Robert Stack is Lt. Billings, leader of a small cavalry patrol that finds itself with what would seem a simple mission: Take a treaty intended for Gray Cloud and deliver it to an Indian commissioner.
Only the cavalry patrol including the Indian commissioner has been ambushed and wiped out, leaving Billings’ little bunch nine days to deliver the treaty in person.
So Billings turns to Gray Cloud’s son as a guide to reach the Indian camp.
Instead, Taslik (Keith Larsen) and his sister Wanima (Joan Taylor) do their best to sabotage the mission, leading the thirsty detail in circles.
Neither trust the whites to live up to the peace treaty; instead, they see it as a death knell for their tribe.
Once Billings realizes what’s happening, he’s beset by problems from within.
Some of his troopers (including Peter Graves as Tolson) find gold and begin killing off comrades in order to keep it for themselves.
Robert Stack as Lt. Billings, checking on the amount of water left for his men in War Paint (1953)
Keith Larsen as Taslik, Gray Cloud’s son, convinced a treaty isn’t in his tribe’s best interest in War Paint (1953)
Review:
A promising and violent opening scene gives way to a ho-hum trek through the desert for Lt. Billings and his men, as one misfortune after another befalls the small patrol. Of course, no one suspects a pretty, but dangerous Indian maiden is behind most of that misfortune.
Selander tries to inject some energy into the proceedings. But when he does, it comes off as way to over the top, like when one soldier drinks poisoned water and almost immediately doubles over in agony, or when another goes mad he’s so tormented by the lack of water.
The movie was filmed in the Death Valley National Park, and Selander makes good use of the setting in a final showdown between Lt. Billings and Trooper Tolson in which they seemed to tussle through most of the valley.
Joan Taylor as Wanimaf, Taslik’s war-like sister in War Paint (1953)
Peter Graves as Trooper Tolson, more interested in gold than duty in War Paint (1953)
Directed by:
Lesley Selander
Cast:
Robert Stack … Lt. Billings
Charles McGraw … Sgt. Clarke
Joan Taylor … Wanimaf
Keith Larsen … Taslik
Peter Graves … Trooper Tolson
Robert Wilke … Sgt. Grady
Walter Reed … Trooper Allison
John Doucette .. Trooper Charnofsky
Douglas Kennedy … Trooper Clancy
Charles Nolte … Cpl. Hamilton
James Parnell … Trooper Mart
Paul Richards … Trooper Perkins
Runtime: 86 min.
Robert Wilke as Sgt. Grady, clashing with Cpl. Hamilton over a woman’s honor in War Paint (1953)
Douglas Kennedy as Trooper Clancy, pinned down by Indians in War Paint (1953)
Memorable lines:
Cavalryman to Taslik: “Why are you painted up for war now? There’s no fighting.”
Taslik: “Do you not wear war clothes?”
Sgt. Clarke, with the troop nearly out of water: “My blood is turning into sand.”
Trooper Tolson, after the patrol picks up the wounded Wanimaf: “She’s welcome to our water. Every last drop we haven’t got.”
Sgt. Clarke to Lt. Billings: “Listen, mister, for that treaty of yours I’ve almost died of thirst and gone crazy in the heat. I’ve been plotted against and shot at, and I want to see it delivered. Now stop bleedin’ on me and get going.”
Paul Richards as Trooper Perkins, the cavalryman whose wife has a son while he’s on patrol in War Paint (1953)
Charles Nolte as Cpl. Hamilton, the surveyor on Billings’ treaty mission in War Paint (1953)
Charles McGraw as Sgt. Clarke and Robert Stack as Lt. Billings watch an approaching rider in War Paint (1953)
John Doucette as Trooper Charnofsky and Paul Richards as Trooper Perkins on a mission that turns treacherous in War Paint (1953)
Charles Nolte as Cpl. Hamilton, Peter Graves as Tolson and Robert Wilke as Grady, soldiers on the verge of mutiny in War Paint (1953)
Joan Taylor as Wanimaf, threatened with fire by Lt. Billings’ men in War Paint (1953)
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