Really Surprised!

Masterful Movie

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Although no one would ever confuse Troy Donahue with John Wayne, Donahue does acquit himself well in A Distant Trumpet which turned out to be Raoul Walsh's final feature film.Donahue who made his bones in Hollywood playing mostly decent All American type young men. Here he's a fresh West Point graduate assigned to an Arizona frontier post where the army is busy subduing the last of the great Indian tribes, the Chiracauhua Apache. He's under the command of General James Gregory who was a mentor to him at West Point.In addition to fighting Indians Donahue has a romantic dilemma. He's engaged to Diane McBain who is Gregory's niece. But on the post now is an old flame Suzanne Pleshette who is married to fellow officer William Reynolds. Donahue has a similar dilemma faced by John Wayne in Fort Apache. As with the Duke, Troy behaves in an honorable fashion. In fact in his private affairs he's honorable if very tempted.Take note of a good performance by Judson Pratt as a superior and sympathetic officer to Donahue's plight and a really rollicking and unforgettable one by Claude Akins who is quite the flesh peddler to both the red and white race.A Distant Trumpet is not as sentimental as John Ford's cavalry westerns. But Raoul Walsh ended his career with a good one.

SYNOPSIS: In 1883, U.S. Cavalry Lieutenant Matt Hazard arrives at Fort Delivery on the Mexican border in Arizona to begin a new assignment.NOTES: Location scenes filmed in Arizona and New Mexico.COMMENT: With this film, director Raoul Walsh was honorably discharged from his career in the cinema. Unfortunately, the film does not seem to be quite the marvelous piece of work that the book was, if the reviews of the book (see below) are anything to go by. It's certainly not a whale of a good story, it's just an ordinary U.S. cavalry versus renegade Indians picture, and off-hand I could name at least fifty more powerful treatments of this subject including "Ulzana's Raid". The trouble is that the story is so weak and conventional and that its characters are such stereotypes and they are so weakly and flaccidly played (particularly by James Gregory and Diane McBain, — also William Reynolds in a small part, and Suzanne Pleshette who is charming, but scarcely a strong heroine. Mr. Donahue on the other hand seems to mistake strength for stiffness).Lacking strong characters the film lacks strong emotions and strong audience involvement. Even the battle scenes are routinely staged. The locations look fairly interesting, but we don't see enough of them. But we do see too much of the hero's insipid romantic entanglements. A pity. The film seems to have all the ingredients for power and excitement but it rarely gets above the routine. Film editing is sluggish, sets are unimpressive and even Max Steiner's music score is definitely not work from his top drawer.Here are three quotes from reviews of the novel: "A big, vivid, exciting novel." — New York Herald Tribune. "Paul Horgan's powerful bestseller about the U.S. Cavalry in its history-making conquest of the Apaches, brings to towering life a brilliant and bloody moment of America's past... A tremendous piece of work." — Saturday Review. "A whale of a good story... the finest novel yet on the Southwest." — The New York Times.

A Distant Trumpet is directed by Raoul Walsh and written by John Twist with the adaptation from Paul Horgan's novel by Richard Fielder & Albert Beich. It stars Troy Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette, William Reynolds, Diane McBain, Claude Akins & James Gregory. Max Steiner provides the musical score and William H. Clothier is the cinematographer.1883, Fort Delivery, Arizona, and newly posted Lieutenant Matthew Hazard (Donahue) is about to be thrust into two wars. One is of the heart, the other pits him against the last pocket of Indian resistance: the Chiricahua's, led by the mighty War Eagle.A blunderbuss "A" class production from Warner Bros that feels like a "B" class Oater from the 50s, A Distant Trumpet has much to recommend to the Western fan. Driven by a rousing cavalry themed score by Steiner, and beautifully photographed by Clothier around Red Rocks (New Mexico) & Painted Desert (Arizona) in Panavision/Technicolor, it's a film that carries a message and pays respect to the topic to hand. Without doubt the makers are keen to mark it out first and foremost as an adrenaline fuelled Cavalry Vs Indians based picture, with Walsh grandly staging the action sequence with skill (100s of extras/stunt men, no CGI here), but although the script could have done with some more work as regards the characterisations, the screenplay does make rich on the promise of adult themes. While the decision to let the Indian characters speak their own language is also a major bonus.Where it falls down is three fold. Firstly is the problem of asking the average Donahue to carry the film, he may be easy on the eye to those so inclined, but his one note, expressionless, performance is often a distraction to the many splendours around him. Secondly is that the twin lovelies of McBain & Pleshette are underwritten and underused respectively, which in a film that's nearly two hours long (too long and that's the third point) is an act of stupidity. Some would argue that the love triangle sub-plot is an uneasy fit on context to the "war" at the film's core, but it does have value in regards to showing the point of view of the ladies marrying into the army way of life. Yes it should have been formed better, particularly from McBain's (yellow hair, yellow dress and vanilla ice cream skin) character's angle , but it does exist in the narrative and it's good to see.It's far from the great swansong that Raoul Walsh deserved, but its pluses far outweigh the negatives. Be it battle orchestration (cliff top attack rules!), observing the thorn between two roses dynamic or just that it affords respect to the Indians, it's a film easily recommended to the genre fan. Besides which, Steiner and Clothier make it essential viewing. 7/10

This may have started out as an "A" production and its visual elements are certainly first-rate. The ever-reliable William Clothier contributes sparkling color photography which fills the wide-screen with some of the most impressive vistas you're ever likely to see in a western. Unfortunately, by casting Troy Donahue in the lead role, Warner Bros. indicated it was relegating this production to "B" status, and the result is just another cavalry-and-Indians movie. Suzanne Pleshette shows promise as "Kitty" but it's hard to do good work when one's leading man is of the Ken-doll variety. Diane McBain has little to work with as the fiancee and merely adds to the feeling that "A Distant Trumpet" is a spin-off from Warner Bros. stable of TV westerns. At least the cavalry soldiers actually get dusty in this movie, and there's a good scene of Bobby Bare being branded on the back for cowardice.