Arrowhead (1953)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Charles Marquis Warren

Writers:

W.R. Burnett (novel)
Charles Marquis Warren (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 August 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Western

Plot:

Chief of Scouts Ed Bannon narrowly avoids an Apache ambush while working with the cavalry stationed at Fort Clark...

Plot Keywords:

Apache | Cavalry | Scout | Resentment | Native American Uprising

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Ed Bannon
Jack Palance	...	Toriano
Katy Jurado	...	Nita
Brian Keith	...	Capt. Bill North
Mary Sinclair	...	Lela Wilson
Milburn Stone	...	Sandy MacKinnon
Richard Shannon	...	Lt. Kirk
Lewis Martin	...	Col. Weybright
Frank DeKova	...	Chief Chattez (as Frank de Kova)
Robert J. Wilke	...	Sgt. Stone (as Robert Wilke)
Peter Coe	...	Spanish
James Anderson	...	Jerry August (as Kyle James)
John Pickard	...	John Gunther (as John M. Pickard)
Pat Hogan	...	Jim Eagle

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:0 (f) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16336) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Fort Clark, Brackettville, Texas, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Film debut of Brian Keith.

Quotes:

Ed Bannon: Apaches don't like horses, Sergeant. They ride 'em until they drop, kill 'em and eat 'em and then steal some more.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Images of Indians: How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native American (2003) (TV)

Tough little western, not for the easily offended

Charlton Heston plays an Indian-hating scout very loosely based on famed frontiersman Al Sieber (who, in reality, was a German immigrant who not only didn't hate Apaches but often lived with them and spoke fluent Apache dialects; he spoke almost no English because he detested American whites and refused to learn any more English than he considered necessary). He goes up against Jack Palance, an Apache he knew from his boyhood who is returning from several years at an Indian agency school that is supposed to have "civilized" him (also based on fact; many Indian children were forcibly sent to such a school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania). Heston, unlike the local military and civilian authorities, doesn't believe that Palance has been "civilized" and suspects that he's secretly planning to lead the Apaches in attacking and massacring the local white population. This is a tough and, for its time, brutal little western, well written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren, and pulls no punches in its depiction of racism on both sides; Palance hates whites as much as Heston hates Indians, and both have no compunction about killing those on the "other" side they've known for years simply as a matter of course. Palance and Heston are suitably intense in their roles--Heston perhaps a bit too much so--and the action scenes are handled very well, although the final confrontation between Heston and Palance is a bit of a disappointment. A good supporting cast of veteran western actors--Milburn Stone, James Anderson, Robert J. Wilke (not playing a villain for once), among others--contribute greatly to the film's pace and atmosphere (although the rivalry between Heston and army officer Brian Keith over a girl at the post is a bit superfluous). Well worth your time.