Warpath

A flawed, but exceptional Cavalry vs. Indians Western from the early 50s

A vengeful former officer (Edmond O’Brien) joins the 7th Cavalry in order to track down those responsible for his wife’s death years earlier with everything leading to a showdown with the Sioux and events surrounding the Little Bighorn debacle. Forrest Tucker plays his sergeant, Polly Bergen a romantic interest and Dean Jagger her shopkeeper father. James Millican convincingly plays General Custer.

The plot of “Warpath” (1951) was ripped-off by writer Frank Gruber from Ernest Haycox’s novel “Bugles in the Afternoon,” which was made into an inferior stage-bound Western the year after this one (with Tucker in the same role, interestingly enough).

O’Brien is certainly serviceable, but arguably miscast because he’s a little too pudgy for the role that called for someone of Kirk Douglas’ robust demeanor or John Wayne’s formidableness. Another issue is the old-fashioned way the men typically deliver their obviously-scripted dialogue in an austere rat-a-tat-tat manner, which seems unnatural.

But, if you can acclimate, this is a great old Western that gets better as it proceeds and is superior to Ford’s renowned cavalry Westerns released just prior to this one. The movie delivers superbly in both human interest and action. The title “Warpath” has a duel relevancy in that the protagonist is on the warpath as well as the Sioux, and both justifiably.

Speaking of the Sioux, producers used real American Indians (with the exception of the sub-chief, played by John Mansfield), as well as authentic locations from the same general area of the real-life events (listed below). On top of this Polly Bergen was sure a beauty in her prime.

I’m surprised “Warpath” is so obscure. It must be because of the issues noted above, but they’re not significant enough to ruin what is a very compelling and worthwhile old Western that’s so meaty it could’ve easily ran another half hour. This is going down on my list of favorite Westerns.

The film runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in the greater Billings area of southeast Montana, including Yellowstone County and the Crow Reservation.

GRADE: A-