I'm certain that director William Castle was just biding his time with this just as he had been for the past decade at Columbia waiting for the opportunity to utilize his brain for the fun gimmicks of his much later campy horror films. It's entertaining, but if you're purusing a bunch of westerns made around the same time, you won't notice much difference. In fact, you could change the setting to the middle ages, change the costumes and make the native Americans peasant rebels, and it would resemble a ton of non-western adventures flooding the market as well.
George Montgomery and John Crawford are army officers dealing with nearby Indians threatening attack in the Oregon territory. Martha Hyer has a juicy role as sergeant Emory Parnell's daughter who objects to Montgomery's methods in dealing with the oddly named Chief Mike (Michael Granger), and of course, when man and woman are at odds, this leads to romance, and in the case of a feisty woman like Hyer, the beginning of her being tamed. Richard Denning has a major role as an army recruiter who becomes Montgomery's rival. Enjoyable as a time filler (and thankfully short), but it's a case of been there, done that, even if it's as colorful as a pastel jigsaw puzzle. A bonus for me was the presence of the delightful Kathleen Freeman in one scene.
George Montgomery and John Crawford are army officers dealing with nearby Indians threatening attack in the Oregon territory. Martha Hyer has a juicy role as sergeant Emory Parnell's daughter who objects to Montgomery's methods in dealing with the oddly named Chief Mike (Michael Granger), and of course, when man and woman are at odds, this leads to romance, and in the case of a feisty woman like Hyer, the beginning of her being tamed. Richard Denning has a major role as an army recruiter who becomes Montgomery's rival. Enjoyable as a time filler (and thankfully short), but it's a case of been there, done that, even if it's as colorful as a pastel jigsaw puzzle. A bonus for me was the presence of the delightful Kathleen Freeman in one scene.