Comanche (1956) Reviews

• Elliott Arnold's uncredited screenplay

  NewEnglandPat2005-06-13

  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.

  More

• A man is as good as his word.

  Spikeopath2009-11-12

  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

  More

• Quannah Parker gives his word

  bkoganbing2005-11-02

  This B film attempts to do for the great Comanche warrior chief Quannah Parker what Broken Arrow did for Cochise. Kent Smith as Quannah quite frankly is doing a flat out imitation of Jeff Chandler in his greatest role. Quannah deserves better than that. Scouts Dana Andrews and Nestor Paiva are trying to get Quannah Parker to sit down and negotiate a peace. He's beaten everything the U.S. Army has thrown at him and that part of the film ain't fiction. And he's in an impregnable redoubt. Andrews and Paiva are beset by troublemakers on both sides. Scalphunter Stacy Harris wants to keep a lucrative business going and Henry Brandon as sub-chief Black Cloud is not counting the human cost in Comanche lives. Andrews and Paiva have their work cut out for them. This was a bad year for Henry Brandon as a Comanche. He meets a no good end here and in The Searchers in the same year. And ironically in Two Rode Together, he got to play Quannah Parker for John Ford. The movie also introduced Linda Cristal as a Comanche captive that Andrews takes a fancy to. She also would play another Comanche captive in Two Rode Together. Quannah Parker's story deserved an epic western and while this film is an unpretentious and good B western, one would hope that a bigger film might tell Quannah's tale and make him the central character.

  More

• Competent and inoffensive, but also rather dull

  MartinHafer2007-08-09

  Had this movie starred a lesser name than Dana Andrews, I probably never would have watched it or else turned it off after a while, as this was a rather dull but competently made picture. Aside from more modern sensibilities about the American Indians (they aren't savage or bad and there is an attempt to understand their motivations), there really isn't anything different to set this apart from hundreds, if not thousands of mediocre Westerns from the 40s and 50s. Part of the problem was in casting Kent Smith as the Indian chief. He was a good journeyman actor, but here he was all wrong. While his character was supposed to have SOME White blood, Smith looked and sounded about as much like an Indian as Shirley Temple! It's odd that although the script is quite sensitive and "politically correct" by today's standards, they still used a lot of White actors in makeup as the Indians (if you look, you'll also notice Mike Mazurki as an Indian as well). Another part of the problem is that while I like Dana Andrews a lot, I've got to admit he was pretty bland in the part--a part which would have been more convincing had it featured Randolph Scott or Jimmy Stewart. Andrews just wasn't believable as a cavalry scout in the old West. Andrews forte was in contemporary stories--placing him in a horse and Indian film just seemed unnatural and his performance reflects this. Aside from these complaints, I am not recommending you avoid the film--it is fairly entertaining and won't rot your brain. However, it really is nothing more than a time-passer and it SHOULD have been much better given the decent script.

  More

• High budget look, low budget acting

  westerner3572003-07-14

  Dana Andrews is called in to negotiate a peace treaty with the Comanches raiding across the border into Mexico. There are elements on both sides who don't want peace including the Indian-hating scalphunters on the one hand, and the breakaway Comanches (led by Black Cloud) on the other. I hate to say it but Kent Smith isn't convincing as Quanah Parker. If they were going to have this kind of robotic dialog, then they should have at least gotten Charles Bronson or Steven McNally to do it since they look more Indian-like than the blue-eyed, fair-haired Smith does. Yeah, I know Parker was half-white and all that, but still... Plus you have Dana Andrews and the rest of the cast looking like they are sleepwalking through the whole thing. It's as if everyone is just going through the motions with little or no effort. Were they bored with it, or was it only what the script demanded? The only character who was remotely interesting was Andrews' sidekick Puffer, played by Nestor Paiva. He looked sufficiently grizzled for the part without resorting to too much of the silliness that say, Gabby Hayes would have done if he had played the role. It's too bad his part wasn't bigger. The battle scenes look lame even by 50s standards with the whole thing having a rushed look to it, despite the widescreen technicolor cinematography by George Stahl. This use of color was a rarity on United Artists part since they mostly shot their westerns in b/w. And with the title music sung by The Lancers sounding all hokey and Disney-like, all it does is bring it down a couple of more notches for me. 3 out of 10

  More