Indian Agent

Not being a big expert in this genre I could never understand what made Tim Holt make so many of these b Westerns after the dizzy artistic heights of the Magnificent Ambersons in 1941. Money necessity or simple love? Anyway, I've always enjoyed watching his films, first time for this one which has just been shown on UK cable TV at peak time - with a grotty print too!

Bad White Men milk Indians on their reservation dry, pocketing money as the Indians and their families go hungry and the young braves get more and more warlike. Tim and his sidekick breeze into it all when Chief Red Fox's wife leaves her baby with them to look after - the reason why leaves them startled. Later Tim gets accused of shooting Red Fox and is temporarily arrested, getting it in the neck from both races as a result. Does it all get sorted out with much chases and shootings in an arid and very sunny landscape - you guess!

On a serious level the racial message propounded although delivered with a bit of condescension in this was one of sensitive tolerance and almost PC for 1948, in marked contrast to the retrogressive and aggressively unfunny stance taken by Brooks' Blazing Saddles 26 years later in this PC age. I never intend to watch the latter film again, but I hope to be spared to revisit this satisfactory potboiler sometime.