Fort Bowie

A group of Apaches visits a cavalry fort in hopes of laying down their weapons and coming to a peace agreement, but Maj. Wharton (J. Ian Douglas), wanting to make a name for himself, orders his men to massacre them. Meanwhile, Col. Garrett (Kent Taylor) believes his flirtatious wife is sleeping with Capt. Thompson (Ben Johnson), so he tries to get rid of the captain by ordering him to track Victorio (Larry Chance), a notorious Apache warrior who's plotting a large-scale attack on the fort.

A solid cavalry western starring Ben Johnson, an actor usually known for supporting roles, but here he is in the lead as a captain who hasn't only the Apaches to contend with but the colonel's troublesome wife; the latter lends an adult theme to a western that adeptly balances character and action, and boy does it have enough skirmishes to keep one happy. Checkout the frenetic finale where the Apaches turn the tables on the cavalry and fire at the charging cavalry from the fort's parapet. Overall, Fort Bowie is solid gritty western. It's pity that it isn't in colour.

I just finished watching Fort Bowie, and was pleasantly surprised at what a good movie it was. I had never seen it before and the review I had read said it was a low budget film, but the cuts must have come from the actors salary. Ben Johnson was super as was most of the rest of the cast. I also was thrilled to see Johnny Western in a fairly noticeable role. The action scenes were certainly big budget caliber. I recently saw the last western that Ben Johnson made and there was little change in his appearance, except for a bit of weight gain. To me his acting is as natural as John Waynes. Kent Smith did a creditable job in his role. As far as the other actors I wasn't familiar with any of them except the "old sarge", but the movie was far better than I was expecting.

This western actually belongs to the military - fort - westerns category; Indians, cavalry...No outlaws, no sheriff, no town tamer, no cattle baron vs rustlers.... This western belongs to specific category. It is short, sharp, powerful but unfortunately too predictable for a movie goer like me. The story line is excellent, the directing solid, action sequences terrific, impressive.... No, this is an awesome Howard Koch's film, at the image that this producer turned director offered during his career. With maybe the exception of two juvenile delinquency flicks. Some scenes are not for the sissies, as in many Indian wars topic westerns. Indian tortures....

At a cavalry outpost, the colonel (Taylor) dispatches a captain (Johnson) on a suicide mission among the Apaches because of rivalry over his wife's (Harrison) affections.

The colonel loves wife Allison, but she loves the captain, I think. And, the captain loves her, at least some of the time. However, the rest of the time, he loves Chanzana, but Chanzana is half Apache, and I think she loves Apache leader Victorio. Oh well, I may be wrong about all this, but then the script can't seem to make up its mind either. So maybe you can sort it out.

Good thing there's lots of action to interrupt this frontier soap opera. In fact I don't know when I've heard more shooting. Seems like somebody's always wiping out somebody else. Boy, was I surprised when the major shoots all the Indians carrying that white flag of truce. Pretty rotten thing for our guys to do, which sets off all the shooting because now the Apaches want revenge.

But then it seems like the Indians like roasting our guys over an upside-down spit. That's pretty rotten too and not in any multi-cultural handbook I know of. Then too, that part reminds me of another good Apache movie, Ulzana's Raid (1971), where the Apaches also practice some strange culinary arts. Even stranger, however, is when the Indians defend the fort against attacking cavalry (I love that wagon-ramp trick). Now where has any Western fan seen that upside-down world before.

Anyway, it's an okay Western with some interesting sidelights and the great Ben Johnson. I'm just wondering why they went all the way to scenic Kanab, Utah to film, and then didn't didn't do it in Technicolor. Then again, maybe they spent their budget on all the big shoot- outs. But-- bottom line-- if you can untangle the big who-loves-whom puzzle in this movie, I'm sure there's a place for you at People magazine. Otherwise, you might want to catch up with this cowboys-and-Indians on an especially slow night.

not a review on the movie but I wonder if anyone could give more information on Jana Davi/Maureen Hingert? I am a large fan of movies from the 30's, 40's and 50's and liked this lady. It seems a shame she was in so few pictures and would like to know more about her. .... Just an old man's interest. Any input would be appreciated.

Probably not a large number of people can fill in any information for a minor actress but I would like to have any information available.

There HAS to be someone out there that has some information on her.

Thank you for any help.

I just saw her in GUN FEVER and fell in love with her all over again. Don't ask me why, I just did.