Fort Apache (1948)

Henry Fonda is Lt. Col. Owen Thursday, a former general in the Union Army during the Civil War who feels he’s been shoved aside by being assigned to command Fort Apache on the southwest frontier.

But he’s determined to whip his command into shape, though Capt. Kirby York (John Wayne), Capt. Sam Collingwood (George O’Brien) and Sgt. Maj. Michael O’Rourke (Ward Bond) seem to have things well in hand.

York also has a firm grasp of the Indian situation. Seems Apache Chief Cochise agreed to live peacefully on a reservation. Until the government sent in a crooked Indian agent named Meachum, who sells them cheap booze, disrespects their women and shortchanges them on their beef rations.

Now Cochise has taken most of his band into Mexico, though raiding parties remain north of the border. But the Apache chief trusts Capt. York, and Thursday plans to use that trust to trick the Apache into crossing back into U.S. territory.

Meanwhile, 2nd Lt. Michael Shannon O’Rourke (John Agar) has also arrived at the post, fresh from West Point.

Yep, he’s Sgt. Maj. Michael O’Rourke’s son. And he immediately catches the eye of Owen Thursday’s pretty young daughter Philadelphia (Shirley Temple). And vice versa.

In fact, they’re out riding together when the lieutenant finds two dead troopers, a sign the Apache have returned to the warpath.

After that, Thursday’s determined to keep the lieutenant and his daughter apart. And restore glory to his name by capturing Cochise and quelling the Apache uprising.

John Wayne as Capt. Kirby York, watching his commanding officer lead an ill-advised attack in Fort Apache (1948)

Henry Fonda at Lt. Col. Owen Thursday, arriving out West determined to prove himself as an Indian fighter in Fort Apache (1948)

Review:

The first and best of director John Ford’s so-called cavalry trilogy — followed by “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” and “Rio Grande.” In fact, it’s one of the finest cavalry vs. Indian Westerns you’ll find.

The casting of good-guy Fonda in the role of the glory-hunting cavalry officer works wonderfully. He plays a General Custer type character while it’s Wayne who pleads for fairness and caution when dealing with the Apache.

The cast also include lots of faces familiar whenever you’re watching a Ford Western, with Bond and Victor McLaglen playing tough sergeants who help keep the young recruits in line.

Shirley Temple was 19 and newly married to John Agar when she made this film. He plays her love interest; it marked his film debut.

The former child star is adorable as Thursday’s coquettish daughter. But she would make just four more films, all the following year.

Shirley Temple as Philadelphia Thursday, stealing glimpses of Lt. O’Rourke in her hatbox mirror in Fort Apache (1948)

John Agar as 2nd Lt. Michael O’Rourke, on the lookout for Apaches and about to find them in Fort Apache (1948)

Directed by:
John Ford

Cast:
John Wayne … Capt. Kirby York
Henry Fonda … Lt. Col. Owen Thursday
Shirley Temple … Philadelphia Thursday
John Agar … 2nd Lt. Michael Shannon O’Rourke
Pedro Armendariz … Sgt. Beaufort
Ward Bond … Sgt. Maj. Michael O’Rourke
George O’Brien … Capt. Sam Collingwood
Victor McLaglen … Sgt. Festus Mulcahy
Dick Foran … Sgt. Quincannon
Guy Kibbee … Capt. Dr. Wilkens
Jack Pennick … Sgt. Daniel Shattuck
Ray Hyke … Lt. Gates
Anna Lee … Mrs. Emily Collingwood
Irene Rich … Mrs. Mary O’Rourke
Miquel Inclan … Cochise
Grant Withers … Silas Meachum
Movita … Guadalupe
Mary Gordon … Ma
Mae Marsh … Mrs. Gates
Hank Worden … Cavalry trooper
Philip Kieffer … Cavalry trooper

Runtime: 125 min.

George O’Brien as Capt. Sam Collingwood, an old acquaintance of Lt. Col. Thursday, none too pleased by their reunion in Fort Apache (1948)

Ward Bond as Sgt. Maj. Michael O’Rourke, objecting to Col. Thusday’s presence in his home in Fort Apache (1948)

Memorable lines:

Lt. Col. Owen Thursday, on his way to Fort Apache: “What a country — 40 miles from mudhole to mudhole. Mule Creek. Dead Man’s Squaw. Schmidt’s Wells, Hangman’s Flats, Haciampa. And at the end of the rainbow — Fort Apache. Fort Apache. Blasted and ungrateful war department that sends a man out here.”

Capt. York: “I bid you welcome, General Thursday.”
Lt. Col. Thursday: “I’m not a general, captain. A man is what he’s paid for. I’m paid in the rank of lieutenant colonel.”

Lt. Col. Thursday: “I call it to your attention that only one of you has reported here this morning properly dressed. The uniform, gentlemen, is not a subject for individual, whimsical expression. We’re not cowboys at this post. Nor freighters with a load of alfalfa.”

Lt. Col. Thursday: “While some of our brother officers are leading their well-publicized campaigns against the great Indian nations — the Sioux and the Cheyenne — we are asked to ward off the gnat stings and flea bites of a few cowardly digger Indians.”
Capt. York: “Your pardon, colonel. You’d hardly call Apaches digger Indians, sir.”
Thursday: “You’d scarcely compare them with the Sioux, captain.”
York: “No, I don’t. The Sioux once raided into Apache territory. Old-timers told me you could follow their line of retreat by the bones of their dead.”

Miquel Inclan as Cochise, meeting with Capt. York and Sgt. Beaufort to negotiate a peaceful return to the Apache reservation in Fort Apache (1948)

Irene Rich as Mary O’Rourke, Anna Lee as Emily Collingwood and Shirley Temple as Philadelphia Thursday, watching the troop ride off in Fort Apache (1948)

Capt. Collingwood: “You did what you did… rode to glory. I did what I did… wound up at Fort Apache. Well, you’ve wound up here, too.”
Lt. Col. Thursday: “No, by thunder, I’ve not wound up; not by a jugful! They’ve pushed me aside, sent me out to this ten-penny post; but they’ll not keep me buried. I’ll find something.”

Captain York: “Were you born in Philadelphia?”
Philadelphia Thursday: “No, Pomfret, Connecticut. I was named after my mother.”
York: “Oh, she was born in Philadelphia?”
Philadelphia: “No, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She was named after grandmother. Grandmother was the first Philadelphia in our family.”
2nd Lt. Michael O’Rourke: “Oh, then she was…”
Philadelphia: “No, Provincetown, Massachusetts.”
Capt. Sam Collingwood: “Let’s talk about horses.”

Capt. York: “Colonel Thursday, I gave my word to Cochise. No man is gonna make a liar out of me, sir.”
Lt. Col. Thursday: “Your word to a breech-clouted savage? An illiterate, uncivilized murderer and treaty-breaker? There’s no question of honor, sir, between an American officer and Cochise.”
Capt. York: “There is to me, sir!”

John Wayne as Capt. Kirby York, Henry Fond as Lt. Col. Owen Thursday and George O’Brien as Capt. Sam Collingwood in Fort Apache (1948)

Victor McLaglen as Sgt. Mulcahy formally introducing 2nd Lt. Michael O’Rourke (John Agar) to Philadelphia in Fort Apache (1948)

Dick Foran as Sgt. Quincannon, serenading some ladies between stints in the guardhouse for drinking in Fort Apache (1948)

Grant Withers as Meachum, the Indian agent whose cheating ways have prompted the Apache to leave the reservation in Fort Apache (1948)

John Wayne as Capt. Kirby York, ordering his troop forward in Fort Apache (1948)

Shirley Temple as Philadelphia and Henry Fonda as her dad, Lt. Col. Owen Thursday en route to his new post at Fort Apache in Fort Apache (1948)

Shirley Temple as Philadephia Thursday, going riding with 2nd Lt. Michael O’Rourke (John Agar) in Fort Apache (1948)

John Wayne as Capt. Kirby York and Pedro Armendariz as Sgt. Beaufort, returning from their meeting with Cochise in Fort Apache (1948)