Comanche

This colorful western has plenty of action and the beautiful landscapes of Durango, Mexico as the setting for a story of war and peace on the Texas plains between the U.S. cavalry and the Comanches. The Indians also attack Mexican villages and take horses and captives and rampage on both sides of the Rio Grande. Dana Andrews is the scout whose task it is to convince Quanah Parker to stop raids into Mexico and talk peace with the American soldiers. Of course, the quest for peace is threatened by white scalp hunters and renegade Indians. There are several good cavalry-Indian battles in this film which was the American debut of Mexican movie star Linda Cristal, who is Andrews' love interest. The music score is decent but the warbling by Alfred Perry and company is out of place in this kind of western. It is also worth noting that several lines of dialogue in this film were lifted verbatim from Elliott Arnold's excellent work, "Blood Brother", which details the Apache wars and the friendship between Cochise and Tom Jeffords. Many of Quanah Parker's ideas of war and peace were taken word-for-word from Arnold's novel and attributed to the Comanche chief to portray him as the sage leader of "the lords of the south plains". One wonders if Arnold ever received credit or acknowledgment for the screenplay in this movie.

I just had to look--- KENT SMITH as Quanah Parker???? I mean, the guy was always wooden, but jeeze! Utterly unconvincing in every way. And big Mike Mazurki as his right-hand goon--whew. Henry Brandon's Black Cloud, with his ice-blue eyes and bad wig, is another howler. You can even see the wig coming loose when he's struggling with Dana Andrews, himself looking seriously out of place. Diehard fans may or may not care to see him in this role. But at least Iron Eyes Cody is in there, though his presence only points up how fake those redface 'red men' look.

The script is well-meant, and deserved better. But this was the 50s, and the production decisions were what they were. As the gratuitous Girl, Linda Cristal contributes exactly what was intended-- and in a cantilevered bra, too. If you like shoot-'em-ups and can overlook the casting limitations and other snags, you might find this acceptable entertainment.

This has all the hallmarks of being what later became known as a revisionary Western . By this I mean Hollywood woke up to the fact that the indigenous Native Americans had a raw deal from history and Hollywood movies featuring whooping injuns portrayed as violent savages weren't helping matters much hence in the late 1960s and early 70s you'd get movies like SOLDIER BLUE and LITTLE BIG MAN and later still we had DANCES WITH WOLVES that showed the wild west through the eyes of the Indians . This 1956 film called COMANCHE pre-dates these revisionary Westerns where the poor noble misunderstood savage is set upon by the white man

Actually it doesn't because from the outset we're shown it's the Mexican/Hispanic community who are all to blame . We're given a short history lesson that when Spain conquered Mexico the Spanish held the Comanches at gunpoint and made them work down the mines gathering silver . Understandably the native population were a bit angry about this and revolted leading to the Spanish to stamp upon them . After Mexico gained its independence the slaughter continued with Mexicans putting a bounty on Indian scalps 100 dollars for a warrior , 50 dollars for a squaw and 25 dollars for a child

" Wow Theo that is so cruel and if anyone did that today they'd be getting arrested and tried for crimes against humanity at The Hague "

Undoubtedly and rightly but you have to ask yourself a rhetorical question that would the native population of the United States be getting a better deal ? No they wouldn't this film tends to ignore this and seems to portray the United States White Anglo-Saxon Protestant as being morally superior to that of their Hispanic neighbours who are portrayed as being as untrustworthy but are very good guitar players and it's left to an American WASP to save the day

This cultural arrogance is not so much offensive but a great pity because COMANCHE did have some potential to be a good Western that would have appealed to people who don't like the Western genre . It does try to push the boat out against the Hays Code by having a slightly sadistic streak but then sabotages it by including a couple of songs over the soundtrack

The period is 1875. The War Between The States had ended. But South of the Rio Grande, another more ancient and cruel war continued. Peaceful Mexican villages were tragic victims...

Comanche is directed by George Sherman and stars Dana Andrews as frontier scout Jim Read, who is sent to hopefully broker peace between Mexicans and the Comanche. As usual conflict exists within the tribe {Quanah Parker and Black Cloud}, as it does within the cavalry. Thus peace will be very hard to establish after years of mistreatment and mistrust.

Filmed entirely in Durango, Old Mexico for authenticity and shot in deluxe colour for a Cinemascope production, Comanche is a very tidy B Western offering. The action scenes are well constructed, with the Blanco Canyon scenes particularly eye catching; as the cavalry and divided Comanche armies form. While the acting, although far from being great, is competent and never at any time hinders the movie. Some misplaced jauntiness and a shoe-horned in romantic arc {Linda Cristal} threaten to derail the piece, and no doubt about it the film has over familiarity issues with Delmer Daves' far better Broken Arrow from 1950. But it's an interesting story that offers up something different within the genre. And since we may never get a great film that deals with the Quanah Parker {played by Kent Smith here} story, Comanche at least made the effort, and made the effort to watch it worthwhile.

Solid, interesting and enjoyable. 6.5/10

A powerful Comanche chief agrees to take part in peace talks with Washington after an encounter with a sympathetic scout. However, a group of renegade warriors are unwilling to surrender their arms and their actions prompt a bigoted government official to use brutal methods.

A decent western that might on the surface look routine with its cavalry vs Comanche story, however, there are some fresh touches such as when after the Indian attack on the Mexican village a curve ball is thrown when it's revealed that the Comanches are somewhat justified in their attack, plus Dana's character is the cousin of Quannah Parker. And though the action is lacking, the ending is quite tense when Quannah and his natives appear on the mountain, their vocalisation sounding eerie. Of course, what follows is a well structured action sequence.

The performances from the actors are good, but it's Harry Brandon as Black Cloud who steals the scene with his snarl. The dialogue is also intelligent, especially between Dana's character and Quannah.