Arrowhead (1953)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Charles Marquis Warren

Writers:

W.R. Burnett (novel)
Charles Marquis Warren (screenplay)

Release Date:

3 August 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | Western

Plot:

Chief of Scouts Ed Bannon narrowly avoids an Apache ambush while working with the cavalry stationed at Fort Clark...

Plot Keywords:

Apache | Cavalry | Scout | Resentment | Native American Uprising

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Ed Bannon
Jack Palance	...	Toriano
Katy Jurado	...	Nita
Brian Keith	...	Capt. Bill North
Mary Sinclair	...	Lela Wilson
Milburn Stone	...	Sandy MacKinnon
Richard Shannon	...	Lt. Kirk
Lewis Martin	...	Col. Weybright
Frank DeKova	...	Chief Chattez (as Frank de Kova)
Robert J. Wilke	...	Sgt. Stone (as Robert Wilke)
Peter Coe	...	Spanish
James Anderson	...	Jerry August (as Kyle James)
John Pickard	...	John Gunther (as John M. Pickard)
Pat Hogan	...	Jim Eagle

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

West Germany:0 (f) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16336) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Fort Clark, Brackettville, Texas, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Film debut of Brian Keith.

Quotes:

Ed Bannon: Apaches don't like horses, Sergeant. They ride 'em until they drop, kill 'em and eat 'em and then steal some more.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Images of Indians: How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native American (2003) (TV)

"There's a dead Apache in here, get it out."

Arrowhead is one of that batch of films that Charlton Heston did between his two DeMille pictures, some good, some mediocre. Arrowhead kind of falls between both categories.

It is one of the most uncompromising films in terms of the place of the American Indian. It's point is that the more we get rid of, the more room for the whites. So either pack 'em off to reservations or kill them. At least Charlton Heston's character feels that way.

Now there apparently is some justification for Heston's feelings at least as far as this group of Apaches are concerned. He was raised among them and knows them well. And knows that the young warrior prince. Jack Palance, is not going to go quietly off to a reservation.

None of which is really explored in the finished product. I have the feeling the editors left a lot of this film on the cutting room floor. Also Heston's relationship with Katy Jurado who acts as a spy while living without benefit of clergy with him is similarly untouched. But for that I blame the Code. What there is is quite daring for its time.

The ending is kind of silly also. When he has the drop on Palance, Palance asks Heston why he doesn't shoot him. Good question Jack, I can't figure it out either. More I won't say.

The film was shot on location in Texas and done very well. Palance, fresh off the acclaim he received from Shane, has the best role in the film. This is also an early film for Brian Keith and he acquits himself well as a young cavalry officer.

But Arrowhead could have been a whole lot better.