While he was in Canada shooting his "Last of the Mohicans" t.v. series, Sam Newfield directed this low-low-low budget western as a Fox Regalscope programmer to play on the bottom half of double bills. The directing is poor, the acting is marginal (except for pros Bruce Bennett, Jim Davis and Canadian Cec Linder), the black and white anamorphic photography is adequate, and the story functional. Bennett plays a Cavalry officer in Minnesota trying to make peace with the warring Indian tribe but Davis, who abuses his wife, prefers fighting the hostiles. What really sinks this B-movie is the budget. The Indian camp consists of four tents and a bunch of scraggly extras. The big action in the first half of the movie is an arm wrestling match between Bennett and the Chief (Solway) which goes on interminably. The casting makes no sense. Even though Bennett is a good 20 years older than Solway (a flabby out-of-shape Indian chief if there ever was one), their characters are supposedly childhood friends. The Indian attack on the fort is laughable. It looks like crew members were hurling flaming arrows at the soldiers. One arrow even appears to fly over feathers first. This is one to watch if you've seen almost everything else ever made.
