of White actors in makeup as the Indians (if you look, you'll also notice Mike Mazurki as an Indian as well).

Another part of the problem is that while I like Dana Andrews a lot, I've got to admit he was pretty bland in the part--a part which would have been more convincing had it featured Randolph Scott or Jimmy Stewart. Andrews just wasn't believable as a cavalry scout in the old West. Andrews forte was in contemporary stories--placing him in a horse and Indian film just seemed unnatural and his performance reflects this.

Aside from these complaints, I am not recommending you avoid the film--it is fairly entertaining and won't rot your brain. However, it really is nothing more than a time-passer and it SHOULD have been much better given the decent script.

Western frontiersman and Cavalry scout (Dana Andrews) travels Comanche territorry to save a fragile peace usually sabotaged from a rebel Indian (Henry Brandon) and by the short-sighted Indian Commissioner (Lowell Gilmore) as well as free a Mexican woman kidnapped by Apaches led by Quana Parker (Kent Smith) . As a rebel Indian leads his followers on a wild chase across the plains in this saga of the Old west . At the end , an Indian Brave squares off cavalry in an impresive battle . Ultimately and perhaps predictability , the bad guy (Brandon) and the good guy (Andrews) face each other in hand-to-hand combat and peace prevails . They killed more white than any tribe in history ¡The Never-Before Told Epic Of The Last Great Indian Battle! Filmed In The All-The-Earth-Spanning Power of Cinemascope

A routine and standard oater but passable Indian/Cavalry western with two Comanche tribe leaders , one good- Kent Smith- , and the other evil -Henry Brandon- clashing each other and a scout -Dana Andrews- attempting to keep peace and order . Decent , gleaming Western with noisy action , go riding , pursuits , Indians attacks , Cavalry charges , and shootouts . This glittering picture results to be an ordinary oater but containing some novelties , as the historical remarks about Quana Parker and General Miles . Stars the prolific Dana Andrews who had a long career and played a lot of Westerns . He first worked in Metro Goldwyn Mayer , it was two years before Goldwyn and 20th Century-Fox , to whom Goldwyn had sold half of Andrews' contract, put him in a film, but the roles, though secondary, were mostly in top-quality pictures such as The Westener (1940) and Ox-Bow incident (1942). A starring role in the hit Laura (1944), followed by one in The best years of our lives (1946), made him a star, but no later film quite lived up to the quality of these. During his career, he had worked with with such directors as Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, William A. Wellman, Jean Renoir, and Elia Kazan. Andrews is well accompanied by a good main and support cast such as : Kent Smith , Henry Brandon ,Stacy Harris , Lowell Gilmore , Nestor Paiva , Mike Mazurki and the beautiful Mexican Linda Crystal in her film debut.

It contains a rousing and moving musical score by Herschel Burke Gilbert with catching songs by The Lancers . As well as glimmer Cinematography in shining Technicolor by Jorge Sthal Jr. shot in Mexico . The motion picture was competently made by George Sherman in B-style , though has some flaws and gaps . Entertainment , atmosphere , action and excitement surge along with the tale under the hand of filmmaker George Sherman , who is clearly more at home with the thrilling scenes than somewhat talking scenes. Sherman made reliable low-budget fares for Columbia between 1945-48, then moved on to do the same at Universal for another eight years . Sherman specialized almost exclusively in "B" westerns there , including the "Three Musketeers" series, which featured a young John Wayne. George directed lots of Westerns as ¨The Last of the Fast Guns¨ , ¨The Lone Hand¨, ¨Santa Fe stampede¨ , ¨Red skin¨ , ¨Chief Crazy Horse¨ ¨Calamity Jane¨, ¨Relentless¨ , ¨Comanche Territory¨ , ¨Dawn at Socorro¨, ¨Border River¨ and many others . He also made occasional forays into action and horror themes, often achieving a sense of style over substance . The only "A"-grade films to his credit were two westerns starring John Wayne: ¨Comancheros¨ (1961) (as producer) and ¨The big Jack¨ (1971) . His last films were realized in Spain as "Find That Girl" , ¨The new Cinderella¨ and ¨Joaquin Murrieta¨. Rating : 6/10 . Acceptable and passable . Well worth watching.



The film is partially based on the notorious Indian figure Quanah Parker (Comanche kwana, "smell, odor") , he was a war leader of the Quahadi ("Antelope") band of the Comanche Nation. He was born into the Nokoni ("Wanderers") band, the son of Comanche chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, an Anglo-American who had been kidnapped as a child and assimilated into the tribe. Following the apprehension of several Kiowa chiefs in 1871, Quanah emerged as a dominant figure in the Red River War, clashing repeatedly with Colonel Ranald S. Mackenzie. With European-Americans deliberately hunting American bison, the Comanches' primary sustenance, into extinction, Quanah eventually surrendered and peaceably led the Quahadi to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was never elected chief by his people but was appointed by the federal government as principal chief of the entire Comanche Nation, and became a primary emissary of southwest indigenous Americans to the United States legislature. In civilian life, he gained wealth as a rancher, settling near Cache, Oklahoma. Though he encouraged Christianization of Comanche people, he also advocated the syncretic Native American Church alternative, and passionately fought for the legal use of peyote in the movement's religious practices. He was elected deputy sheriff of Lawton in 1902. After his death in 1911, the leadership title of Chief was replaced with Chairman; Quanah is thereby described as the "Last Chief of the Comanche," a term also applied to Horseback. He is buried at Chief's Knoll on Fort Sill. Many cities and highway systems in southwest Oklahoma and north Texas, once southern Comancheria, bear references to his name.

Blasé outdoor yarn set in 1875 is based loosely on real events, with peaceful villagers near Durango, Mexico pitted against the Comanches. Linda Cristal plays the daughter of a Spanish aristocrat who's been kidnapped; frontier scout Dana Andrews (looking weary) is working with the Calvary to bring peace between the white man and the Indians until he and his partner are also captured. There's an amusingly upbeat theme song by The Lancers ("A man is as good as his word/as good as his word is he/and if he is as good as his word/he's good enough for me"), and the outdoor cinematography is inspiring, but this plot is so old it creaks. John Ford's "The Searchers", also from 1956, covered similar territory; "Comanche" isn't as pumped up with machismo as "The Searchers" is--but neither is it especially memorable. ** from ****

This has all the hallmarks of being what later became known as a revisionary Western . By this I mean Hollywood woke up to the fact that the indigenous Native Americans had a raw deal from history and Hollywood movies featuring whooping injuns portrayed as violent savages weren't helping matters much hence in the late 1960s and early 70s you'd get movies like SOLDIER BLUE and LITTLE BIG MAN and later still we had DANCES WITH WOLVES that showed the wild west through the eyes of the Indians . This 1956 film called COMANCHE pre-dates these revisionary Westerns where the poor noble misunderstood savage is set upon by the white man

Actually it doesn't because from the outset we're shown it's the Mexican/Hispanic community who are all to blame . We're given a short history lesson that when Spain conquered Mexico the Spanish held the Comanches at gunpoint and made them work down the mines gathering silver . Understandably the native population were a bit angry about this and revolted leading to the Spanish to stamp upon them . After Mexico gained its independence the slaughter continued with Mexicans putting a bounty on Indian scalps 100 dollars for a warrior , 50 dollars for a squaw and 25 dollars for a child

" Wow Theo that is so cruel and if anyone did that today they'd be getting arrested and tried for crimes against humanity at The Hague "

Undoubtedly and rightly but you have to ask yourself a rhetorical question that would the native population of the United States be getting a better deal ? No they wouldn't this film tends to ignore this and seems to portray the United States White Anglo-Saxon Protestant as being morally superior to that of their Hispanic neighbours who are portrayed as being as untrustworthy but are very good guitar players and it's left to an American WASP to save the day

This cultural arrogance is not so much offensive but a great pity because COMANCHE did have some potential to be a good Western that would have appealed to people who don't like the Western genre . It does try to push the boat out against the Hays Code by having a slightly sadistic streak but then sabotages it by including a couple of songs over the soundtrack