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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A Surprisingly Unforgettable Movie!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

In 1864, in a Colorado fort, Lt. Frank Hewitt (Murphy) deserts after failing to talk his commanding officer, Col. Chivington (Ainslie Pryor) out of attacking an Indian village that has only women and children in it. The village is located on Sand Creek. Chivington and his company massacre the inhabitants, and their male survivors swear vengeance. The rest of the film is about Hewitt's race to inform the female settlers and children (the men are away fighting the Civil War) that they are in danger. To complicate matters, the settlers are Confederate, and Hewitt is on the Union side.Murphy is earnest and sincere in his role, and it's a relief to see him lose his temper in a film for a change. Kathryn Grant made no impression whatsoever, aside from being pretty. As Hannah Lacey, Emerson was the best player in the film. Whether she was ready to kill Hewitt at first sight, or turning thirty some women into soldiers, she was a funny, welcome presence.

The picture opens with a take on the historical Sand Creek Massacre which occurred on November 29th, 1864. It was accurately depicted as being led by Colonel John Chivington, though in the actual battle Chivington's forces totaled about two hundred fifty men, a lot larger than this film represented. The number of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians slaughtered varies with the source, but most of the estimates come in around a hundred thirty five, with most of them being women and children. The colonel who led the attack was particularly hateful of Indians and was quoted back in the day saying - "I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God's heaven to kill Indians." Quite appropriately, the event also goes by the name of Chivington's Massacre.With that, Lieutenant Frank Hewitt (Audie Murphy), disgusted with the actions of his commanding officer, deserts the Cavalry and heads south into Texas, attempting to warn whoever he can that a Cheyenne uprising is imminent. Finding the border town of Jonesville occupied primarily by women whose husbands are off fighting for the Confederacy, Hewitt is confronted with derision and disdain for wearing a Union uniform. It takes the murder of a local woman by a Cheyenne to convince the rest of the women to abandon town and bond together for protection at a run down mission under Hewitt's direction and training.My favorite character here has to be 'good as three men' Hannah Lacey, admirably portrayed by the feisty Hope Emerson. Hannah gets right into the spirit of things at the mission fort, calling all her female charges 'men', as in 'Let's go men' when it's time to buckle down and do the hard work required to get ready for an Indian attack. Hewitt placed her second in command, and who was going to argue? In this story though, you didn't get a sense of how big actress Emerson actually was, six foot two and two hundred thirty pounds in her heyday. If you get the chance, you really have to catch her in the 1950 prison movie "Caged", it'll give you nightmares for a week! There's a side story regarding a trio of outlaws that interferes with Hewitt's command of 'Fort Petticoat' but they're dispatched rather quickly once the Cheyenne figure out their game. When it comes time to defend the mission, the women are up to the task, even while taking on casualties. The picture is quite realistic in that regard, showing women and even a young kid getting shot before Hewitt's calculated move to ambush a Cheyenne medicine man and string him up to stop the warring tribe, thereby suggesting it was not a good day to die.

This film opens with Union Army officer Lt. Frank Hewitt encountering a group of Comanche; they are off the reservation without permission but as they are unarmed and peaceful he allows them to continue on their way. When his CO, Col. Chivington, hears about this he sets off to teach the Comanche a lesson about doing what they are told... this 'lesson' is Sand Creek Massacre. Hewitt knows that after such an atrocity the Indians will understandable go on the war path and one place they are likely to strike is his home in Texas. Knowing this he deserts and heads south. Wearing Union blue he is not too welcome when he arrives in Confederate Texas but after an attack leaves one woman dead the other people start to believe him. Since the war is on there is only one man left in town and he is clearly only out to save his own skin... if he is save the women he must get them ready to fight.B-western regular Audie Murphy puts in a fine performance as Lt. Hewett; the more I see him in films like this the more I'm surprised he better known. The women are a varied bunch and the actresses do well enough even though this is clearly Murphy's film. The action is fairly solid and if you are expecting the women to prevail without taking a single casualty you will be surprised as quite a few die. There were of course a few flaws; it did seem strange that Hewett went into Confederate Texas in his Union uniform, equally it seemed strange that all but one of the men would have left the settlement; I'd have thought there would be a few old men at the very least although accept that it was necessary for the narrative. The epilogue where Hewitt returns to his unit and avoids punishment when the women turn up to vouch for him did seem sill after the action that had gone before. Over all it was pretty entertaining though and I'm sure fans of B-westerns looking for something different will enjoy this. It is of interest to note that while this is obviously a work of fiction Col. Chivington was a real person and he was involved in the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, where his troops slaughtered numerous Indians; mainly women and children.

The title of this film almost sounds like it will be a comedy.....sort of like "F Troop" meets "Petticoat Junction". It is, however, a relatively serious affair with some decent action sequences and some (sometimes unintentional) amusing moments. Murphy stars as a Cavalry Lieutenant who deserts his post in order to go a warn the people of his nearby hometown of an impending Indian attack. Unfortunately, virtually every man is gone from the area and the remaining women all resent him for wearing the blue instead of the gray uniform. Once the Indians start to make their mark, the ladies begin to change their mind and Murphy rounds them all up in an abandoned mission, determined to convert them into soldiers for their own sake. An already slightly campy film (check out the Indian grandma doing a child's hair at her camp right before a marauding cavalry unit appears), gets even loonier at this point. The mere idea of women brandishing guns and fighting physically must have been otherworldly in 1957. The enterprise is treated with all the expected attention and detail for the curio that it is. Murphy refers to the ladies as "men" and appoints sergeants, etc... He drills them in target practice, hand to hand combat and skirt-tucking (turning skirts into makeshift pants!) Naturally, there is every type of woman imaginable.....the old love, the new love, the haughty rich bitch, the one "in trouble", the religious fanatic, the tart, etc... What gives the film a great boost in the arm is the irascible, irreplaceable presence of burly, sarcastic Emerson as the leader of the women. Always intriguing to watch, she gets a plum role here as a bossy, tough, but good-hearted pioneer woman. It also helps that the film isn't dumb enough to suggest that this sort of thing wouldn't lead to casualties. So the unusual aspect of seeing women holding a fort with guns is accented and enhanced by seeing some of them take a fall as well. This adds to the realism of a film which is, at heart, pretty trite and coy. There are some fairly tough scenes and the Indian attack is actually pretty tense. (And it's awful nice of the Indians to wait and WAIT before coming until Murphy has trained all the gals, drained the water from the well, taught them how to make "bombs" and ammunition and solved various other problems!) Maley as a saloon singer and Elsom as a society matron help push the camp envelope. A few other ladies (like the one who gets upset and literally gobbles like a turkey with her face in the ground) take it even further, but Nolan rips it open. She is downright embarrassing as a devout Christian who clutches her Bible and spouts messages of nonviolence. However, when push comes to shove and arrows come to necks, she has a freak-out scene that is one for the books! Even with the pat situations and mundane dialogue, there's a certain curiosity value to the film and scattered laughs throughout (Wade, as Elsom's maid, has a real zinger of a closing line for her character!) Grant would later become better known as Mrs. Bing Crosby.