Mutiny at Fort Sharp (1966)

The Confederate garrison at Fort Sharpe faces a desperate situation. Thousands of Navajo under the feared chief Wichita are on the warpath and likely to lay siege to the fort.

Col. Lennox (Broderick Crawford) decides to send the woman and children to the safety of the nearby town while requesting reinforcements to hold off the expected attack.

Meanwhile, a French patrol has stumbled north and the border and can’t make its way back to Mexico because of the Indian uprising.

But Capt. Claremont (Mario Valdemarin) and a couple of his men stumble upon a grisly scene — the remains of those women and children from the fort, along with two French prisoners and a small escort detail, all massacred by Chief Wichita and his men.

The situation is the same at a nearby town. It’s already been hit by Indians. The only survivors Claremont and his men find are a wounded saloon girl (Elisa Montes as Brenda) and her Apache hand maiden Kiola.

With no where else to turn, the French patrol heads to Fort Sharp. Lennox insists they lower their flag to enter, considers making them all prisoners, then begrudgingly accepts their help in defending the fort.

Claremont shares the news of the fate of the women and children from the fort with the colonel. Fearing the effect such news will have on morale, Lennox insists he tell no one else.

The news gets out anyway. One of the Confederate soldier finds a doll that belonged to a child from the fort in the belongings of one of the French soldiers.

And Lennox’s refusal to let the men travel to the massacre site to bury their dead marks the beginning of the mutiny at Fort Sharp.

Review:

An intriguing film that’s successful largely because it’s so different than most Spaghetti Westerns of the period. There simply aren’t too many that deal with Confederate soldiers holding off an Indian uprising in the waning days of the Civil War.

Crawford is top-billed, and his intractable attitude as the fort’s commander is the driving force behind the plot.

But the real lead here is Mario Valdemarin as French Capt. Claremont, a sword-and-sandal graduate making his only appearance in a Spaghetti.

Elisa Montes provides the love interest subplot. As Brenda, she’s drawn to the handsome Capt. Claremont. But at Fort Sharpe, she finds herself reunited with an old acquaintance, Lt. Foster, the post doctor.

Since they last met, she’s disgraced herself by dancing for strangers as a saloon girl. He’s taken to the bottle. Neither is happy with the results.

The film’s most powerful scene involves Brenda’s Indian hand maiden Kiola. When the Confederate troops learn their families have been killed, they turn on the only Indian around. She happens to be that person. She’s dragged out of a cabin, stabbed with bayonets, then shot in the back repeatedly as a helpless Brenda looks on.

Directed by:
Fernando Cerchio

Cast:
Broderick Crawford … Col. Lennox
Elisa Montes … Brenda
Mario Valdemarin … Capt. Claremont
Umberto Ceriani … Lt. Doctor Foster
Ugo Sasso … Sgt. Ross
as Hugo Arden
Julio Pena … Sgt. Miles
Carlos Mendy … Sgt. Jim
Jose Canalejas … Confederate soldier
Jose Marco … Confederal corporal
Jose Truchado … Confederate soldier

Also with: Nando Angelini, Alfonso Estala, Maria Antonia Hernandez, Mercedes Barranco

aka:
Per un dollaro di gloria

Music: Carlo Savina

Memorable lines:

Capt. Claremont, upon finding Kiola in a town ravaged by warring Navajo: “What are you doing here? Only jackals hide with the dead.”

Capt. Claremont to his men: “Thirty miles away, there is a Southerner fort. What do you think about it?”
Subordinate #1: “The American soldiers will certainly not throw their arms around to welcome us.”
Subordinate #2: “But not to choke us. Or even scalp us.”

Capt. Claremont, about his scouting reports: “Think of two pieces of bread that crush an omelette.”
Soldier: “Commander, is that a thing to say to such hungry men?”
Capt. Claremont: “The biggest trouble is that we are the omelette and the two pieces of bread are the Indians and the Southerners.”

Trivia:

* Broderick Crawford won an Oscar for his role in 1949’s “All the President’s Men.” This was one of two Eurowesterns in which he appeared. The other was “The Texican,” in which he plays the villain opposite Audy Murphy.

* Director Fernando Cerchio’s only other Western was “Death on a High Mountain” (1969), starring Peter Lee Lawrence. That was also the last of about 30 full-length films he made.

* Jose Canalejas, a familiar face for Spaghetti fans, plays an unnamed Confederate soldier in this film. But he’s featured in a scene here where he marches Brenda into a stable, intent on raping her. Capt. Claremont interrupts, in the nick of time.

* In addition to appearing in a number of Spaghetti Westerns, Eliza Montes was the top-billed female in 1966’s “Return of the Seven,” the sequel to “The Magnificent Seven.”

Mario Valdemarin as French Capt. Claremont delivers bad news to Col. Lennox in Mutiny at Fort Sharp (1966)

The Confederate officers demand permission to travel outside the fort to bury their loved ones in Mutiny at Fort Sharp (1966)