Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

So much average

Sadly Over-hyped

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I couldn't help feeling Victor Mature's character here was a complete lunatic, his maniacal rant in front of the assembled cavalry troops in the latter part of the story should have banished him from anywhere near Fort Shallan. But then having Anne Bancroft's Corinna Marston 'sort of' fall for the undisciplined savage, well, that just blew away the whole story for me. It's one thing she wasn't happy in her marriage to the Colonel (Robert Preston), but to be influenced by Jed Cooper's (Mature) affections was simply too incredible for this viewer to fathom.The dynamic between Colonel Marston and Captain Riordan (Guy Madison) was a bit of a puzzler too. As short sighted as Marston was in pursuing his vendetta against Red Cloud's Tetons, he still thought it honorable that Riordan tried and failed to have him removed from his command at the fort. You would think the Colonel would have had his second in command further demoted or sent packing to the brig. I just didn't understand it at all.The over arching theme of the story has to do with civilization snaking it's tentacles further West with the Native American Indians marking time until the last of their way of life makes it's lonely exit. The final battle between the Tetons and the Cavalry has a ring of authenticity to it, but that's about as far as it goes for this frontier Western. Most everything else is as plausible as Jed Cooper being made a sergeant and getting the girl.

Hope you caught the pun in my title! I much enjoyed this film, which offers a variety of interesting subplots and complex love-hate relationships, along with interspersed action sequences and some lighthearted moments in which the free-spirited mountain men counter regimented army discipline. All the main characters are well cast. Some reviewers question the wisdom of choosing middle-aged Victor Mature as the lead character, Jed Cooper. Yes, he was getting a bit puffy-eyed for a Tarzan-like western hillbilly. Others simply don't go for his personality or acting style. But, overall, I found him quite suitable for his wild man desiring to become marginally civilized role. Robert Mitchum would perhaps have been equally at home in this rile. Several reviewers would have preferred Burt Lancaster. Burt would have his chance as a loner trapper some years later in the eccentric western "The Scalphunters", worth checking out if you like mountain men tales.At first, I thought this story was taking place in Oregon, with the high dome-shaped volcanic cone often in the background and one of the forts named Medford. But, I soon realized that these were false clues. Fort Laramie was repeatedly mentioned as not too far away. Also, Red Cloud was repeatedly mentioned as the war chief of the recently belligerent Sioux. Well, these are strong clues that the story relates to the well-known Powder River War in northern Wyoming, between the US government and an alliance of Sioux, Cheyenne and Arapaho. Guy Madison's Captain Riordan and Robert Preston's Colonel Marston can be seen as modified versions of the historical Colonel Carrington and Captain Fetterman, respectively. As in the film, the Civil War-experienced, but Sioux -inexperienced overconfident Fetterman led his men into an ambush. As in the film, Fetterman's entire 81-man party was annihilated, considered the worst US cavalry disaster at the hands of Native Americans until Custer's much better remembered debacle. During the battle, Cooper(Mature) takes on the historic role of Captain Ten Eyck, sent to investigate the gunplay heard and deciding it was prudent to retreat.Incidentally, the army did build 3 forts in this area in the late Civil War years, but their names were changed in the film and, by treaty, they were soon abandoned, later burned by the Sioux. The main reason for all this sudden animosity was the discovery of rich placer gold deposits in Montana Territory, just northwest of the present Yellowstone Park. Swarms of draft-dodging prospectors and other sorts had been negotiating the newly established Bozeman Trail across Wyoming to these goldfields, right through the currently favorite hunting grounds of the relevant tribes. The classic Clark Gable-starring western "The Tall Men", released the same year as this film, also relates to this gold fever and he also had to deal with Red Cloud, in a semi-historical script.The main problem I find with the plot is the historical anachronism of the 3 buddy trappers. The era of pure trapper mountain men had pretty much ended 25 years before the end of the Civil War with the collapse of western beaver populations and the simultaneous collapse of a market for such. Thus, these trappers were limited to much less valuable furs and hides. As others have pointed out, the plot bears a striking resemblance to the previous John Ford "Fort Apache", save for the location. In both cases, we have a commander arriving from the east to a frontier post with Native American problems. He underestimates the military prowess of his adversaries, regarding them as little more than easy cannon fodder to promote his career. He pays dearly(dies) for his inexperience and brashness. Also, this commander resents a subordinate who has long experience with the local Native Americans and warns him what is wise and unwise to do. In both films, we have a budding romantic relationship between a woman dear to the commander's heart and a subordinate, which the commander tries to squelch. Clearly, the commander must be eliminated to allow these romances to proceed to completion. In common with director Mann's film "The Far Country", the loner star's long-time partner must be eliminated to allow room for a woman to take his place. In the present film, Cooper has two partners, who independently die or disappear. James Whitmore plays one of them. Yes, he much reminds you of Spencer Tracy. This was Whitmore's second subsidiary role as a mountain man, also being in the Clark Gable-starring "Across the Wide Missouri"I found the verbal confrontation between Cooper and Marsden while the latter was trapped in a bear pit fall, along with the fallout from this incident, the most interesting aspect on this film. Anne Bancroft, as Marsen's conflicted wife, has a most interesting role, especially as it relates to this incident. The theme of most everyone associated with this fort being a misfit surfaces repeatedly. Most of the soldiers, including the commander, were sent here because they have 'problems' or are raw recruits. The trappers are misfits personality-wise with army discipline. Bancroft, as one of the few woman in this fort, is inherently a misfit, and hates it.

Victor Mature, as a barely civilized and mostly out of control mountain man and trapper, may be on the poster, but Robert Preston as a failed Union colonel who led his men to get "cut to ribbons" by Confederate artillery at Shiloh, and is sent to a fort in Oregon for his incompetence, has the most interesting part, married to a young and hard to recognize at first Anne Bancroft. The uncivilized Mature lusts for the colonel's wife, giving the film an interesting and even dark subplot which goes so far as to reference coveting another man's wife at one point by James Whitmore who plays Mature's older and wiser mountain man father figure. Directed by Anthony Mann, this film is lost among his more famous westerns with James Stewart, but even so you really don't need the Indian menace to make this a film worth seeing, although Preston gets to prove his bad judgement as a commanding officer again in a failed expedition to finally bring the Indians under submission, in a well staged attack among the forest that quickly turns into a rout.

The casting of Mature as the "savage" and Robert Preston (NOT Preston Foster!!) as the crazed cavalry officer made this one very appealing. The story, pushing the envelope for it's time, has our hero attempting to steal a married woman. James Whitmore has a nice supporting role, and take it from me-the BEST westerns came out of the 50s!