Victor Mature is Jed Cooper, one of a trio of trappers who agree to scout for the cavalry after the Sioux have stolen their furs and horses. Life at the fort is a mystery to the uncivilized Cooper, who doesn’t understand when the commanding officer at Fort Shallan — Guy Madison as Capt. Riordan — tells him he isn’t disciplined enough to wear cavalry blue.
Cooper yearns to be civilized, and he also yearns for Corrina Marston, wife of the colonel at a nearby fort. His wild ways frequently get him in trouble. And life gets more complicated when the cavalry at Fort Medford is forced to retreat and Col. Marston shows up at Fort Shallan.
He takes command, intent on attacking the Sioux to redeem that loss and an embarrassing incident at the Civil War battle of Shiloh. Everyone else urges Marston to be patient, to wait out the winter. They warn him that taking raw recruits out of the fort and leaving a skeleton detachment behind is a recipe for disaster. But Marston isn’t listening.
Review:
Strange, strange Western. Mature’s over-the-top performance at trapper Jed Cooper plays badly. It’s hard to imagine what Bancroft’s character sees in him or understand why Madison’s character puts up with his antics.
Of course, the answer might lie in the fact that the fort Madison commands is undermanned, and Mature’s trapper is every bit as adept as a scout as he is inept when forced to interact with whites who have been “civilized.”
James Whitmore plays Jed’s dad, despite the fact that Mature was eight years older than him. Bancroft was best known for a role she’d play 12 years later, as Mrs. Robinson in “The Graduate.”
Directed by:
Anthony Mann
Cast:
Victor Mature … Jed Cooper
Guy Madison … Capt. Riordan
Robert Preston … Col. Marston
James Whitmore … Gus
Anne Bancroft … Corinna Marston
Russell Collins … Capt. Clarke
Peter Whitney … Sgt. Decker
Pat Hogan … Mungo
Runtime: 97 min.
aka: The Savage Wilderness
Title song: “The Last Frontier,” sung by Rusty Draper
Memorable lines:
Gus to Jed: “Once you set foot inside that fort, they’ll snare you.”
Jed: “And how will they snare me?”
Gus: “They got wonderous ways.”
Capt. Riordan: “Shallan is a key fort. If Red Cloud takes it, there’s nothing between him and Fort Laramie. He’s very tricky, sir. And clever.”
Col. Marston: “The man’s a savage, Riordan. Not Napoleon. You afraid of an ignorant savage?”
Gus: “You keep messing around with her, you’re going to get yourself hanged.”
Jed: “We weren’t messing around.”
Gus: “What were you doing? Showing her your buffalo hides?”
Jed: “Sometimes she (Mrs. Marston) looks at me like a bear.”
Gus: “Well, there’s some comfort in being a bear when you live in bear country.”
Jed: “But I don’t want to be a bear.”
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