The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

George Marshall

Writers:

C. William Harrison (novel)
Walter Doniger (screenplay)

Release Date:

April 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

GOOD WOMEN...BAD WOMEN...BRAWLING WOMEN...BRAVE WOMEN! They were all soldiers in skirts!

Plot:

Murphy deserts the Union Army to warn former Texas neighbors of impending Indian attacks triggered by Army massacre...

Plot Keywords:

Fort | Beautiful Woman | Native American

Cast

Audie Murphy	...	Lt. Frank Hewitt
Kathryn Grant	...	Anne Martin
Hope Emerson	...	Hannah Lacey
Jeff Donnell	...	Mary Wheller
Jeanette Nolan	...	Cora Melavan
Sean McClory	...	Emmett Kettle
Ernestine Wade	...	Hetty
Peggy Maley	...	Lucy Conover
Isobel Elsom	...	Mrs. Charlotte Ogden
Patricia Tiernan	...	Stella Leatham (as Patricia Livingston)
Kim Charney	...	Bax Leatham
Ray Teal	...	Salt Pork
Nestor Paiva	...	Tortilla
James Griffith	...	Kipper

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

West Germany:12 (re-rated) | West Germany:16 | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Iverson Ranch, Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

southern who joined union during civil war returns home to rally women against raiding Indians

As every Audie Murphy buff knows, his best western was the near-classic No Name On the Bullet, with perhaps Destry a close second. But in the top three (setting the short but brilliant Red Badge of Courage and the autobiographical To Hell and Back, an A movie, aside), Guns of Fort Petticoat is at the top of the list, owing to splendid outdoor action sequences, a smart sense of humor that doesn't allow anyone to take this all too seriously, and . . . to put it bluntly . . . sex appeal. Also, a political consciousness, with Murphy a) going north, despite his being a southwesterner, to fight in the civil war because he's against slavery, and b) his attempt to try and stop the Sand Creek Massacre and save Native American lives. (One historical error: The massacre was not perpetrated by 'regular U.S. army,' as the film suggests, but by a self-styled civilian-soldier group called a 'militia outfit' though really noting more than racist vigilantes.) Knowing that an Indian war is impending, Murphy returns to the war torn southwest and, with men absent, trains women to fight and defend themselves. Something of a feminist western, way ahead of its time, but (thankfully) no polemics, only action, romance, and surprisingly effective comedy. Kathryn Grant makes an adorable female lead for Audie.