Sitting Bull (1954)

Dale Robertson is Robert Parrish, a cavalry officer who sympathizes with the Sioux and keeps being demoted because of it.

Mary Murphy is Kathy Howell, the woman who loves him but refuses to tie herself to any man who isn’t on his way up in the world.

First, Parrish prompts the ire of his commanding officers, including Col. Custer (Douglas Kennedy), when he refuses to pursue Sioux warriors who raid a wagon train that trespasses onto their land.

Sent to the Red Rock Indian Agency as punishment, Parrish finds that the Sioux there are being horribly mistreated. When they break out, he orders his men not to fire on them.

That nearly gets him court-martialed. But he has an old friend in his former commanding officer, who just happens to be president of the United States. Grant agrees to meet Sitting Bull to discuss terms for peace.

But Parrish lands back under the command of Col. Custer.

And Yellow Hair has his own ideas about the best way of dealing with the Sioux.

Review:

Don’t be fooled by the title. In spite of the opening monologue, this is anything but a biography of Sitting Bull put to film.

In fact, it’s one of the more fanciful tellings of the Battle of the Little Big Horn you’ll ever find. Over the course of the film, Parrish does hand to hand combat with Crazy Horse to earn an audience with Sitting Bull and manages to cheat death on several other occasions.

He’s the one who discovers the aftermath of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. And then — get this — he guides the Sioux on a safe retreat as Gen. Terry’s forces descend.

In fact, the plot just keeps getting sillier as the film plods toward one of the more ridiculous endings you’ll ever find in a big-budget Western.

Bill Hooper plays Charles Wentworth, the reporter from back East who romances Kathy after she’s dumped Parrish.

Only the large-scale recreation of the Battle of the Little Big Horn keeps this from a one-star rating.

Directed by:
Sidney Salkow

Cast:
Dale Robertson … Maj. Robert Parrish
Mary Murphy … Kathy Howell
J. Carrol Naish … Sitting Bull
John Litel … Gen. Howell
Joel Fluellen … Sam
Iron Eyes Cody … Crazy Horse
John Hamilton … President Grant
Douglas Kennedy … Col. Custer
William Tannen … O’Connor
Bill Hopper … Charles Wentworth
Tom Brown Henry … Webber (Indian agent)
Ana Robinson Calles … White Cloud
Felix Gonzalez … Young Buffalo

Runtime: 105 min.

Title song: “Great Spirit”

Memorable lines:

Crazy Horse, questioning Sitting Bull’s decision not to pursue fleeing whites: “When the deer run, does the wolf pack hide?”
Sitting Bull: “A wise leader eats when he can, builds strength for the day when he must fight, to live.”

Col. Custer, criticizing Major Parrish for not pursing Sioux who jumped a wagon train that trespassed onto their land: “An officer is supposed to be able to exercise a certain amount of iniative. As a member of this regiment, I issued you your orders. I did not set them in concrete.”
Maj. Parrish: “My head isn’t set in concrete either. For the sake of a bunch of rag-tail prospectors, I could have ridden the entire command into an ambush.”

Kathy Howell, scolding Parrish for seemingly sabotaging his own military career: “Is it discipline that galls you? Lack of action? What?”
Maj. Parrish: “Maybe I’ve got a few plans that don’t suit these blue-bellied patriots who like to go around slaughtering Indians just to keep their name in print.”

Maj. Parrish: “You don’t settle Indian trouble by shooting Sitting Bull’s son in the back.”
President Grant: “I know that. I suppose you have a plan to make the Indian grow flowers around his teepee.”

Sitting Bull: “When the white soldiers win a battle, they call it victory. When the Indians win, they call it massacre..”

Sam to Major Parrish: “You’re a strange man, captain. You fight Crazy Horse. You go into the thick of Injun land. You got no fear in you. But you’re afraid to walk up to one squaw, grab her by the hair and say, ‘Come to my tent.'”

Col. Custer: “If anything should go wrong, if the Indians attack, the hammer (Custer’s men) will strike the anvil (Benteen’s command) and heaven help anything in between.”

Sam, after the Battle of the Little Bighorn: “Indians celebrate big win, sir.”
Major Parrish: “They’re celebrating the greatest disaster they’ll ever see. Gen. Terry’s army is only a day’s ride from here.”

Iron Eyes Cody as Crazy Horse and J. Carrol Naish as Sitting Bull, watching the cavalry approach in Sitting Bull (1954)

John Litel as Gen. Howell and Mary Murphy as Kathy Howell, wondering about Parrish’s fate in Sitting Bull (1954)