Tonight's Movie: The Indian Fighter (1955) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

Kirk Douglas stars in the title role as THE INDIAN FIGHTER (1955), recently released on a beautiful Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

Douglas plays Johnny Hawks, a wagon train scout who has a friendly relationship with Chief Red Cloud (Eduard Franz).

Although Johnny does fight an Indian early in the film, to save the life of the unworthy Wes Todd (Walter Matthau), Johnny is really more of an Indian lover, as is commented in the film.

Johnny is uninterested in settling down as a farmer and husband, despite the overt attempts of widowed Susan Rogers (Diana Douglas, Kirk's ex-wife) to tame him, and he also regrets the frontier being opened to settlers, though he knows he can't stop it. He risks his life to broker peace between Indians and settlers, and when last seen has chosen to make what one assumes is a less "conventional" life with the Indian maiden Onahti (Elsa Martinelli).

THE INDIAN FIGHTER is a solid Western, though I wasn't especially taken with it. I think my reticence mostly has to do with personal preferences rather than the film's quality. I'm just not a Kirk Douglas fan; I keep trying more of his movies, hoping I'll find "the one" which is the key to interesting me in his career, but his personality simply holds little appeal for me. I suspect if this had been a Western starring, say, Robert Mitchum, I would have loved it.

Given my feelings on Douglas, his character's aggressive, even violent pursuit of Onahti was particularly problematic for me. As is noted in the commentary, some of that wouldn't be filmed today!

I'm also not much of a Matthau fan, though I really liked his film CHARLEY VARRICK (1973) earlier this month and was hoping to find this film similarly appealing; with him playing a pretty hardhearted villain here, that left me cold as well.

Those who are fans of the two lead actors shouldn't hesitate to check out the film, which is handsomely produced and has a fine supporting cast.

The film's best attribute, and it's a big one, is the gorgeous scenery; the widescreen movie was filmed entirely on location in Oregon by Wilfrid M. Cline, and it's worth seeing the film purely for the beautiful visuals.

The movie has a solid supporting cast, including a trio of "juniors": Alan Hale Jr., Lon Chaney Jr., and Elisha Cook Jr.

Amusingly, Hank Worden and Harry Landers play multiple roles, as both Indians and military men; I didn't notice until I listened to the commentary track, so they pulled that off successfully. Also in the film are familiar faces like Walter Abel, Ray Teal, Frank Cady, and Michael Winkelman.

Diana Douglas (HOUSE OF STRANGERS) was an intriguing bit of casting, given that she and Kirk had parted ways a few years earlier and he was remarried to Anne, who remains his wife to this day. Diana Douglas has one of the most interesting roles in the movie, as a forthright woman who likes what she sees in Johnny and pursues him, despite his protestations that he's not the marrying kind. In the end it seems she's likely to end up with Hale's apple farmer; they're both seen in the photo at the left.

I found the score by Franz Waxman a bit ostentatious at times, while pleasing in other moments. The screenplay of this 88-minute film was by Ben Hecht and Frank Davis.

The movie was directed by Andre De Toth, a fine director who made good films such as the Joel McCrea Western RAMROD (1947), the Dick Powell film noir PITFALL (1948), and CRIME WAVE (1954), a Sterling Hayden movie which easily makes my list of all-time favorite film noir titles.

The Blu-ray extras consist of a gallery of five trailers, including one for THE INDIAN FIGHTER, plus a commentary track by Toby Roan. Roan, a good friend of this blog, also recently did a track for Kino's superb Roy Rogers release, SUNSET IN THE WEST (1950).

Roan's commentary is typically interesting, filling viewers in on actors' backgrounds, the history of the real Chief Red Cloud, the selection of the movie's Oregon location and construction of the fort, and fun little anecdotes such as horse-hating Matthau being given to cursing his horse in Yiddish. I enjoyed my second time through the movie with the commentary more than my first viewing!

As a supplement to his commentary, photos of the location shooting may be seen at Toby's blog, 50 Westerns From the 50s, here and here.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray is a quality presentation, with a beautiful print and a very nice bonus in the commentary track. Western fans who appreciate Douglas more than I do will definitely want to see it.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.