Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

Victor Mature plays the title character is this biography of the famed Sioux warrior, who was credited for helping mastermind the Fetterman Massacre and, years later, for playing a key role in the Indian attack at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

In this telling, a young Crazy Horse hears a prophecy from a dying Chief Conquering Bear, who talks of a great warrior who will one day unite the Sioux nation against the whites, but wind up dying at the hands of one of his own people.

A young Crazy Horse then wanders off into the hills to contemplate what he’s heard and sees an image in the heavens of such a chief, charging on a horse.

Crazy Horse is reluctant to assume that role. But over the years, the signs that he’s the chosen one the dying chief referred to are too strong to ignore.

Meanwhile, he gains a friend in a white trader named Twist, who’s wounded by another tribe and nursed back to health by the Sioux.

And he makes a lifelong enemy in Little Big Man, a rival for the hand of lovely young Little Fawn (Suzan Ball), who adopts the married name Black Shawl after she is wed to Crazy Horse.

Little Big Man is also responsible for much of the trouble with the whites by revealing that the Black Hills are rich in gold.

Review:

Victor Mature is fine in the lead role, though a little old at age 42 to play a young chief. But this is a film that gives away the ending in the opening scene. And 10 minutes in, you can pretty much guess who’s going to be responsible for that ending.

What’s falls in between isn’t compelling enough to make up for the film’s predictability. And the action scenes that could have enlivened the film aren’t very well done.

Actors portraying Indians just sort of trot around on horses during the attack on the supply train at the Battle of the Rosebud. And there isn’t even an attempt to depict the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Viewers see the cavalry and Indians converging for what turned out to be Crazy Horse’s greatest victory. The camera pans to the sky to the sounds of battle, then pans back down to a battlefield littered with bodies. That must have been a major disappointment to the film’s audience.

That leaves a film that’s most memorable for the performance of Suzan Ball, the second cousin of Lucille, as lovely an Indian maiden here as you’ll find in any Western from the 1950s.

She had been diagnosed with tumors in her right leg at age 19. That leg was amputated in 1954, five months before filming began. That meant a body double had to be used and filmed from behind for any scenes that required much movement.

Her performance betrays the struggles she was going through. Her smile lights up the screen. There’s even a scene in which she falls ill with the white man’s coughing sickness and is near death.

Tragically, this was her final film. She died in August 1955, four months after this movie was release. She was 21. Her six credited roles also included two other Westerns, “Untamed Frontier” (1952) and “War Arrow” (1953).

Don’t let her two names in the cast list below fool you. It’s the same character. She’s Little Fawn until her marriage to Crazy Horse, then adopts the more womanly name of Black Shawl from that point forward.

Directed by:
George Sherman

Cast:
Victor Mature … Chief Crazy Horse
Suzan Ball … Little Fawn / Black Shawl
John Lund … Major Twist
Ray Danton … Little Big Man
Keith Larsen … Flying Hawk
James Millican … Gen. Crook
Donald Randolph … Aaron Cartwright
David Janssen … Lt. Colin Cartwright
Paul Guilfoyle … Worm
Robert Warwick … Spotted Tail
Morris Ankrum … Red Cloud
Robert F. Simon … Jeff Mantz
James Westerfield … Caleb Mantz
Pat Hogan … Dull Knife
Dennis Weaver … Maj. Carlisle

Runtime: 86 min.

Memorable lines:

Little Big Man to Crazy Horse, on courting Little Fawn: “Little Fawn may have eyes for Crazy Horse. But her father will have eyes only for the presents.”

Spotted Tail to Old Elk, an elderly Indian suiter, who shows up with one old horse as a gift for his daughter’s marriage: “You gift is tired, like you.”
Old Elk: “A man with a cold lodge must keep trying.”

Caleb Mantz, upon learning where Little Big Man got his gold: “The Black Hills? That’s where the Lakotas allow a white man to keep his hair. For about 10 minutes. Might as well be in the middle of the Sahara Desert.”

Flying Hawk, as Fetterman’s troops approach: “Lone Bear has no patience. He’s itching to attack.”
Crazy Horse: “If he doesn’t wait for my signal, he’ll itch no more.”

Crazy Horse: “I have watched their soldiers many, many times. How their young men are held back by the commands of their leaders until it is time for the killing. Our young warriors must learn this. They must be obedient. They must be like the lance that is obedient to the hand until it is flung.”

Twist, trying to convince Crazy Horse to surrender: “You’ll never know hunger on a reservation.”
Crazy Horse: “There I will only know shame.”

Pat Hogan (left) as Dull Knife and a fellow chief debate post-Little Big Horn options with Crazy Horse in Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

Robert F. Simon as Jeff Mantz, one of the brothers who hope to cash in on the gold in the Black Hills in Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

James Westerfile as Caleb Mantz, questioning Little Big Man about the location of the gold he’s carrying in Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

Suzan Ball as Little Fawn, taking care of the wounded white man Twist (John Lund) in Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

Suzan Ball as Little Fawn, decked out in her wedding attire, looking forward to her marriage in Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

Suzan Ball as Black Shawl, bringing her husband news of Custer’s approach in Chief Crazy Horse (1955)

Suzan Ball as Black Shawl and Victor Mature as Crazy Horse, wondering about the approach of a cavalry scout in Chief Crazy Horse (1955)