Just perfect...

Great Film overall

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The Charge at Feather River is directed by Gordon Douglas and written by James R. Webb. It stars Guy Madison, Frank Lovejoy, Helen Westcott, Vera Miles, Dick Wesson, Onslow Stevens, Steve Brodie, Neville Brand and James Brown. Filmed in Natural Vision-3-Dimension and WarnerColor, music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by J. Peverell Marley. The Guardhouse Brigade. Wonderful. It's the sort of Western you watched as a kid and it made you fall in love with the genre. It has it all, the standard Cowboys versus Indians action to keep the youngsters amused, and quality characterisations for the knowing adults to acknowledge. Plot would become very familiar over the years, where a bunch of reprobates, here they are the bad boys of the army guardhouse, are trained up and sent on a suicide mission. The mission here is to rescue two white sisters who were captured by the Cheyenne years ago. The group dynamic positively bubbles with tension as men who fought on opposite sides of the Civil War are tasked with performing as one force. There's also a heated rivalry between two men because of a woman, and naturally there's some loose cannons in the group. Things further pick up when the two ladies are rescued and the group has to try and make it back to the fort with the whole Cheyenne tribe on their tail. The elder sister is grateful to be rescued, the younger one not so much since she has converted to the Cheyenne way and is set to marry Chief Thunder Hawk. Thus the group dynamic goes up a couple of more notches on the stove as the younger sister does all she can to sabotage the mission, while the elder frets about how society will treat her once her past comes to light, and of course there's an attraction between her and the alpha male. Yet the romantic thread is superbly written, really mature and never cloying. There's some requisite humour that works very well, the action is very well staged by the wily Douglas and Madison makes for a good leader of men. While having Brand and Brodie in support playing ornery dudes is perfect casting. It's a very satisfying Oater, it's not hard to see why it was a big hit at the box office. Oh for sure the 3-D gimmick would have been a big draw, especially since there's plenty of scenes made for 3-D nirvana in the picture. However, this is strong enough to stand on its own 2-D feet, a throwback to a great decade of Westerns. It also has a Steiner musical score and Marley's super photography around the California locations. Think what would happen if you mixed The Searchers and Major Dundee together, added in some Dirty Dozen like conflicts, and then sprinkled on some seasoning of Audie Murphy like Westerns, and you then get an idea of the type of film on offer here. Recommended to Western buffs. 8/10

Guy Madison may well be the best looking "guy" in the movies and the way he was discovered supports that idea. He was sitting in an audience and an agent just happened to spot him. Guy was on leave from the service and was quickly signed and shot his one scene in a Selznick film of all things then returned to the service apparently unaware that he was on the verge of stardom. In this film Guy does what he does best - just looks good - who cares about the story or the other actors -Guy is like some mythological figure out of Greek or Roman history - you just cannot get enough of him - and he never disappoints - whether it's left profile or right or full frontal Guy Madison keeps the blood flowing and the old heart pumping just when it needs to pump.

I saw this movie in its original 3-D run in 1953 and never forgot it. Roughly based the actual Battle of Beecher's Island in Colorado, it's pretty exciting stuff. Some say that this is the movie that killed 3-D with Frank Lovejoy spitting into the face of the audience. I don't know about that, but I do know that I enjoyed it then and enjoyed it again recently on cable. And then, of course, this is THE movie with the Wilhelm Scream, made famous by latter day maestros such as George Lucas. No DVD version released yet...maybe in the not-too-distant future. The love story is sort of stupid and the comedy bits are not very funny, but I know I enjoyed it more than The English Patient, or just about anything that Merchant-Ivory ever released. I suppose the movie was produced to take advantage of Guy Madison's high visibility as TV's Wild Bill, very popular with the kiddies at the time.

Saw this film the first time in 1953 with my older brother. It was one of the great 3 Demension films released in that era. We saw it at least thirteen times and were proud of it. Scott does a typical western shoot em up job while surrounded by the Indian arrows rather than surround sound. Oh, for those polaroid lenses again.