Best movie of this year hands down!

One of my all time favorites.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Good, solid B-Western, despite some of the critical comments. Story follows cavalry patrol through Death Valley in the face of dissension in the ranks and Indian infiltrators. I filled a pitcher of water just looking at the merciless sun-baked terrain. What an excellent supporting cast, familiar faces who lend color and personality by individualizing the troopers beyond their look-alike uniforms. For example, the usually sinister Paul Richards gets a rare sympathetic turn as a lovelorn trooper (Perkins) who unfortunately swallows before he looks and pays the price. There's also the great Robert Wilke lending his usual brand of sneering thuggery to spice up the proceedings. And as the no-nonsense officer, Stack provides a humorless authority that, by golly, is going to get the peace treaty to Gray Cloud even if it kills him and his men. No wonder there's mutiny in the ranks. Of course, this is the glamour-obsessed 1950's when even the Indians resemble Park Avenue models. At the same time, historical accuracy has never been a major Hollywood concern, especially with the Western. So, certain liberties with detail here are not unusual and should not be allowed to deflect a basically good story. On the other hand, there's a nice bit of overlooked irony in this 90-minute horse opera. They may be the villains, but Indians Taslik and Wanima are correct in rejecting the treaty, after all. The white man will indeed ignore the treaty when it suits him, as proved by the mutinous troopers who renounce army authority once they find gold in the parched hills. The irony of the outcome is not made explicit, but it's there anyway. Anyhow, director Selander has a good action premise to work with, plus a colorful cast, and while he's no John Ford, he knows a good scenic set-up when he sees one. Meanwhile, I think I'll have another glass of water.

This could have been a well-made western. With Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and the line-up of supporting characters including a beautiful 'Indian' woman, the acting really wasn't half bad but someone skimped terribly on script-writing and the action scenes.The rattlesnake scene was horrible. The snake was clearly either dead or a rubber fake, you could see the string tied around its neck that was slowly jerking it along. That was the most fake rattlesnake I've ever seen in a western. I suppose they couldn't afford a real one.The scene where they drank at the water hole in the cave was even worse. Supposedly near-dead from thirst, all they did was shake their heads in the water and blow bubbles and make noises. Those that did draw water into their mouths spit it back out into the pool right in front of the others who were 'drinking'.The fight scenes and deaths were the worst. I won't even go into detail about how poorly scripted and acted they were. There was clearly a skinny male stunt person taking the Indian girl's place when she wrestled the soldier. And the way the combatants who were next in line to be killed would stand up in full view to shoot in order to be shot was laughable.I liked the overall plot and the cast, Robert Stack was good and the dialog not bad. But the director must have been so convinced that these elements would carry the film that he paid no attention to these details. I can't even rate it a 5 because of these blatant oversights.

This western has great natural beauty but more talk than action in a film that should have been better than it was. The plot is simply that of a cavalry patrol that has a few days to deliver a peace treaty to a chief and prevent the Indians from going on the warpath. Robert Stack is the big cast name here and he is in complete "Eliot Ness" mode as a no-nonsense lieutenant who drives his men hard in the name of honor and duty. The patrol is guided by the chief's son who has a completely different agenda. The supporting cast is terrific, with names like Charles McGraw, Douglas Kennedy, Peter Graves, Robert Wilke and John Doucette along to carry out their mission. The picture is not a cavalry-Indian western as the title implies but instead focuses on the travails and frustrations of the troopers, not the least of which is thirst, as they make their way to the Indian village. The movie is worth watching for the old-time character actors and the striking beauty of Death Valley.

Robert Stack plays the officer in charge of a cavalry patrol entrusted with delivering a treaty to an Indian encampment, who encounters difficulties with outside and inside influences along the way. Stack is earnest, and despite some miscasting--Charles McGraw was always more at home playing a big-city detective or syndicate killer than he was playing a cavalry sergeant as he does here, and Keith Larsen often played Indians but seldom played them well--the performances are adequate, but if there's one thing that a western cries for it's action, and there's virtually none in this film. It moves like molasses and what little action there is doesn't occur until almost the end of the picture and it's not particularly well done. Director Lesley Selander was an old hand at westerns and has done far better. He must have had an off day. No need for you to have one by watching this snoozer.