Very disappointed :(

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Blistering performances.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

In 1864, in a Colorado fort, Lt. Frank Hewitt (Murphy) deserts after failing to talk his commanding officer, Col. Chivington (Ainslie Pryor) out of attacking an Indian village that has only women and children in it. The village is located on Sand Creek. Chivington and his company massacre the inhabitants, and their male survivors swear vengeance. The rest of the film is about Hewitt's race to inform the female settlers and children (the men are away fighting the Civil War) that they are in danger. To complicate matters, the settlers are Confederate, and Hewitt is on the Union side.Murphy is earnest and sincere in his role, and it's a relief to see him lose his temper in a film for a change. Kathryn Grant made no impression whatsoever, aside from being pretty. As Hannah Lacey, Emerson was the best player in the film. Whether she was ready to kill Hewitt at first sight, or turning thirty some women into soldiers, she was a funny, welcome presence.

This film opens with Union Army officer Lt. Frank Hewitt encountering a group of Comanche; they are off the reservation without permission but as they are unarmed and peaceful he allows them to continue on their way. When his CO, Col. Chivington, hears about this he sets off to teach the Comanche a lesson about doing what they are told... this 'lesson' is Sand Creek Massacre. Hewitt knows that after such an atrocity the Indians will understandable go on the war path and one place they are likely to strike is his home in Texas. Knowing this he deserts and heads south. Wearing Union blue he is not too welcome when he arrives in Confederate Texas but after an attack leaves one woman dead the other people start to believe him. Since the war is on there is only one man left in town and he is clearly only out to save his own skin... if he is save the women he must get them ready to fight.B-western regular Audie Murphy puts in a fine performance as Lt. Hewett; the more I see him in films like this the more I'm surprised he better known. The women are a varied bunch and the actresses do well enough even though this is clearly Murphy's film. The action is fairly solid and if you are expecting the women to prevail without taking a single casualty you will be surprised as quite a few die. There were of course a few flaws; it did seem strange that Hewett went into Confederate Texas in his Union uniform, equally it seemed strange that all but one of the men would have left the settlement; I'd have thought there would be a few old men at the very least although accept that it was necessary for the narrative. The epilogue where Hewitt returns to his unit and avoids punishment when the women turn up to vouch for him did seem sill after the action that had gone before. Over all it was pretty entertaining though and I'm sure fans of B-westerns looking for something different will enjoy this. It is of interest to note that while this is obviously a work of fiction Col. Chivington was a real person and he was involved in the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, where his troops slaughtered numerous Indians; mainly women and children.

My TV Guide, with which I sometimes find myself in agreement, gave this three stars out of four and I thought, "Why not?" It wasn't a masterpiece. It had no poetry. It was worth three stars, I guess, if you consider the genre -- inexpensive Western with no bankable big stars. But, really, the plot is rudimentary and derivative. By 1957 the war movies had played themselves out, but this film simply transposes the story of a small heroic band of soldiers finally triumphing over a horde of savage enemy soldiers, only in this case the heroic soldiers are all women and the savage enemy is the Comanche instead of the Japanese or Germans.It's the Civil War period and Colonel Chivington has just wiped out an Indian village. This brutality puts the white man in disfavor with the Comanche and provides them with a revenge motive. Lieutenant Audie Murphy deserts his command and rides to Texas to warn the settlers. He winds up at a decrepit mission in the middle of nowhere. It's occupied only by about two dozen women and a few kids. Murphy's job? To whip these women out of their winsome civilian ways and make soldiers out of them.He designates the monumental Hope Emerson sergeant. The others he calls by their rank or their last names. He teaches them how to load and shoot a rifle. He teaches them martial arts. It's almost funny, the way Murphy goes around barking orders -- "Sergeant, you take the west window. Martin, go over to your post. The rest of you come with me." Even when the Comanche finally do show up there's something vaguely comic about the battle. The Indians ride in merry circles around the mission, like horses on a carousel. Even the gun shots and the wounds and the death are overdone to the point of absurdity, and it owes nothing to the jokes about exploding rifles. There is a kind of balked romance between Murphy and the rather pretty Kathryn Grant but it's dispensable.None of the performances stand out, although Hope Emerson, who is roughly the size of the Colossus of Rhodes, is unforgettable as always. Man, you ought to see her in "Cry of the City." Whew.The photography looks hasty, and probably was. The settings -- Old Tucson with its faux adobe walls -- is attractive enough, but there is a scene in which Sean McClory, as a cowardly traitor, is talking to his girl friend through the barred windows of a jail. The young lady is standing outside and is adequately lighted but McClory is in this dark dump and no viewer could help experiencing a susurrus of disquiet while thinking, "Hey, that guy in the jail has an orange light shining on him from inside!" What I mean is, it's pretty clumsy.Overall, if you don't expect anything in the way of originality, it's a way to while away an hour and a half without feeling too much pain.

Very entertaining western from the late 50's ,Audie Murphy stars as a Texan who joins the Union side during the American civil war,much to the annoyance of his fellow Texans. The Union army then go on to attack a peaceful Indian settlement which he is very much against and because of this he deserts. Because he believes the Indians will want revenge he quickly goes back to Texas to warn the homesteaders of future Indian attacks.When he arrives home there is only women left as the men have all gone away to fight in the Civil war,the women all distrust him because he is wearing the Unionists colours and they only see him as a traitor. After the body of a young woman is found killed by an arrow he manages to finally convince the women that what he has been saying is true. They then all take refuge in an abandoned mission where he trains them to fight and shoot in anticipation of an attack,they also learn how to make bombs.The only other man at the mission runs off and joins up with a gang who after they kill him lead the Indians back to the mission. The women end up surrounded and outnumbered and very bravely fight off the final Indian assault with Murphys help of coarse.The Guns Of Fort Petticoat is a sort of what-if film thats very ahead of its time ,its the sort of storyline that you would expect to be made today and not back in the 50's.It has its amusing moments and it also has romance and some pretty interesting fight scenes.It may all sound a bit far-fetched but it does work especially when quite a few of the women get killed,which under the circumstances is bound to happen. The characters are interesting {if not a little clichéd}and Audie Murphy does give a very good performance and convinces us that this could have happened. This is a very entertaining little film that im glad has been forgotten.