The Siege at Red River (1954)

It's a typical 50's Technicolor Western trotting out all the usual ingredients with the usual vim – no-nonsense people and plot was the motto.Two Rebs steal the being-developed Gatling Gun from the Feds in an ingenious segment, eventually toting it further south but ending up stuck in a small town. This town gets quickly filled to the brim with Federal soldiers still on the hunt for their gun. Van Johnson (Reb) and Joanne Dru (Fed) fall for each other of course although of course they don't realise it until the climax. What interested me was the implication that the gun could be used by civilised whites against each other in a civilised slaughter but that selling it to the savage Reds was beyond the Pale. Both Feds and Rebs are eventually united to prevent the Reds using it during the noisy 5 minute siege. And of course the implication was only the Reds were low enough to actually use the horrible weapon the Feds had had the brains to design – at the time of production America had the same idea about the Russian Reds and the atom bomb.It has a bit of everything Western in: romance and fights, trains and horses, shootings and slapstick comedy. It's fun, I loved it.

Here's the situation: I'm about 9 years old and I'm standing in front of either the Regent or Gay, small, box-like, moderately ornate cinemas known to me for their triple-bills, smokey interiors and sticky floors. In the display case is a poster for "Siege at Red River" The large lettering is red. A guy is holding onto a beautiful woman. Behind them is a burning fort and a horde of injuns battling the cavalry in blue uniforms. Cool! I note that the movie is in Technicolor. That's a plus. I pay my quarter and go in. At the candy counter I buy a cherry ice cream bar and enter the darkened auditorium.I've probably sat down in the middle of a movie, but that's okay. It's fun trying to figure out what's going on. Then "Siege at Red River" starts. The grand 20th Century Fox logo with the moving floodlights. My favourite. I sink into my seat and a surge of anticipation rushes through me. Van Johnson is blonde, sturdy and stalwart - and maybe a scoundrel. There seems to be questions about his courage, but he sure gives that soldier bully what for! The beautiful lady doctor with the red lips likes him, then hates him, so I guess they'll get together at the end. He's up to his eyeballs in trouble regarding a Gatling gun and he's mixed up with a shady character with a whip played by Richard Boone, who's really, really nasty. Hiss. Boo. There's lots of good story, some funny parts, and tons of action with guys on horseback riding furiously around. The Technicolor is vivid and the outdoor scenery, with those huge pink/orange granite cliffs, is beautiful. There's a spectacular climax, with the cavalry, trumpet blasting, arriving in the nick of time. Too bad the injuns never win, though. Funny how the guys who are shot and fall off their horses never stay on the ground.I don't know for sure if I saw this movie as a kid - there were so many - but I probably did, and I probably sat through the entire triple bill twice. As an adult I still find this movie entertaining. It delivers what it promises. I don't know, as one reviewer has suggested, if it's a metaphor for the Cold War, but its equivalent in contemporary cinema might be a Matt Damon movie with a hero who can take care of himself, nasty arms dealers and Arab strife. One thing, though - I miss the cherry ice cream bars.

I so wanted to like this, but ultimately it eased out to being a very average picture that is saved by its bookended gusto. The plot basically sees Capt. James S. Simmons (aka Jim Farraday), a Southerner hiding out as part of a spurious tonic selling double act, trying to prevent the mighty Gatling Gun being sold into the wrong hands. After the excellent opening, where a train robbery results in the said Gun being pilfered, the picture drifts along with enough charm but no amount of substance. Van Johnson as Farraday, Joanne Dru, Richard Boone and Jeff Morrow do what they can with the amiable but unimaginative script, and it's only really as we get to the last quarter that the film jolts back into action. Is it worth waiting for? Well yes it is, Gatling Gun blazing and heroes fighting against the odds should always perk up a movie, and so it does here, thankfully.Not one to recommend highly, but worth a watch once with a solid 5/10 rating.

This western is about two unreconstructed southerners who steal a Gatling gun from Union soldiers which winds up in the hands of an outlaw who sells the gun to Indians for gold. The film dwells on character development and takes a great deal of time detailing the two southern agents' travels from town to town delivering coded messages and trying to arrange a rendezvous with a contact to deliver the Gatling. The picture is another Blue vs. Gray conflict in the west with the Indians on the warpath against the soldiers, a plot angle that has been done better in other westerns. Van Johnson is okay as the hero and Joanne Dru is the gal who falls for Johnson. Richard Boone is a standout as a gun-running renegade in a role as a heavy he would reprise in other westerns. The supporting cast and color photography are good.