Buffalo Bill (1944)

Joel McCrea is Buffalo Bill; Maureen O’Hara is Louisa, the woman he falls in love with during his rise to fame as an Indian fighter.

Already a renown scout, Cody rescues Louisa from an Indian attack, then frees her father when he’s kidnapped by the Cheyenne for leverage in treaty negotiations.

But real fame at the Battle of War Bonnet Gorge, where he disobeys orders, engages in hand-to-hand combat with an Indian chief and helps the cavalry quell a Cheyenne uprising.

With the help of Ned Butline’s dime novels, Cody becomes a nationwide hero. But the battle also costs him dearly.

Louisa, having just given birth to their son, abandons him when he rides off to scout for the cavalry rather than stay by her side, taking their son back East where he’ll enjoy the advantages of civilization.

And after receiving the Medal of Honor, Cody falls on hard times professionally as well.

He balks at the Eastern notion that the only good Indian is a dead Indian and that he’s made more good Indians than anyone else.

And in Washington, D.C., his defense of the Indians wins him no friends.

Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill, challenged to make an all-important shot in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Maureen O’Hara as Louisa Cody, about to become a fiancee in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Review:

A well-done film, with one of the most nicely mounted cavalry-Indian battles on film — so nicely mounted that it was used over and over as stock footage in other films.

Also particularly memorable are the expertly handled scenes in which the Codys become engaged and, perhaps even more so, the way they reconcile.

But the film also suffers from its brevity to the point where roles like the grizzled Sgt. Chips (Edgar Buchanan) and the jealous Dawn Starlight (Linda Darnell) aren’t fully exploited.

Anthony Quinn plays an Indian chief, as he would so often early in his career.

Linda Darnell as Dawn Starlight, the Indian maiden school teacher in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Anthony Quinn as Yellow Hair, a Cheyenne chief in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Directed by:
William A. Wellman

Cast:
Joel McCrea … Buffalo Bill
Maureen O’Hara … Louisa Cody
Linda Darnell … Dawn Starlight
Thomas Mitchell … Ned Buntline
Edgar Buchanan … Sgt. Chips
Anthony Quinn … Yellow Hand
Moroni Olsen … Sen. Frederic
Frank Fenton … Murdo Carvell
Matt Briggs … Gen. Blazier
George Lessey … Mr. Schyler Vandevere
Frank Orth … Sherman, shooting gallery owner

Runtime: 90 min.

Thomas Mitchell as Ned Butline, the writer who helps create heroes in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Frank Orth as Sherman, the shooting gallery owner in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Memorable lines:

Louisa: “How are you enjoying your trip, Mr. Buntline? You’ve seen a great deal of the world. What do you think of the West?”
Ned Buntline: “The most amazing source of inspiration I’ve ever encountered, Ms. Louisa. The wildnerness … the unending solitudes where roams the Indian in all his ferocity, in all his nobility.”
Louisa: “Well, after seeing his ferocity, I’m a little skeptical of his nobility.”

Ned Buntline: “Well, as a newspaperman, I’ve covered every kind of fight, riot and revolution, but never an Indian war. Here’s to something new.”
Buffalo Bill: “You wouldn’t talk like that, Buntline, if you’d ever saw the Cheyenne on the warpath.”

Buffalo Bill, looking at his new Congressional Medal of Honor: “So that’s what they give you for killing Indians. Indians that can live against nature and feed and clothe themselves with nothing but their bare hands.”
Buntline: “Don’t you think we ought to leave?”
Buffalo Bill: “Who gives it (a medal) to you? Pot-bellied, civilized citizens who couldn’t walk a mile with an Indian. They give you medals.”

Edgar Buchanan as Sgt. Chips, under attack in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Matt Briggs as the Cheyenne prepare to attack at War Bonnet Gorge in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Maureen O’Hara as Louisa, imploring Bill to stay with her and their newborn son in Buffalo Bill (1944)

Joel McCrea as Buffalo Bill Cody, surrounded by young admirers in Buffalo Bill (1944)