War Paint (1953)

the audience applauded

So much average

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

WAR PAINT 1953This 1953 western was a Bel Air Production released through United Artists. The cast includes, Robert Stack, Keith Larsen, Charles McGraw, Robert Wilke, Douglas Kennedy, Joan Taylor, Peter Graves, Paul Richards and John Doucette.A Lieutenant in the U.S. Calvary, Robert Stack, is assigned to deliver a peace treaty to a US government official. The official is then to forward the treaty to the chief of an Apache tribe. What Stack does not know is that the Government type and his escort are all dead. The Chief's son, Keith Larsen and daughter, Joan Taylor, have other ideas about the treaty. They have ambushed and killed the Government man and his escort. The pair really want war between the whites and the Apache.Not finding the Government type at the trading post meeting place, Stack decides to deliver the treaty himself. And as it so happens, the Chief's son, Larsen, is there and offers to lead Stack and his small patrol to his father. The treaty is time sensitive and must be delivered within 9 days. Larsen tells Stack that it will take 6 days to reach the native village. Being Death Valley, the Cavalry loads up with full canteens and some pack horses with several casks of extra water. Of course things start to go wrong the further they go into the desert. A rock fall smashes most of the water casks. An important load with their maps is lost over a cliff etc. Stack suspects that the Indian, Larsen might be the guilty party, but he is always in sight when the "accidents" happen. Of course the viewer knows it is really Larsen's sister, Miss Taylor doing the deeds. She is trailing the patrol at a distance during the day and doing a bit of sabotage at night. With their water nearly exhausted, Larsen offers to take then to a water hole, but it will delay the trip to the village by a day. The day is wasted because the water hole is dried up. That night all their horses take off and the group is now on foot. Stack is bound and determined to deliver the treaty. The men now stumble onto a small water hole. The hole however is full of bad water which one of the men drinks. The man, Paul Richards is soon dead. One of troopers now goes of his rocker from lack of water and blows out his brains. Now Stack finds out that the Indian, Larsen has been leading them in a big circle. A sound beating from several of the troopers soon has Larsen coughing up what he has done. He wants a bloody conflict so all the tribes will join in driving the whites out. Another of the troopers now steps up and shoots Larsen dead before Stack can stop him.Stack and his Sgt, Charles McGraw now decide to send one man ahead to deliver the documents. They give the man, Douglas Kennedy all the remaining water and will follow as best they can. Kennedy however is ambushed the next day by Larsen's sister, Taylor. There is brisk exchange of rounds with Kennedy going down for the count. Kennedy though manages to pink Taylor in the forehead knocking her out. Needless to say Stack and the others find Taylor and the dead trooper. Stack quickly puts two and two together and puts Taylor under guard. The men however are all going a tad wacko from lack of water. Several of the men, Wilkie, Graves and Doucette are all for having their way with the woman. Taylor tells Stack that she will take them to some nearby water. She leads them up the hills to an old mine and tells them there is a well inside. Most of the men rush inside for a look. What they find is not water, but piles of gold. The men of course are now overwhelmed with gold lust. They decide to kill Stack and Sgt McGraw, then "force" Taylor to really lead them to water. Then they will load up on gold and disappear.Stack collects a round in the arm before he can talk sense into Graves and company. Miss Taylor now decides it would be in her best interest to really show the men the water spring. The men's thirst for water is slackened, but not their thirst for gold. Rifles and pistols are pulled and shots ring out. The only survivors are Stack, Miss Taylor and Peter Graves. It takes a full-fledged knockdown, drag out fistfight, followed by a battle with knives before Graves is finished off. Miss Taylor has now decided to change teams and helps Stack deliver the treaty to her father. This well-crafted B western was directed by veteran programmer man, Lesley Selander. Between 1936 and1968, Selander worked on 145 diff films and television series. This Pathecoler film was shot on location in Death Valley and is well worth a watch imo. Producers Howard W Koch and Aubrey Schenck would score with a whole series of well-made B western, war and noir films during the 1950's. These include BIGHOUSE USA, FORT YUMA, CANYON CROSSROADS, THREE BAD SISTERS, GHOST TOWN, CRIME AGAINST JOE, HOT CARS, TOMAHAWK TRAIL, WAR DRUMS and HELL BOUND.

A hot, dusty, situation-western filmed in the oven like alkali desert of Death Valley. Not really very good, it's a variation on the "Lost Patrol" theme. It does have a thing in showing a remarkable variety of gun battles from cover. It's almost like a stock shot catalogue of Winchester fights. There's some excellent overwrought character acting here. Charles McGraw is at his most stalwart and he's in fine voice here too- tough and gravelly. Paul Richards - I never realized he was so short! is the ripest of all and mercifully dies early. John Doucette has a different role here as a Polish immigrant who left Poland because they wanted to put him in the army. Peter Graves gets to try the villain thing before STALAG 17.Actually my first thought when I saw the picture was to complain to myself- When are they going to show a cavalry patrol with a remuda (the cavalry took several horses per soldier so they could switch horses on long rides), a chuck wagon, a water tank (one may ration water for the men but cannot stint on water for the horses. Always remember, the cavalry is limited by what the horses can and cannot do and since horses can't forage in the desert they need to bring along grain too- enough for 40 horses or more.) and a wagon-load of ammunition? They always seem to be set-up for what my old German producer used to call "ein kleine schpatzierung" and not a journey of two weeks through the desert. I didn't realize that the whole picture would be one long, long patrol. A sub-sub genre then, the western/cavalry /patrol picture. If there is any irony here its that the Indian who resisted was right. The White Man's Peace was merely temporary, a stratagem used on the way to the White Man taking everything. A professionally made second feature. A good period piece, interesting only to the specialist.PS For this Martin Berkeley gave up over a hundred names during the blacklist period?

A cavalry patrol has six days to deliver a peace treaty and avoid an Indian war. The chief's son Taslik ( a somewhat miscast but still good Keith Larsen) agrees to lead the patrol to his father's village. Unknow to dedicated, stalwart Lt. Billings ( Robert Stack) Taslik wants war with the hated white men. Taslik's sister Wanima (a very good Joan Taylor)who also has no love for the white man, secretly follows the patrol sabotages their water supply and runs off their horses. Taslik Then leads the patrol to one dry water hole after another. He though isn't suffering as his sister sneaks water to him at night. Wanima also deliberately leads the patrol to a gold mine the Spanish discovered years before but whom the Indians killed. This leads some members of the patrol to start thinking that gold might be more important than peace.While this film may be a little short of action, it has very good suspense, a much better than average plot, better than average character development, good acting, good color photography and some great Death Valley locations. It is definitely worth watching, and a very worthy addition to a video library.

An unjustly-overlooked masterpiece. The almost-unrecognizably young Robert Stack plays the hardened CO of a company entrusted with delivering a treaty. If the chief for whom it is intended does not receive it within the week, he will declare war. Of course, complications ensue...Many of the characters and plot points seem cliched, but only because the film shows its age. Look past the vestiges of '50s moviemaking--blue-eyed squaws, etc.--for strikingly modern subject matter: divorce and Native American rage at continued injustices in particular. Tremendously taut and exciting, to boot. See this movie!