Sgt. Braxton Rutledge (Woody Strode) is a black cavalryman on trial for murder. He’s been accused of raping and murdering a young white woman — young Lucy Dabney — then killing her father, an officer, as he escaped from the crime scene.
Everyone at his court martial is so convinced he’s guilty, they’re shocked when his attorney, Lt. Tom Cantrell (Jeffrey Hunter), enters a plea of not guilty. Cantrell’s the man who had the job of bringing Rutledge back to face trial. But he’s also been Rutledge’s commander long enough to be equally confident that he didn’t commit the crime.
Not that the decision to bring him in was very popular, especially after the heroism Rutledge showed when the small patrol encountered a hostile Apache war party. Particularly perturbed is pretty Mary Beecher (Constance Towers), a woman Cantrell would like to romance — a woman who winds up testifying for both sides at Rutledge’s trial.
Review:
Entertaining film from Ford, more so when the cavalry is on patrol and fighting off hostiles in majestic Monument Valley than when the attorneys are melodramatically posturing in the courtroom.
Sometimes, the message of racism in the old West is just a little heavy handed. And the post-trial ending seems misdirected considering that the film is supposed to be a celebration of the buffalo soldiers.
But Strobe and Hunter turn in fine performances. Willis Bouchey is the crusty older officer who presides over the court martial; Billie Burke plays his eccentric wife; and Carleton Young is the prosecutor determined to get a conviction even if he has to twist the truth just a mite.
This marked the last film for Burke, who got her start in silent films, married into the Ziegfield Follies, watched that fortune disapper in the Great Depression; then made a successful return to film. She was 75 when this one was made.
Directed by:
John Ford
Cast:
Jeffrey Hunter … Lt. Tom Cantrell
Constance Towers … Mary Beecheer
Woody Strode … Sgt. Rutledge
Juano Hernandez … Sgt. Skidmore
Willis Bouchey … Col. Fosgate
Carleton Young … Capt. Shattuck
Toby Richards … Lucy Dabney
Billie Burke … Mrs. Cordelia Fosgate
Judson Pratt … Lt. Mulqueen
Fred Libby … Chandler Hubble
Ed Shaw … Chris Huddle
Toby Michaels … Lucy Dabney
Rafer Johnson … Cpl. Krump
Title tune:
“Captain Buffalo”
OK
Memorable lines:
Lt. Cantrell: “I tried dressing in the front seat at a gallop. How do I look?”
Dickinson: “That’s how you look.”
Mrs. Fosgate: “Lucy Dabney. Riding astride? When will your father realize that you are a grown-up young lady.”
Mrs. Hackett: “Yes.”
Lucy: “Papa says as long as I say my prayers and behave myself with the young lieutenants, he’s doesn’t care if I ride like Lady Godiva.”
Skidmore: “Now listen to me Brax and hear me well. You tell me you did that awful thing down at Fort Linton, I wouldn’t believe it. But Brax, why would you run away?”
Rutledge: “Because I walked into something none of us can fight — white woman business.”
Rutledge: “Don’t nobody call me top soldier no more. And that’s an order.”
Mary Beecher, to Cantrel after he handcuffs Rutledge in spite of his heroic actions : “You cheap, contemptible, tin-plated book soldier.”
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