Comanche Territory (1950)

So much average

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

George Sherman supplements the clichés with humor in "Comanche Territory," another disposable but pleasant dust-raiser with Maureen O'Hara playing her usual red-haired hellion. MacDonald Carey squares off against her over silver and a peace treaty with the Comanche nation. Will Geer is cast as Carey's sidekick, while Charles Drake is O'Hara's less than scrupulous brother. This movie qualifies as a period western since the characters are armed with black powder firearms. Yes, the American Civil War has not happened yet, much less the Alamo. Mind you, Andrew Jackson is President of the United States so it isn't a traditional oater. During the 1950s, westerns adopted a new sentiment that Native Americans weren't always good if they were dead. In other words, the Indians had won the cultural role and western filmmakers didn't utilize them as often as villains. Jim Bowie (MacDonald Carey) is sent into Comanche country to see that the treaty becomes a reality. He encounters former Congressman Dan'l Seeger (Will Geer) who had the treaty stolen from him by the villains. When Bowie and Seeger meet, they have to fight the Comanches. Bowie wins the favor of the Native Americans after facing off with some of them in a knife fight. Indeed, they like the pig-sticker enough that they insist Bowie show them how to make them. "Gunman's Code" lenser Maury Gertsman's cinematography is outstanding, and the real scenery in Sedona, Arizona, is gorgeous. Nothing about the Lewis Meltzer and Oscar Brodney screenplay is really exciting. The characters are shallow and one-dimensional. Carey plays Bowie without gusto, while dependable supporting players like Glenn Strange, James Best, I. Stanford Jolley, and Iron-Eyes Cody get a line or two of dialogue. Altogether, "Comanche Territory" is nothing special.

Comanche Territory is directed by George Sherman and written by Oscar Brodney and Lewis Meltzer. It stars Maureen O'Hara, Macdonald Carey, Will Geer and Charles Drake. Music is by Frank Skinner and cinematography by Maury Gertsman.A government treaty set up to protect sacred Comanche land is due to expire, just as silver has been found beneath the mountains on the land. James Bowie (Carey) has been sent to negotiate a new treaty with the Comanche leaders, thus allowing the silver to be mined without upsetting the Indians. But there are underhand plans being drawn up by settlers in the town of Crooked Tongue, a town run by feisty Katie Howard (O'Hara). Can Bowie prevent the pillaging of the sacred Indian land? Something that will inevitably lead to blood being shed…...Good solid B Western that gets in and does its job without pretension or pointless filler. Shot in Technicolor and filmed impressively on location in Sedona, Arizona (Big & Little Parks/Red Rock), it's a film that offers an interesting story and a good sprinkling of action. Cast are mostly fine, Geer files in for the Arthur Hunnicut/Walter Brennan type role, O'Hara is spunky and a Technicolor picture (check out that gorgeous black and green frock sequence) and Carey, whilst hardly a convincing or robust Jim Bowie, plays it with restraint and works off of Geer and O'Hara rather well. The action is competently staged by old pro Sherman, who also doesn't let the pace sag, and Gertsman's photography of the landscapes (particularly Red Rock) is the high point of the production.Problems? Well Charles Drake as Katie Howard's crooked brother turns him into a pretty tepid villain, while the big saloon punch-up is beset by amateurish punch throwing. There's also the issue of non Native American actors playing Indians, which once in a while in the 50s did throw up the odd good turn, however here isn't one of them. Though in fairness they aren't helped by the script, which doesn't exactly give the Comanche characters some telling dialogue to impact on proceedings. Good to report that Pegasus' DVD release contains a very good print, there's the odd moment of colour fluctuation, but by and large it's a neat transfer. Though you may want to slightly tone down your colour setting since Sherman and Gertsman have gone for the high contrast option for the Technicolor filters! 6.5/10

This little-seen quasi-Western from 1950 stars McDonald Carey as Jim Bowie helping his friends, the Indians, from an army of marauding white men out to steal Indian land for its silver. The action is set well before the Civil War, so it is improper to call this a Western, although on the meager budget this was shot on, there are plenty of classic Western outfits on display throughout. Carey is at his prime here, and makes for a virile and resourceful Bowie. An absolutely stunning and very youthful Maureen O'Hara is his feisty love interest, who initially is all for white folks taking over Indian land. She wears some silly outfits that look like they came from a Roy Rogers flick, but she also gets to wear at least one formal dress that shows off her distinctive assets. She also gets to put on quite a brogue, enough so that you might think you're watching THE QUIET MAN from time to time. All in all, a fun "B" flick of a type now long forgotten.

While this isn't an awful Western, there are clearly deficient aspects here that prevent greatness. The fight scenes don't thrill. The saloon brawl is poorly crafted, and nowhere near as funny as intended. The Comanches are depicted as 'injuns', with whites playing the only speaking parts. The central love/hate relationship between Carey and O'Hara is of the screwball comedy variety, but Carey is no Clark Gable. In addition to the desert scenery, the only other real value this has is historical -- a reminder of whence more recent movies extract their ideas. For example, the imposing presence of the Bowie knife would later be borrowed by the "Rambo" movies.O'Hara is probably the best single feature here, her two-fisted feisty redhead serving as a template for the Nicole Kidmans of the modern era. And the bull whip cracking and fight on the runaway wagon would become ingredients in "Raiders of the Lost Ark".