Lloyd Bridges is Capt. Phillip Donlin, in command of a small troop of cavalry scouting for Sioux activity as Custer prepares for his march on the Little Big Horn.
John Ireland is Lt. John Haywood, who’s sent to summon in all the scouting patrols.
But Donlin realizes Custer is in trouble, big trouble. And he’s determined to return to his post by way of the Little Big Horn in order to warn his commanding officer of the impending crisis.
He orders Haywood along because, he says, he needs a second in command in case he’s killed or wounded.
Haywood suspects Donlin wants him along because he’s been having an affair with Donlin’s wife (Marie Windsor).
And when Donlin dispatches Haywood on a couple of dangerous assignments, it seems to confirm the junior officer’s suspicions — Donlin is out to make sure he doesn’t return from this patrol.
Little by little, the force is whittled down and the men begin to side with Haywood over Donlin, whose belief in sacrificing a few to save many isn’t sitting well in the face of overwhelming odds and when every lead rider starts winding up dead and, in some cases, tortured.
Lloyd Bridges as Capt. Donlin, determined to get a warning to Custer in Little Big Horn (1951)
John Ireland as Lt. Haywood, convinced Capt. Donlin will send him on a suicide mission in Little Big Horn (1951)
Review:
This marked Charles Marquis Warren’s directorial debut, and one suspects the material could have been handled better, because the tension that builds because of the Indians and because of the friction between the men doesn’t build quite so quickly on screen.
Ireland’s character winds up not being as big a scoundrel as you’d expect. And several among the small band of soldiers have their own stories — a trooper who’s anxious about what’s happening back at the fort because his wife is about to deliver her first baby, another awaiting the arrival of a mail-order bride from Canada, and another eager to alert Custer because his dad is riding with the general. Hugh O’Brien, later of Wyatt Earp TV fame, plays one of the troopers.
The film’s closing indicates that this is based on a true-life story, though that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Hugh O’Brian as Pvt. Al DeWalt, a trooper who volunteers for a dangerous scout in Little Big Horn (1951)
Wally Cassell as Pvt. Danny Zecca, find a colleague tortured and dying in Little Big Horn (1951)
Directed by:
Charles Marquis Warren
Cast:
Lloyd Bridges … Capt. Donlin
John Ireland … Lt. Haywood
Marie Windsor … Celie Donlin
Reed Hadley … Sgt. Maj. Grierson
Jim Davis … Cpl. Moyland
Wally Cassell … Danny Zecca
Hugh O’Brian … Al DeWalt
Robert Sherwood … David Mason
King Donovan … James Corbo
Richard Emory … Mitch Shovels
John Pickard … Vet McCloud
Sheb Wooley … Quince
Larry Stewart … Stevie Williams
Rodd Redwing … Arika
Richard Paxton … Ralph Hall
Runtime: 86 min.
Marie Windsor as Celie Donlin, cuddling up to Lt. Haywood as her ticket back East in Little Big Horn (1951)
Memorable lines:
Lt. Haywood, after Celie Donlin asks him to leave the cavalry and take her with him: “Do you realize what you’d be leaving?”
Celie: “Of course, I do. I’d be leaving loneliness. Dull, drab endless days and nights. I wouldn’t have to live my life out with a man I never see, or go on living being married to a uniform … I’m left with sewing circles just rife with the latest gossip. Like how the colonel’s horse is getting along with the major’s horse.”
Celie Donlin to her husband: “I don’t want to ruin anyone’s life, let alone yours, Bill. I loved you once. But now I can’t stand what little I do see of you.”
Capt. Donlin: “I came over to kiss my wife goodbye. But it seems that’s been taken care of for me.”
One private on another: “Sometimes a rabbit makes a better lookout than a bulldog.”
Sheb Wooley as Quince, scout for Donlin’s cavalry patrol in Little Big Horn (1951)
Rodd Redwing as Arika, the Indian scout no one really trusts in Little Big Horn (1951)
Robert Sherwood as Pvt. David Mason, eager to rejoin the 7th because his dad is riding with Custer in Little Big Horn (1951)
Reed Hadley as Sgt. Maj. Peter Grierson, resentful after a post-Civil War demotion in Little Big Horn (1951)
Gordon Wynn as Pvt. Arndt Hofstetter, anxious because he’s left a pregnant wife at the post in Little Big Horn (1951)
Lloyd Bridges as Capt. Donlin and John Ireland as Lt. Haywood, officers at odds over a woman in Little Big Horn (1951)
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