weezeralfalfa Review of Pony Soldier

Pony Soldier (1952)

Ty as pioneer mountie(pony soldier) sent to parley with the Cree

[6/10 · 9 April 2018]

Fictional tale of interactions between a band of plains Cree in SW Saskatchewan, and the US Cavalry, on the one hand, followed by the newly emplaced Canadian Northwest Mounted Police, represented by one lone Mountie(Tyrone Power, as Duncan McDonald). As the story begins, a band of Cree, under the leadership of Standing Bear((Stuart Randall), have illegally relocated to Montana, where they hoped the bison had not been decimated, as they were starving. With the Technicolor cinematography, we see the largely pink and rusty red colors of the Arizona Colorado Plateau, and of Red Rock Canyon, in CA, instead of the expected Saskatchewan landscape....... The early spectacular battle scene between US cavalry and Cree, in the shallow water of a flood plain, clearly was lifted from the similar scene in the 1944 "Buffalo Bill", which I had seen earlier. The Cree decided the US plains was too dangerous to stay long, Thus, they crossed over to Canada, but not to their reservation. Thus, the Inspector(commander)(Howard Petrie) of the Mountie Fort Walsh sent a newly arrived recruit named Duncan MacDonald(Tyrone Power) to encourage the Cree to return to their former starvation reservation, and to release 2 white captives. MacDonald was termed by the Indians as a pony soldier......There are a number of action scenes scattered through the film, although much time is spent in negotiations and riding around. MacDonald is initially accompanied by Nayato(Thomas Gomez), who is rather afraid of the Cree, as his father was an enemy Blackfoot. He disappears about halfway through, as MacDonald sends him back to the fort. His place is more or less taken by a half-grown Cree orphan (Anthony Numkena, as Comes Running), who throws himself at MacDonald, whom he hopes will be his new father. The inclusion of this cute kid serves to lighten the otherwise serious nature of the screenplay. He will eventually come in handy when the war chief Konah tries to shoot MacDonald with an arrow........A council of chiefs and elders considers whether to accept MacDonald's demand to return to their reservation and release the captives unharmed. Meanwhile, the male captive, of somewhat disreputable background(Robert Hoston, as Jess), tries to escape, using a teepee stake as a club. He is attacked by Chief Konah's brother, who, in turn is killed by his own tomahawk. Jess almost pays with his life, as MacDonald shoots him off his getaway horse. This was a very risky thing for MacDonald to do, as he is charged with bringing the captives to the fort, unharmed. In retaliation for Jess's killing of his brother, Konah and others abduct the young woman captive: Emerald(Penny Edwards), tie her to a stake, and build a bond fire near her, with the purpose of burning her alive. If they intended to burn her, why did they set the fire some distance from her, rather than around her? This allowed MacDonald time to find her and fight with the Indians before she was burned......The screenplay purports to demonstrate that patient negotiation is often a better way than violence to settle a dispute, I'm still not sure why the Cree agreed to go back to their reservation, where they were starving. Also, I don't understand the bit about a supposed mirage of a river steamboat that everyone saw. What were they smoking? Incidentally, the only historic Standing Bear I could find reference to was a chief of the Ponco tribe, found in the central Midwest. In summary, this is a reasonably entertaining Northern, with some indications of a limited budget. See it at YouTube