For those old enough to remember Saturday matinée serials at your local movie theater this potboiler just might be for you. On the one hand, a fast moving and melodramatic tale, on the other, a dated film, surely considered "hokey" by today's younger set. The fictional hero is a scout for Gen. Custer and the main plot(also fictional)deals with a sacred medicine arrow coveted by both Red and White men. Custer himself remains primarily a background figure in the storyline until he ultimately achieves immortality surrounded by the dead at Little Big Horn. Popping in an out of the film are so many Western icons that the film is rather more like a Wild West show than "Custer's Last Stand" which is just one part of the film. Chief Thundercloud, a popular film actor of the 1930's, a Cherokee with Scots, Irish and German ancestry is a major player and at 6' he has a commanding presence. Custer exceeds him however, played by Frank McGlynn, Jr., at 6'4" or 6'5", with walrus-like mustachios and towers over the rest of the cast. What impressed me most was the authentic use of black powder in the guns, something we just do not see in today's westerns, and also the expert horsemanship by both Indians and Whites, which we also do not see in today's westerns. Much ongoing action. I can see why our pre-TV youngsters went back Saturday after Saturday for such as this. At the end, Custer's Indian scout Curley offers Custer an Indian blanket to disguise himself and escape, disdainfully refused by the general. We would expect nothing less from George Armstrong Custer, now would we?
A good film for old movie buffs (like me), or those who would just like to sit back, dim the lights, nibble on popcorn, and be transported back to that old movie theater and the Wild West as it was seen to be by the viewing audience so many years ago.
A good film for old movie buffs (like me), or those who would just like to sit back, dim the lights, nibble on popcorn, and be transported back to that old movie theater and the Wild West as it was seen to be by the viewing audience so many years ago.