Sure is weird seeing Joel McCrea playing a sociopathic racist, huh? Kinda like Lee Van Cleef as the Pope or Barbra Streisand doing a homicidal nanny. It is a credit to McCrea's acting chops that not only does he pull it off but he's darn near as good as Robert Taylor's similarly unexpected, but effective, study in anti Native American prejudice in "The Last Hunt", made two years earlier. (Both performances and films fall short of The Duke in "Searchers", of course, but that's not really a fair criticism considering the greatness of Ford's masterwork).
Aside from McCrea several of the supporting players stand out. Forrest Tucker is quite good as kind of a darker Victor McLaglen as is veteran noir character actor Robert Osterloh as a Cavalry Everyman, (the kind of role James Whitmore would have had if this thing were a war film, instead of a Western). And it's good to see Western stalwart Denver Pyle affectingly play perhaps the most humane member of this rather dodgy cavalry company. Less good are John Russell and Susan Cabot, although it's hard to tell if they're just bad actors or if they're saddled with the most pretentious lines of the film's often stiff, soap boxy cum philosophical dialogue. Indeed, if it were not for the numerous scenes of Moral Breast Beating that only serve to slow the movie down I'd rate this Joseph Newman film considerably higher than I do, which is a generous B minus, mostly for Joel.
Aside from McCrea several of the supporting players stand out. Forrest Tucker is quite good as kind of a darker Victor McLaglen as is veteran noir character actor Robert Osterloh as a Cavalry Everyman, (the kind of role James Whitmore would have had if this thing were a war film, instead of a Western). And it's good to see Western stalwart Denver Pyle affectingly play perhaps the most humane member of this rather dodgy cavalry company. Less good are John Russell and Susan Cabot, although it's hard to tell if they're just bad actors or if they're saddled with the most pretentious lines of the film's often stiff, soap boxy cum philosophical dialogue. Indeed, if it were not for the numerous scenes of Moral Breast Beating that only serve to slow the movie down I'd rate this Joseph Newman film considerably higher than I do, which is a generous B minus, mostly for Joel.